Maple

On February 20th, we had the pleasure of having John Evans present in class about Maple. John is a Maple administrator and Web Technologies Consultant for Brandon Education. So what exactly is Maple? Maple is a social network for Manitoba teachers and education professionals to exchange ideas, offer and receive support. If you are a Manitoba teacher and want to sign up for it here is the link!

John frequently shares all sorts of resources and link to sharing posts on his website and also shares resources on Maple for educators to use in the classroom.

Maple has a lot of different features. It includes a dashboard for access to fast up-to-date information and updates, including links to PDs/conferences. It is available for Manitoba teachers to search and sign up for workshops. The hope is that Maple will become the primary way to sign up for PDs and workshops in the future. There is also a large library which can be used to store/save what you want and to search through a collection of lesson plans/ideas. I love this feature! Through the library you can search and find books for personal or classroom use. To add to the awesomeness of Maple, it also includes all curriculum resources on their wikis.

Perhaps the strongest part of Maple is the groups. Groups are made for curriculum consultants, administrators, and subjects/topics. There are a diverse number of resources and to take full advantage of a group is to join it. There are 3 levels of groups. The first level is "Open" where any Maple user can join, participate in discussions, share resources/lessons/videos and find information easier than using Google. The second level needs a request for membership where an administrator will accept or deny request. This group contains the same features as an open group does, but it is more exclusive and private. The third type of group is a "Closed" group. Most closed groups are invisible to regular Maple users and the only way to gain access is to be invited to the group.

It is safe to say I recommend Maple to any and every Manitoba educator. All of the pages included are advantageous and created for your use. One benefit that John shared with us that should is quite appealing is that it is available 24/7. So my question for you is, why not use and get connected with Maple? - rhetorical question :)

Until my next post... JD