Have you created a Personal Learning Network yet?

I publish a monthly newsletter for my school district. In my last issue before the summer break I discussed personal learning networks. I provided 5 options that teachers and administrators could look into in order to begin to develop their network.

Technology has allowed for 24/7 learning on-demand. I started building my personal learning network about 3 years ago. I have never been so excited about learning since it became so easy. I have access to thousands of individuals who share the same interests as i do. Many of these are professional contacts, but some are individuals with similar personal interests Ex: fly fishing, travel and the health/fitness. I check/communicate with my network many times throughout the day. I learn something new every time I do.

My network consists of the following:

A maintain a feed aggregator page. I use Igoogle and Google Reader. I subscribe to a number of blogs. Each time someone updates their blog postings i receive an update in my aggregator. I subscribe to blogs that focus on many topics. Primarily i subscribe to Educational Technology Blogs. I also subscribe to some that relate to my personal interests.  This has probably been the number 1 resource in my network.

I am a member of Twitter. Currently my network consists of about 300 followers. I network with individuals who work in educational technology. I also follow espn, cnn and some other organizations that I am interested in. I must admit that i do not spend a lot of time on Twitter. I find it hard to find the time to stay connected. I do not use mobile technologies to connect to it. However, every single time I do interact with my network i walk about with at least 3-5 new resources, ideas or thoughts. I sometimes use it to throw out questions. It has been a valuable resource for me.

I am a member a few social networks. Primarily I am a member of NING networks. The most notable is www.classroom20.com. This is a network for educators who utilize web2.0 tools and technology in general in their classrooms. Recently they have reached 25,000 members. I could go on an on about the value here but i will leave it at " you have to join".  I subscribe to updates in the forum in my feed aggregator.

I read a number of publications. Most of them I subscribe to in my feed reader. I can get a quick snapshot of the new articles. I can then decide which ones are of interest to me. It makes it very easy to stay on top of multiple publications without spending a lot of time. The best part is that it is free. A few that i read are eschool news, the journal, technology and learning and ASCD publications.

I maintain a social bookmarking account. I use www.delicious.com. This is a powerful tool. Social bookmarking sites allow you to save your favorite websites on a website. This means they are accessible from any computer with an internet connection. You add and access bookmarks easily by installing a couple of buttons on your internet browser toolbar. I have organized thousands of sites with tags (keywords that you apply to sites you bookmark). The real power of this service is the social aspect. You can search and share bookmarks with everyone that uses the service. I have networked with many individuals who share the same interests that i do. I am constantly reviewing their resources in addition to my own. It is such a time saver and a valuable tool.

Open courseware and video sharing are the newest addition to my network. www.academicearth.org, www.ted.com, itunesU,  ustream, and other open course providers are some of my favorites. i can watch short videos or take complete courses on topics that are of interest to me professionally and personally. I can even take part in live workshops. I am really starting to take advantage of these resources lately.

I encourage you to start to develop your own personal learning network. If you would like to read my newsletter that discusses RSS feeds and developing you "PLN" you can view it here. I invite you to add me to your networks and feeds as a start. I will share my contact info below.

twitter: walkerd
delicious: dwalker500
Classroom20: dwalker500
Skype: dwalker500
Gmail: dwalker500

If it is on Google .... I can take it. Why is this wrong?

>Danielle Smith from St. Louis can tell you exactly why. Someone else could grab YOUR picture.

As NPR reports, a Czech supermarket chain used a family photo Ms. Smith posted online as the centerpiece of their advertising campaign.

Many of our students are under the impression that "if it is on the web, it is free". We have an obligation to address these teachable moments that come up in our classrooms. Information literacy and copyright are two areas of concern among most educators in the country. It is the responsibility of all content areas to address this in our courses.

I have a number of resources available on my wiki that can be used to educate both teachers and students with regards to Internet Safety, Copyright, and Information Literacy.

After reading that article one lesson I have learned is to be sure that you only post your best looking pictures online!

>Create Interactive Games for Review

>With the end of the year upon us I have noticed a lot of faculy members looking for creative opportunities to create review lessons. The website Classroom Games and More hosts a number of game templates. The templates are all made in PowerPoint. All you have to do is plug in your information and you are ready to go. These games will work well on a smartboard.



Enjoy!

Connecting Your Curriculum & Students with Subject Area Experts

Are you looking for a way to connect your content with real life experiences for students? Are your students struggling to see the relevance in reading a particular story or learning a particular critical thinking skill? Would you like to have a Nobel Laureate show your students how he or she uses the skills your are instructing?

