My first goal is to increase
ethical use and copyright respect in my classroom. To carry out my plan, I will need to locate
information about this topic and will need to find experts I can rely on for
information. I know there are webinars
about this topic regularly so I will need to find these and schedule time to
watch them. So far, I have set up a new
notebook in my evernote system to keep track of resources and information I
find as I research this topic.
My second goal is to increase
participation in my social networks. To
really participate meaningfully in these networks, I will need time to read
blogs, networks, and tweets and time to respond. I will also need to stay informed on
important issues in education so I can make informed comments and posts. So far, I have a robust RSS feed setup and a
large network of educators on Twitter. I
also joined a few new listservs and education Ning sites this week.
Your goals are great and sounds like you are well on your way! As far as contributing to social networks it seems like the RSS feed will insure that you are getting the information, but how do you plan on contributing back? Are you going to stick with this blog and post your thoughts on the ideas you researched here or will you join conversations on other's pages? I am worried about losing touch with the digital conversation once it is not "required" of me to complete the posts and replies on a certain day. I think I will need to hold myself responsible for a certain number of replies as if I was still in a Walden class to keep me on top of the material.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Nick, your goals sound really great. I believe participating in social networks will get you exposed to new ideas and suggestions. Time is a challenge for these things. A day can easily go by without checking a blog or tweet. I would have alerts come to my email or cell phone to help me with participating in blogs and tweets. I was wondering your network of educators on twitter, is it a group or just educators that you know?
ReplyDeleteIt seems like you have a large support of networked communication tools to help with your information towards education. It's great to "collaborate and communicate with outside experts," (Cennamo, Ross & Ertmer, 2009, p 123). Outside views always make you double think yourself in my opinion, which can be a good thing.
ReplyDeleteTo help you build upon your social networks may I suggest you try out www.edmodo.com? For the past year I have been apart of this network and have been directed toward a large variety of different resources to use with my students. Not only is this a site for teachers to communicate, but you can have your own page and add your students to it as well. I had a group of seventh graders and after their parents signed a permission form, they were able to attach their cell phone number to their account. This was private, yet they received any update to their phone like a text message. Many of my students last year had cell phones with unlimited text plans, but did not have internet access at home. This was a great tool for my students to stay connected to each other and myself.
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning
I think your plans for meeting your goals and connecting to social networks will provide a wealth of information and resources with the use of technology.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever used Evernote before? I have never looked into using it as a professional development professional and wondered what your experiences with it have been. Does it allow you to easily share your experiences and reflections with colleagues or grade level team? I think this would be another way to share what you’ve learned with others so that more students are positively impacted by the use of technology.
I noticed the list of technological blogs you are following and had another one that I follow that provides me with tons of information for using technology in the classroom.
http://educationtechnologyblog.com/
I’m not sure if you’ve seen this blog before, but I’ve gained a lot of valuable information from it. Hope this helps expand your social networks.
Heather,
DeleteTHANKS for that idea, it is perfect! I use Evernote because I like how I can use it cross-platform and for a lot of different purposes. I never thought to use the sharing feature until you suggested it. Evernote can share using a link or email or facebook or twitter, which means I can use it to support my twitter posting goal as well.
Thanks for the blog suggestion as well, I will add it to my list.
Melissa