5.) Develop a Personal Learning Network (PLN)
One of terms bandied about with respect to professional development and teachers is the concept of the PLN, or Personal Learning Network. Although it includes your traditional learning network of friends, collegues, and acquantances with whom you share ideas, a PLN also incorporates web media and especially social networking with things such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, wikis etc. What makes it so powerful is now you can be connected not only locally, but globally with colleagues who share with you common interests and ideas, but also in diverse settings and with different challenges. The breadth of specialized knowledge, relevant to you, available is what makes a PLN so special. Developing a PLN can take many forms. The first, if you've started reading blogs, you're already familiar with. Seeking a collection of relevant and interesting blogs that offer useful advice is a good first step in developing a PLN. Creating your own blog, and then keeping it regularly updated, takes time and patience, but can be part of the process as well. When writing your thoughts and ideas you change the participatory pathway so that you are contributing, as well as taking, from the flow of ideas. Whether or not someone reads your blog is almost beside the point: putting your ideas and thoughts in a public forum for critique carries many of the same benefits of recording a journal. If writing a blog seems like too much, the vast majority of blogs also offer the ability to comment and give feedback to the author. Use this feature.
Blogs themselves, as previously mentioned, are not the entire story when it comes to PLN's. When it comes to social networking, I'm going to start with Twitter.
6.) Join Twitter - http://twitter.com/, Sign up for an account, Follow me at http://www.twitter.com/neufeld by clicking the Follow button on my page, go to Twitter4Teachers and look for some other helpful people to add to your PLN. That's really all there is to it, if you'd rather stop reading.
When it comes to PLN, it's hard to explain why, exactly, twitter is so useful. When collecting useful blogs for advice, it was like dipping into a stream of knowledge. When I first tried twitter, I 'followed' a few people, but didn't see much benefit or point. People 'tweeted' about what they were having for dinner or other irrelevant bits of personal material. Then I found a couple of sites that listed teachers who tweet. Rather than a gentle stream of knowledge, it was akin to looking down the end of a fire hose and wondering where the water was, and then having it blast into your face. The person I have to credit for this introduction is Grant Potter who taught a pro-d course on Twitter I attended.
Frankly, if you do nothing else, join Twitter. It's relatively new, and given that I don't know if something newer and better will come along, but I do know I've accumulated more useful resources in a few months of Twitter than I accumulated in years of searching and using things like Google. Twitter is ultimately a very simple tool for cooperation. I must also say, for awhile, you will believe that it's the stupidest and most useless thing on the Internet. That's normal and common. Just keep at it, and you will be assimilated.
First, some links to give an overview: Nine Reasons to Twitter in School, an article trying to explain why it's not a waste of time, Can we use Twitter for Educational Activities, 50 Ways to Use Twitter in the College Classroom, Twitter in Plain English, The Twitter Song, and even primary schools in England are considering teaching twitter and wikipedia as essential new tools.
So, what exactly is Twitter? It's a form of microblogging ("micro" = small, "blogging" = we already covered). Even if you haven't text-messaged anyone yourself, you are probably vaguely aware that your students do that. Twitter is simply a method by which you can send text messages (140 characters max). The difference between regular text messaging and Twitter, is that you're not text messaging any particular person, and you can message not only from your phone, but also your computer, and a record of your messages (called "tweets") are kept in your Twitter profile online (making twitter a searchable database as well as a texting service). If anyone "follows" your Twitter profile, they will automatically be messaged when ever you send a new tweet, and vice verse. As well, you're not limited to text, but can send links, photos, audio clips.
Although it sounds much more restrictive than regular blogging, the restrictive nature usually makes microblogging more topical, and more useful. I mean really, how many people are still reading this email/blog? I've gone on and on, and in a typical busy school year who really has the time to read all of that, let alone write it? Twitter forces people to be succint, and communicate only the most critical bits.
This is, of course, if you are following what I consider 'good tweeters'. Twitter itself doesn't seem to really help this, as the question it offers at the top of the entry box is "What are you doing?". As an example of such, I did find a twitter user who tweeted he was excited about having prawns for dinner, then he tweeted about how many prawns he ate, and how good they tasted, and lastly he tweeted about how sick he felt, and how he shouldn't have eaten those prawns. Unless you're his Mom, I rather suspect this isn't all that interesting to anybody. If you're not finding interesting stuff on Twitter, stop following The Prawn People.
