My 11+1 Essential Tools for using Social Networking as Professional Development

"Real PD starts with wanting 2 learn Not with learning something once for one hour once a year Take control of your profession" Tim Charleston (@MrCsays)

In May, I presented at the iPARA Expo in Los Gatos, CA.  My topic was the opportunity that social media and networking provides for educators. I started with what I know...after some thought I realized I use at a minimum 9 different social media tools every week day!  I sure thought computers were supposed to simplify our lives!  Here is a screen shot of just the apps I use, not to mention the websites.

1. edmodo - In addition to using +Edmodo to communicate with students and parents, I also use communities and groups to connect with other educators and learn about new ways to integrate technology with curriculum.
2. Twitter - I read twitter like some people read the news. I check it daily to see what new things are going on with education and technology (#edchat).. In his post, Twitterati: Progressive EDU leaders or outliers?  Tom Whitby writes Today’s technological tools for collaboration now enable it globally, timelessly, and virtually endlessly. The key factor in good and effective collaboration is connecting with right sources. 
3. Youtube is a great resource for teachers and students. I have not yet begun to tap into its vastness of instructional and professional development videos.
4. Blogs - Not only do I write for reflection but I also follow several other bloggers in the field of education.  Grace from Teacher Learning Community suggests: Reflect on your work from time to time by blogging about your experiences. Decide what has worked and what hasn’t? What should you do different next time? You can always draw from other people’s expertise as well. Social media is all about collaboration, and what better way to do that then by teaching and learning from other passionate educators?  Then share your blog with your colleagues. Build a list of blogs to read for professional development purposes…and make sure you subscribe to them so you know when they’ve posted new content. There are many teaching related blogs out there.
5. Wikis - I use wikispaces as a repository of information. Our current wiki is managed by a group of us involved in a 1:1 iPad pilot. 
6. facebook -I do not use this yet for professional purposes but this year plan to use a professional page/profile for parent communications
7. google + -   I find this a better source of professional information than facebook.
8. diigo - social bookmarking -   Not only can I save my bookmarks for use from any machine, bt I can also see what others are bookmarking and find new and interesting 
9.  Pinterest  Simply a great source of ideas!
10. LinkedIn and Tioki, which is kind of like a linkedin for educators, connects users with job opportunities. 
11. Edshelf -  -Find the right educational tools for your needs - Reviews and recommendations of tools for education
12. This just in - Graphite, a recently launched resource from +Common Sense Educators, provides curated recommendations and reviews of educational apps and tools.

Jason Tomassini from Education Week  suggests via the Huffington Post that teachers check Twitter for hashtags related to education technology, elementary education, and 1-to-1 computing initiatives featuring iPads. He found what is certainly true for this teacher, that we use Facebook in our personal life but we aren't on Facebook with our "teacher hats on."  I know for me I am more likely to use a designed for teachers and not likely one frequented by my students, current or past.  I don't even accept friend requests from parents of my current students. I know they can see my posts in a roundabout way, but it is just a line I have drawn for myself.


Eric Sheninger, "online idea-sharing tools like RSS feeds, digital discussion forums, and blogs have the power to expand PLNs to previously unimaginable sizes. By using social media tools such as Twitter, social bookmarking sites, and social networks, educators can participate in the new era of professional development—an era of idea exchange that is accessible anywhere, anytime and that connects the field’s brightest minds. These tools are real-time, cost-effective, and accessible around the world, and they are driven by practitioners, not just consultants. 

Social media–facilitated idea sharing and online personal learning networks also bypass the challenges of traditional professional development, including time and money constraints, uninterested participants, and an overemphasis on irrelevant or boring content. 

 George Couros ‏@gcouros  "Connecting on Twitter has not only created higher expectations for myself in education, but for people in general. So much awesome out there"

Indeed!

Technology for Planning and Teaching to the Common Core

Brian Balaris, Chris Morel, Todd Reed
As you are implementing technology, there are several ways to provide necessary Staff PD to help inspire, prepare and support your teachers.   In their district, they use independent contractors and send teachers to conferences to see what is going on

• boot camp - at the beginning of their school year, one day (paid) is devoted to technology training using a boot camp model. There are a variety of workshops that people can sign up for. They get low or no cost presenters (the price of lunch for some) and teachers can sign up for the things they need, such as Google sites, Google forms, iPad basics, SMART, Edmodo, etc.  

