INSTRUCTIONAL
DESIGNER
CURTIS WANG
Professional Development for Educators
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Various institutions
A selection of professional development materials to support K-12 educators,
including training in educational technologies and best pedagogical practices.
Ongoing
TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION IN SCIENCE EDUCATION
CastiCLICK Ed Tech Conference
June 10, 2014
I spoke at the Castilleja CLICK Ed Tech Conference about my time as a grade 6 STEM teacher at the Bishop Strachan School in Toronto, whereby I revamped a curriculum for the flight unit to be driven by immersive and inquiry-based, hands-on activities. At the conference, I emphasized that technology integration is made successful not by the tool's sophistication in its design or implementation, but by its ability to directly contribute to the achievement of core learning outcomes.
Round Table at the Conference of Independent Schools of Ontario
Quarterly since Winter 2012
As a Master of Teaching candidate at the University of Toronto, I led a PD workshop for Intermediate/Senior science teacher candidates about technology integration. A talk discussed several topics, including differences between digital natives and digital immigrants, and various applications of technology to the classroom from enhancing operational efficiency to presenting entirely new learning approaches. I also walked the teacher candidates through my Mitotic Microscope simulation, demonstrating how innovative teaching materials can be produced from conception to embedding in an LMS, as well as implications for a broader maker culture.
SoundCloud for Educators
February 2013
For a variety of reasons, educators may wish to assess student learning through an audio component, whether it is a musical composition or a recitation in a second language class. I encouraged colleagues to include SoundCloud in their teaching toolkit as its time-stamped annotations lends particularly well to formative feedback. I then further created this infographic to help those colleagues get set up with their mobile device, now a makeshift recorder.
WYSIWYG with Curtis
September 12, 2012
As part of an effort to address helplessness among OISE/UT teacher candidates who identified as luddites, I led a weekly PD series that aimed to supplement academic theories and discussions with procedural know-how and tips for technology integration. Workshops ranged from large-scale strategies (digital response systems via Google Forms or Poll Everywhere to promote critical thinking) to micro-lessons on creating enhanced teaching material in Microsoft Office.