The open source teaching project is an excellent tool to make real-world connections between your curriculum and the work done everyday by industry leading professionals.

A recent article in the THE JOURNALstated this about the site:

The open source teaching project is a Tennessee based program that helps students make real-life connections to academic content. It is a free digital resource that brings students up close with leading professionals across a variety of fields to help them see the real-world relevance of their studies."

This program send interviewers to speak face to face with experts in a range of fields. The interviews are posted online and are free for anyone to access. They also include teacher resources, lesson plans and blogs.

One section of the site contains interviews with college admissions officers. Districts who have utilized these interviews in instruction have witnessed a distinct transition in the way students organize and prepare college admissions materials after taking part in these lessons.

A majority of the interviews are audio only. However, they are in the process of adding video components as well. Included on the site are the questions that are asked for each area of expertise. I found this to be a valuable resource. With the technology we have available in Jefferson we could easily conduct some of our own interviews. We are also setup to host video conferencing sessions. These questions would be useful for those projects.

I encourage you to take a look at this resource. If you are interested in putting together a lesson using these tools I would be happy to assist. If you would like to organize your own video conference or interview with a subject area expert please let me know. I am always here to assist.

Enjoy this new resource!

Connecting With Subject Area Experts

>Are you looking for a way to connect your content with real life experiences for students? Are your students struggling to see the relevance in reading a particular story or learning a particular critical thinking skill? Would you like to have a Nobel Laureate show your students how he or she uses the skills your are instructing?

The open source teaching project is an excellent tool to make real-world connections between your curriculum and the work done everyday by industry leading professionals.



A recent article in the THE JOURNAL stated this about the site:

"The open source teaching project is a Tennessee based program that helps students make real-life connections to academic content. It is a free digital resource that brings students up close with leading professionals across a variety of fields to help them see the real-world relevance of their studies."

This program send interviewers to speak face to face with experts in a range of fields. The interviews are posted online and are free for anyone to access. They also include teacher resources, lesson plans and blogs.

One section of the site contains interviews with college admissions officers. Districts who have utilized these interviews in instruction have witnessed a distinct transition in the way students organize and prepare college admissions materials after taking part in these lessons.

A majority of the interviews are audio only. However, they are in the process of adding video components as well. Included on the site are the questions that are asked for each area of expertise. I found this to be a valuable resource. With the technology we have available in Jefferson we could easily conduct some of our own interviews. We are also setup to host video conferencing sessions. These questions would be useful for those projects.

I encourage you to take a look at this resource. If you are interested in putting together a lesson using these tools I would be happy to assist. If you would like to organize your own video conference or interview with a subject area expert please let me know. I am always here to assist.

Enjoy this new resource!

>Interactive Websites and PowerPoint Presentations

>The following website was introduced to me by Sherry Brzostowski, White Rock School. The main site has a number of interactive websites that are categorized by subject. These are great sites to use on an interactive whiteboard, center activities, or as part of a larger project.

The content that I found even more interesting on this site after exploring further is the huge collection of PowerPoint presentations compiled for Language Arts k-12. There are PowerPoint presentations that can be downloaded for many of the topics covered in the language arts curriculum. The largest collection is for grades 3-5. In many cases you could use these presentations or modify them to fit your plans.

The presentations are free to use. If you do use them I would recommend citing the source and maybe sending them a note letting them know you found their resource helpful. I am sure they would like to hear that.

http://jc-schools.net/PPTs-la.html#Grades6-12

Enjoy!

>Visuwords

>Visuwords is a visual dictionary / thesaurus. When you lookup a word it displays the results in "Web" format.

I will let the creators explain:

"Visuwords™ online graphical dictionary — Look up words to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate.

Enter words into the search box to look them up or double-click a node to expand the tree. Click and drag the background to pan around and use the mouse wheel to zoom. Hover over nodes to see the definition and click and drag individual nodes to move them around to help clarify connections.

It's a dictionary! It's a thesaurus!
Great for writers, journalists, students, teachers, and artists.
The online dictionary is available wherever there’s an internet connection.
No membership required. "

This is a great tool to use for whole group instruction on a smartboard. It can also be used by students individually. Introduce this tool during a pre-writing session. It can pair very well with mind mapping software such as kidspiration, inspiration or www.bubbl.us. r