New OTF Connects webinars for 2026
OTF is pleased to announce their newest series of excellent OTF Connects webinars. Over the coming weeks and months, OTF’s newest series of webinars will feature tips and tools to support you on your teaching and learning journey, across divisions and subject areas.
Their easy-to-use webinar platform provides you with free, effective professional learning accessible–from a distance–across multiple types of devices. You will leave each session with strategies and tools you can transfer to your own learning context. Registration for each webinar is limited, so sign up early to avoid disappointment.
February
Train Your AI Brain: Customizing AI for Planning and Productivity
(en anglais seulement)
Date: February 24, 2026
Time: 4:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m.
Discover how to make AI work for you. In this hands-on session, learn how to personalize AI tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini to match your teaching style, workflow, and curriculum needs. You’ll explore how to “train” your AI to anticipate your planning routines, resource preferences, and communication tone so it becomes your time-saving, thought-partnering, feedback-generating sidekick. Whether you’re a planner, creator, organizer, or dreamer, walk away with practical strategies and ready-to-use prompts to boost productivity.
Meet your Presenter
Lidia Fumo is an elementary teacher librarian passionate about inquiry-based learning, literacy, technology, AI, and STEAM. She is a published author and runs the website theartofinquiry.ca and Instagram @the.art.of.inquiry. Lidia brings a tech-savvy, curiosity-driven approach to teaching, using tools like AI, coding platforms, and digital media to spark student engagement. Her classroom is a space where questions lead the way, creativity is celebrated, and learning feels more like exploration than instruction. She empowers students to connect their learning to real-world issues through the UN Sustainable Development Goals, turning inquiry into action that matters.
March
Empowering Student Voice Through the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and AI
(en anglais seulement)
Date: March 5, 2026
Time: 4:30 p.m.–5:45 p.m.
Discover how to make AI work for you. In this hands-on session, learn how to personalize AI tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini to match your teaching style, workflow, and curriculum needs. You’ll explore how to “train” your AI to anticipate your planning routines, resource preferences, and communication tone so it becomes your time-saving, thought-partnering, feedback-generating sidekick. Whether you’re a planner, creator, organizer, or dreamer, walk away with practical strategies and ready-to-use prompts to boost productivity.
Meet your Presenter
Lidia Fumo is an elementary teacher librarian passionate about inquiry-based learning, literacy, technology, AI, and STEAM. She is a published author and runs the website theartofinquiry.ca and Instagram @the.art.of.inquiry. Lidia brings a tech-savvy, curiosity-driven approach to teaching, using tools like AI, coding platforms, and digital media to spark student engagement. Her classroom is a space where questions lead the way, creativity is celebrated, and learning feels more like exploration than instruction. She empowers students to connect their learning to real-world issues through the UN Sustainable Development Goals, turning inquiry into action that matters.
Getting Moving with Google’s AI Tools
(en anglais seulement)
Date: March 31, 2026
Time: 4:30 p.m.–5:45 p.m.
Join Cameron Steltman (TechTips with Cameron), a K to 12 Tech Lead for the Halton DSB, as he walks you through the foundations of using AI to support your practice and reclaim time in your day for what matters most in education: human connection. This hands-on session is designed for educators who are curious about AI but want to start from a place of safety, privacy, and purpose. You will explore how Google tools such as Gemini and NotebookLM can be used in practical, low risk ways to support planning, content creation, and everyday workflow. Together, we will look at examples such as automatic slideshow creation, image generation, and the development of custom visuals, all through an educator lens that prioritizes responsible use. By the end of the session, you will have a clearer understanding of how AI works within Google’s ecosystem, concrete strategies you can use, and resources to continue learning beyond the session. This session focuses on building confidence, reducing friction, and showing how AI can support your work while enhancing the human side of teaching.
Meet your Presenter
Cameron Steltman is a K to 12 Technology Lead with the Halton District School Board, bringing 16 years of experience across classroom teaching and system level leadership. He holds a Master of Education and is the creator of the YouTube channel
Tech Tips with Cameron, which offers practical, classroom ready guidance on using technology to enhance teaching and learning. Cameron has taught Kindergarten through Grade 7 with the Halton DSB and has held roles as a teacher librarian, technology integration teacher, and computational thinking teacher. Cameron has been featured on CBC’s The National for his innovative work with computational thinking in the classroom. He is an AQ instructor for ETFO in both the IICT and Teacher Librarian Courses, and is a frequent presenter for ETFO and OTF, as well as various Faculties of Education. A passionate educator, Cameron’s motto is “engage, inspire, learn,” a philosophy that guides his presentations and day to day practice.
The World with AI: Explorations through Drama
(en anglais seulement)
Date: April 16, 2026
Time: 5:00 p.m.–6:30 p.m.
As teachers consider the ways that digital literacy needs are expanding because of the growth of Generative AI use among students, the Council of Ontario Drama and Dance Educators proposes that drama and dance can provide gateways to making sense of this new world alongside students while keeping student well-being front and centre. By exploring themes related to the way Gen AI behaves and the role Gen AI takes in relation to human beings, students will build deeper understandings of the limits of AI and how important fluency is for engaging with AI in responsible, safe, and ethical ways.
Meet your Presenter
Tessa Lofthouse (she/her) is an educator with experience in both elementary and secondary contexts whose practice focuses on social justice, anti-oppressive pedagogy, integrating subject areas and using the arts for liberatory education. Tessa is the current President of the Council of Ontario Drama and Dance Educators, the writer of Western University’s revised Dramatic Arts AQ courses, has contributed to various writing projects and has presented in school boards across Ontario. In 2024, she was awarded an MEd from York University for writing a thesis about the Ontario French as a Second Language curriculum’s discourses of intercultural understanding.
Diving Deeper with Google’s AI Tools
(en anglais seulement)
Date: April 21, 2026
Time: 4:30 p.m.–5:45 p.m.
Join Cameron Steltman (TechTips with Cameron), a K to 12 Tech Lead for the Halton DSB, as he takes you beyond the basics and into more intentional, creative uses of Google’s AI tools to support teaching and learning. This session is designed for educators who are ready to move past exploration and begin shaping AI to meet instructional goals. You will dig into tools such as Custom Gems and explore how AI can support the creation of curriculum connected content, including websites, games, and interactive learning experiences. The session will also open up practical conversations around student use of AI, including benefits, limitations, and safety considerations, with a specific focus on how AI can support Multilingual Language Learners by increasing comprehension and supporting language development. This session is hands on, with time built in to play, experiment, and reflect in a supported environment. You will leave with concrete examples, classroom ready ideas, and resources to help you continue building thoughtful and responsible AI use in your teaching practice, alongside your students.
Meet your Presenter
Cameron Steltman is a K to 12 Technology Lead with the Halton District School Board, bringing 16 years of experience across classroom teaching and system level leadership. He holds a Master of Education and is the creator of the YouTube channel
Tech Tips with Cameron, which offers practical, classroom ready guidance on using technology to enhance teaching and learning. Cameron has taught Kindergarten through Grade 7 with the Halton DSB and has held roles as a teacher librarian, technology integration teacher, and computational thinking teacher. Cameron has been featured on CBC’s The National for his innovative work with computational thinking in the classroom. He is an AQ instructor for ETFO in both the IICT and Teacher Librarian Courses, and is a frequent presenter for ETFO and OTF, as well as various Faculties of Education. A passionate educator, Cameron’s motto is “engage, inspire, learn,” a philosophy that guides his presentations and day to day practice.