• Site early outs - on some of their early out Wednesdays, they continue with the staff PD for tech, which is especially helpful as teachers have begun using the technology and have some new and more complex questions and challenges.  

• Grade level pull outs - these would address specific grade level needs

• Pedagogical PD

ITSE NETS   (National Education Technology Standards) for Students NETS-S and teachers NETS-T - It is essential to know technology standards for teachers and students and use them in backwards planning of units and your school year. Here is an interesting resource I found while poking around ITSE , an implementation wiki for NETS standards! They also recommend a coaching model - to provide help with how to, to model lessons, research and share new ideas, generally, to spread the wealth. Coaches can take what they see at one school, one classroom and pollinate it throughout their district. 

This session blurb said it would  "provide teachers and administrators with a detailed understanding of the technology needs embedded in the common core and how to start the process of using these skills. The integration of more technology into engaging teaching and learning activities are the themes presented." My slight frustration with this year's CUE started with this presentation. I know WHY we need to use technology with common core, I want to know HOW to best implement real projects with tech+common core!  They had some great ideas to support staff using technology, but no actual projects, lesson plans, nor implementable strategies.  I am hoping to follow Balaris, Morel and Reed and do some investigation into how they actually are implementing tech+CCSS in their schools going forward.

Published!

Have you ever attended a mandatory professional development (PD) session with little or no relevancy to your position?  How about a class where you left excited to try new things, but just never had the time to try it out, and the binder sits dusty on your shelf?  I attended a PD about differentiation when a colleague turned to me and stated what is now obvious, "why do they expect us to teach using differentiation strategies, yet we are all receiving the same exact training with no regard to our ability, experience or relevancy?"  Why indeed?

Published in ASCA's November issue of "Leadership Magazine", our superintendent, Dr. Deborah Blow and I co-wrote an article exploring the benefits and challenges of the Academy Model for professional development (PD). To me, a huge benefit of this model is providing teachers with targeted PD in areas they are interested in, instead of a one-size-fits-all approach that usually never fits all.  Our article describes the planning and vision that went into creating our academies, as well as some of the problems and opportunities it has created.

It was amusing to me that as we collaborated on writing the article Dr. Blow and I faced many of the challenges encountered by our students. Not allowed to share in and out of our internal  "walled garden", we were unable to collaborate with Google Docs (which we 'require' our kids to use). So then we tried our wiki, (Thank you wikispaces for offering free wikis to educators), but we had multiple user IDs and couldn't connect that way. Laughing as we tried to use 21st century tools, we ended up using good "old" cut & paste and email.

One of the biggest lessons I have learned with having the iPads is allowing students even more control of their own learning. I am trusting my kids and they trust me. The iPads changed the way our classes ran and they way our students learned.... Change drives their creativity, and their creativity fosters change!

Yes Teachers Want Tech, Let's teach them how to use it!

I just read an article tweeted to me by Edworld written by Edworld Jason. He points out how most teachers are finally ready to take on tech, and want more of it in the classroom. Buried at the end of the article, beneath some really cool graphics, is this sentence...

Researching costs for technology purchases—ranging from installation to training time—is the first step in identifying what's right for your school.

The training time has been in my experience the biggest block to anyone other than early adopters using technology in the classroom. Teachers I have worked with have dust gathering on projectors, use Smart Boards as screens for their overhead projectors and don't know what to do with laptops, iPads and PCs. I hold dual citizenship, but most teachers are digital vacationers at best. We need to find ways, and finance ways, to help these teachers learn how to use the tools to provide meaningful and authentic learning opportunities for our kids.

I have scoured the Internet for lesson plans using iPads and have come up with very few good examples. New-to-tech teachers need good and easy to find sources of information and resources to help them step across their own digital divide. In our district, where we have a growing pilot program for 1:1 iPads, we have started a wiki and edmodo group to share best practices and ideas. But it is still a challenge for all of us, we are so busy teaching, to find the time to research and learn and share new ways to be innovative in the classroom. Yet, we owe it to our kids to prepare them as best we can 'for jobs that don't even exist yet.'

And, to reward you for reading all the way to the end, here is one of the really cool graphics I mentioned.




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