Dominic P. Tremblay

Bee Docs is a software developer producing an application for the Mac called “3D Timelines”. I regularly use this application to produce the educational 3D Timelines found on my YouTube channel and on my website. Here are my answers to an interview with the administrators of Bee Docs.

When did you decide to start offering free resources for teachers on your blog? Why?

I launched my blog, Resources for Teachers, in 2007.  My idea was to find and create free resources to help French-Canadian teachers make learning more fun and interactive for their students.  I produced some animated presentations illustrating scientific principles, and then built a “homework widget” that teachers can post on their classroom blogs.  Now I also offer 3D Timeline resources.  Because I’m passionate about technology, I’m always finding new ways to use it in the classroom.  In the last four years, my activities have grown to include digital teaching aids in English, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian.

Today’s kids are creative and visual, so tools like 3D Timelines really capture their imagination in a way that a two-dimensional book can’t always do.  Plus, the timelines are “living documents” that can be updated or expanded again and again, so the learning never ends.

How do you see new technology impacting/affecting the education landscape?

There are so many new technologies that help to bring school subjects such as literature, history, science and math to life.  Now we can use music, video, animation and interactive elements to give kids a richer learning experience.

I believe that kids reach their full potential when they have a chance to take an active role in their own education, and technology is putting that power in their hands.  Not only can we, as teachers, create more engaging learning materials through wikis, videos, animation, interactive games and 3D timelines, but most of these technologies are easy enough for the students to use themselves.  (In fact, many of our students know more about these tools than we teachers do!)  This allows them to get creative with the subject matter, build presentations they can feel proud of, and take a lead role in educating their classmates and peers.

Where do you go for inspiration, both online and in the world?

My on-line inspiration comes mostly from Twitter and Facebook.  Social media lets me connect to a network of talented people from all over the world, and from every discipline: educators, technology specialists, artists, historians, scientists and more.  These influences can be seen in the dozen or so 3D timelines I am currently working on.  Topics range from Portuguese history to the Canadian Constitution to the history of the Internet!

Offline, I expand my horizons through travel.  I love experiencing new places, people and cultures and bringing that knowledge back to my students.

For the entire month of October 2010, I worked side by side with some of the most skilled and creative people in the digital arts.  Under the guidance of technical director John Riley, I had the opportunity to improve my skills significantly and discover the possibilities that new technologies put within reach.  It was exhilarating, and I’m amazed at how much hands-on experience I gained in a single month, including:

• Editing audio podcasts for This Week in Media and This Week in Photography
• Editing video podcasts for Gear Media Tech and Macbreak Studio
• using Apple Motion, Apple Logic and Final Cut Pro software to improve my motion graphic, video and audio editing skills
• Trying out the dVGarage Conduit suite and shooting green screen video for the Macbreak Studio Podcast and some top-secret promotions
• Learning about workflow and file naming conventions in a multimedia production environment

One of the highlights of the experience was meeting Pixel Corps’ Chief Architect, Alex Lindsay.  As someone who works in education, it was inspiring for me to hear about the work he does in Africa, helping poor people learn digital skills that can help them gain employment and achieve economic prosperity.

To be immersed in an environment where everyone is focused on learning, growing and mastering their craft was an incredible experience.  I loved that when Steve Jobs gave the live Apple Keynote to introduce the latest OS, everyone in the office stopped what they were doing and watched, spellbound.  Being around that kind of enthusiasm is infectious.

Although I was sorry to see my internship come to an end, I am bringing back a wealth of skills and experience that I can apply to my work as an education technology consultant. With my new multimedia production skills, I can produce better, more appealing educational videos for students, and I also plan to share what I’ve learned with them so that they can explore their own creativity.

Just as important as these technical skills are the valuable work habits I learned at Pixel Corps.  The professionalism and attention to detail that were expected of every team member has taught me to be more critical of my own work.  I also saw how important it is to work as a co-ordinated team, where every team member follows guidelines, respects the workflow process and is focused on ensuring the quality of the end result.

After one month at Pixel Corps, my skills, knowledge and confidence are light years ahead of where they were at the beginning of my internship.  Many thanks to everyone at Pixel Corps for making this incredible experience possible!

Many people are wondering if the future is with Adobe Flash or HTML 5. I realize in the field of education there are a lot of material available in Flash. Many of the resources listed on “Resources for teachers” are made with Flash. Even some of the resources we have produced ourselves are also Flash based. However, with the arrival of mobile devices, and the rise of HTML 5, Flash is slowly starting to disappear, especially for embedding video.

The problem is that Flash is still very present, but will not run on many mobile devices and HTML 5 will run on most mobile devices, but is still not developed enough to produce the type of animations that we need in the field of education. What does that mean for a company like “Resources for teachers”? We feel we are in a transition phase right now. We will still provide links to Flash resources, but we will also try to provide more links to native apps for mobile devices and we will also promote educational website built with the HTML 5 technology. Also be aware, the current version of Internet Explorer is not up to standard when it comes to HTML 5. In order to get the full experience of HTML 5 websites, you should probably install Google Chrome or Apple Safari on your computer.

If you are new to the Mac, you may be wondering what applications you need to be productive on this platform. I have developed a website called “Mac Essentials” to help you out with this process. On this website, I make a list of the top 30 applications that should be installed on every new Mac. I constantly update this list as the list of available Mac apps evolves, and most of the apps are totally free.

If you are moving from a Windows to a Mac platform, I also have a guide that lists Windows-Mac equivalents. So if you are wondering how you can open those old WordPerfect files, or what to use instead of Microsoft Publisher, you will get answers to your question on “Mac Essentials”. I hope you find it useful and I welcome your feedback.

Today, I have officially released the “Cybergéomètre démasqué” at the Franco-Ontarian Mathematics Teachers’ Convention. This new, free product is a collection of video tutorials on how to use the Geometer Sketchpad in your classroom. It is only available in French for now, but there are plans to release this product in English and Spanish. It is aimed at teachers and students in grades 4 to 9. The tutorials are divided into five sections: pedagogy, tools, concepts, constructions and the conclusion. All the constructions also come with reproducible worksheets for your students. Please share this new, free tool with your colleagues who are also teaching mathematics.