Peter Skillen

Hi, I'm Peter Skillen - education bricoleur!

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Peter is currently Manager of Professional Learning with the YMCA of Greater Toronto after 40 years teaching students & teachers. He was a founding teacher at the YMCA Academy – a secondary school serving youth who prefer an alternative approach. Peter has been involved in technology supported, project-based learning since the late 1970s and continues to explore & develop deep applications of the latest Web 2.0 technologies – particularly as it relates to learner agency, passion, motivation and cognitive intent. Peter Skillen serves on the Board of Directors of iEARN-Canada, The Educational Computing Organization of Ontario, and is global ambassador with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). He develops and supports both face-to-face and online learning for the Ontario Teachers’ Federation and is an ‘Experienced Voice’, coach & Community Leader with The Powerful Learning Practice. Peter Skillen is also co-founder of the Minds On Media model of professional learning which truly reflects how he wishes classrooms to be. Loves…rock-climbing, motorcycles, mountains, oceans…yeah, adventures – even at his age!! Peter Skillen, M.Ed., OCT Website – peterskillen.org Blog - The Construction Zone Twitter - @peterskillen    

Coordinator - Keynote & Spotlight Speakers at Educational Computing Organization of Ontario (ECOO)

1995 - 2011

Teacher/Manager of Learning at YMCA Academy

September 2003 - August 2010

Lead Designer of Journal Zone at LCSI

August 2000 - June 2003

Lead Designer of Journal Zone - a collaborative online journal - writing environment conceived and prototyped during academic studies in cognitive science. This development was federally supported through the SchoolNet's Learnware fund of Industry Canada.

Computers in Education Consultant at Toronto District School Board

September 1982 - June 2000

Responsible for professional learning, research and consulting with senior management on the effective uses of information and communications technologies in K-12 schools.

Teacher at Toronto District School Board

September 1970 - June 1982

Elementary teacher

Community Leader for Powerful Learning Practice at Powerful Learning Practice

2011

"A Powerful Learning Practice Community is an ongoing, job-embedded professional development experience built around emerging, social Web technologies. Within these communities, participants are supported in an intensive community-building process online and in person by a passionate team of experienced experts and educators. Our professional development model encourages you to learn through immersion and then as a team develop an action plan for how you will scale what you are learning with others."

Manager of Professional Learning at YMCA of Greater Toronto

2010

This work is mainly focussed on developing a 'culture of conversation' in the organization. We are interested in leveraging the diverse voices of all - from the edges to the core. Social media, and all they encompass, have changed the face of professional learning. No longer are people as dependent upon 'being taught' - upon taking courses at predetermined times and places. We are in an era that has shifted control to the learner, to the individual. Professional developers are more in a position of 'facilitating and accommodating' the desires to learn - and supporting the ways in which individuals choose to learn.

Ambassador at International Society for Technology in Education

2010

Co-Founder at Minds On Media

2010

Minds On Media (MOM) is a model of professional learning that respects the learner's 'desire to know'. At Minds On Media teachers will choose what they need to learn based on their own needs, learning styles, interests, levels of expertise. They are able to move freely throughout the day from centre to centre if, and when, it suits them. Facilitators spend some time before the event thinking about practical ways to support self-directed learners at a hands-on session. This requires the creation of a wide variety of materials, strategies and access points. Differentiated learning is equally important for adults. Teachers come to learn and we respect their choices in how they wish to do that. We want them to take a 'minds on' approach.

University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education

M.Ed.

York University

B.A.

Concentration: Psychology

education, teaching, learning, neuroscience, project based learning, constructivism, constructionism, photography, snowshoeing, mountaineering,