Educator Network 

Join the Educator Network to learn from and with colleagues in a collaborative, creative, co-learning space. We explore the ways in which a blended learning approach can engage and empower learners and enhance and extend learning.

Contact Tracey or use the contact form to find out more.

Educator Network programs

are places where literacy practitioners come together to learn from each other and access the research capacity of AlphaPlus. Here are some of the ways you can participate in this rich conversation about literacy work in a networked world.

Open the sections below to see a description of each program, what we are planning and the work we have done recently.

Check out the Home page or look under Training and Workshops to see what is happening next.

Join your peers to …

Community Gabfests are Zoom gatherings for literacy educators who want to connect with their peers in an informal setting. Connecting with other educators helps us see our work with fresh eyes, validates our experiences and is a powerful way to renew our energy, purpose, and excitement about our work. Join us as we chat, vent, brainstorm, etc., about this work that we love.

See our past Gabfests here: Complete Gabfest Collection

Join our next Gabfest here: Next Gabfest

The Educator Network Blended Learning program is eight reflective-practice modules for exploring blended learning approaches and digital technology tools and resources that will enhance and expand learning in your program.

AlphaPlus Educator Network Blended Learning participants:

  • Plan, experience and evaluate blended learning approaches and methods.
  • Increase your confidence in applying blended learning practices.
  • Build relationships with colleagues around the province.
  • Share ideas and resources.

Read the Features and Benefits and the Course Outline to learn more.

See the Winter 2022 Educator Network Blended Learning Toolbox for a collection of blended learning resources recommended by your network peers.

The Educator Network Applying the Google Toolbox program is a series reflective-practice workshops for people who participated in the Building Digital Skills with Google workshops. We take a deeper dive into the features and functions that you think are most relevant to your practice and support each other as we apply these new possibilities by co-creating activities and lessons.

Our first check in and planning sessions are on May 16 (afternoon) and 17 (evening). If you participated in one of the Winter 2023 Introduction to the Google Workspace and Google Applied Skills series, contact Tracey to find out more or register here. Here is what we have planned: Check in, Planning and Foundational Skills.

Through the Wayfinders Studio, people just like you are exploring, experimenting, piloting and reflecting on how digital technology can enhance learning in creative ways. Join us to experience a makerspace and to tinker, create and imagine.

Wayfinders 2023-2024

Open Education Resources MakerSpace (coming Fall 2023)

Wayfinders 2022-2023

Wayfinders 2020-2022

Educator Network programs

are places where literacy practitioners come together to learn from each other and access the research capacity of AlphaPlus. Here are some of the ways you can participate in this rich conversation about literacy work in a networked world.

Open the sections below to see a description of each program, what we are planning and the work we have done recently.

Check out the Coming Soon section of the Home page or look under Training and Workshops to see what is happening next.

Join your peers to …

Community Gabfests are Zoom gatherings for literacy educators who want to connect with their peers in an informal setting. Connecting with other educators helps us see our work with fresh eyes, validates our experiences and is a powerful way to renew our energy, purpose, and excitement about our work. Join us as we chat, vent, brainstorm, etc., about this work that we love.

See our past Gabfests here: Complete Gabfest Collection

Join our next Gabfest here: Next Gabfest

The Educator Network Blended Learning program is eight reflective-practice modules for exploring blended learning approaches and digital technology tools and resources that will enhance and expand learning in your program.

AlphaPlus Educator Network Blended Learning participants:

  • Plan, experience and evaluate blended learning approaches and methods.
  • Increase your confidence in applying blended learning practices.
  • Build relationships with colleagues around the province.
  • Share ideas and resources.

Read the Features and Benefits and the Course Outline to learn more.

See the Winter 2022 Educator Network Blended Learning Toolbox for a collection of blended learning resources recommended by your network peers.

The Educator Network Applying the Google Toolbox program is a series reflective-practice workshops for people who participated in the Building Digital Skills with Google workshops. We take a deeper dive into the features and functions that you think are most relevant to your practice and support each other as we apply these new possibilities by co-creating activities and lessons.

Through the Wayfinders Studio, people just like you are exploring, experimenting, piloting and reflecting on how digital technology can enhance learning in creative ways. Join us to experience a makerspace and to tinker, create and imagine.

Wayfinders 2023-2024

Open Education Resources MakerSpace (coming Fall 2023)

Wayfinders 2022-2023

Wayfinders 2020-2022

Virtual Showcases feature innovative programs and instructors who are using digital tools and approaches to connect and work with learners and colleagues remotely. Each session features guest presenters who share their approaches, strategies and tips.

Participate as a presenter and help move our field forward. Come to the sessions to hear new ideas, connect with colleagues and renew your passion for literacy work.

We have hosted eight Showcases over the last two years and are planning 4 more in 2023.

We build our Community Questions collection each year by answering the questions we hear the most and anticipating what is coming next. When you are finding it hard to keep up with emerging blended learning approaches and technology innovations, ask AlphaPlus or got to Community Questions to find answers.

As questions from the field come to us, we research solutions and bring together expertise to deliver answers. Then we share those questions and answers here to help you stay current. In Community Questions, you will find out:

  • what other educators in other sectors and jurisdictions are doing;
  • what solutions they are finding to the similar issues that you are facing;
  • how various resources and tools are working in different contexts;
  • ways instructors are using blended learning and integrating digital technology into their teaching practice.

Browse our small collection and keep the questions coming. We will grow this collection to support your needs.

The Educator Network at your organization

The Educator Network project has developed and facilitated organization-specific communities of professional learning at the Metro Toronto Movement for Literacy (MTML), the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and la Coalition ontarienne de formation des adultes (COFA).

Contact Tracey or Guylaine to discuss possibilities for your organization.

The Educator Network enabled me to slow down and reflect on how I have been using technology and how I might improve my usage of it from a pedagogical/andrological standpoint. The course offered both a theoretical basis for using technology along with providing experience using new apps.

Educator Network participant

Participating in the Educator Network helped me to discover many educational tools, collaborate with other instructors, check their ideas and provide feedback. It was an excellent way to reflect on my thoughts on teaching and using digital technology as a learner and a teacher at the same time.

Educator Network participant

I found it really useful, fun and flexible. I got to choose my own combination of video meetings, online coursework, sharing forums, resource lists and documents designed to help me develop my own projects, over 8 weeks of learning.

Educator Network participant

Planning Your
Digital Toolbox

Join this self-directed course to explore blended learning tools and approaches through reflective practice.

green arrow right

Technology
Coaching

Work with us to develop innovative technology solutions that effectively advance your program objectives.

green arrow right

Training &
Workshops

Sign up for our latest workshops to catch up with colleagues and discover emerging practices.

green arrow right

Quick Tech
Help

Don’t struggle. Ask us your just-in-time tech questions and we’ll find the answer that works best for you.

green arrow right