There are a few people I follow who do offer tidbits of their life, like Adam Savage and Grant Imahara from the Mythbusters. Their life sometimes seems a tad more interesting than mine, and they often tweet pictures from the set and updates on what new episode they're working on.
Beyond those, however, I follow a number of people. Here are some of those that I've found most valuable.
http://www.twitter.com/grantpotter - Useful Web 2.0 resources, commentary
http://twitter.com/sanmccarron - Science teaching resources
http://twitter.com/ChemEdLinks - Chemistry and Web 2.0 resources
http://twitter.com/MySMARTSpaces - SmartBoard resources, UK based
Which brings me to:
7.) Find some Twitter friends to follow!
Best place to start is Twitter4Teachers, which lists teachers that tweet by subject area. As well, I have found 515 Scientific Twitter Friends useful too. Once you begin, you will find there is a rapidly expanding kit of resources for the tweeting teacher, particularly as we ‘follow’ each other. As a group of colleagues, when I find a useful link, tool, or idea, the only real method I currently have to share it is to email the entire faculty. This clutters up your inboxes, and is probably considered spam by many. If, however, my colleagues and I were all part of a Twitter group, I could tweet the link, tool or idea, where it’s easily ignored by those that aren’t interested, but picked up by those that are, cutting across barriers such as time, space, and (most formidable of all), department.
8.) Develop your tweeting skills
If you've started using Twitter, and want more to explore, work your way through the Top 100 Tools for the Twittering Teacher.
There is a lot I haven't covered, how to personalize your page, useful Twitter tools, etc, but if you've started you'll find a plethora of links to help you.
Cheers,
Ron Neufeld
Canada's Best Boarding School
Showing posts with label high school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label high school. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Just 4 Things
Part two of a theoretically infinite series, a couple more things you can do before classes start in September. Pick and choose or ignore. If you're wondering about the numbering, read the previous article.
3.) Listen to Podcasts.
If actually reading seems like too much work, then a perfect alternative is podcasting. A podcast is equivalent to a radio show that you can download onto your computer, and many portable devices such as iPods, and listen whenever and wherever you like. With the right equipment (i.e. a computer and a microphone and/or video camera) anyone can become a podcaster, and as a result there are many podcasts and multiple topics to choose from.
For a quick overview, try Podcasting in Plain English. Actually, going through the "Plain English" video series would make its own complete pro-d course.
So, download iTunes and install it (if you don't have it already), and click on "Podcasts". There are podcasts for keeping up with subject areas (aka Chemistry , and The Introduction to English Learning Podcasts has a good introduction to podcasts, and links to several podcasts for English teachers and students) and educational pro-d, but of particular use can be podcasts for students. A ridiculous amount of our students have an iPod and seem to enjoy using them - much to our chagrin sometimes. Rather than fighting this very expensive and versatile piece of equipment, finding ways to use may be more productive. Supplementary or assignment material for class as a podcast can then be downloaded and listened to in the same way as their favorite music. I was first introduced to this by a student who had found a series of biology lectures as a podcast (I didn't get the link, sorry), that corresponded to the anatomy lectures for Biology 12. Whether or not the school network allows students to connect to the iTunes store to receive podcasts, many teachers have their own private Internet connections, from which they can download content and then make it available at school, whether through Moodle or another medium. A reasonable 'first list' is at the Podcast Awards, and it includes a section devoted to education.
Podcasting essentially democratized audio content, with all the benefits and drawbacks that this implies. The popularity of blogging, which turned anyone into an online news commentator, caught the media establishment sleeping at the wheel (heard of any newspapers going out of business lately?), and the industry is trying not to make the same mistake with podcasting, which lets nearly anyone "broadcast" on the Internet. Traditional media have embraced podcasting, and have been quick to adopt it as well. CBC has a large number of podcasts, as does Scientific American, plus there's some great comedy as well. Most 'formal' news and entertainment organizations now have some kind of free content available through podcasts.
Of particular use is podcasts for second-language learners, whether that's ESL, French, Spanish, Mandarin or German. In addition to regular programs in other languages (i.e. the CBC has numerous French podcasts), simply typing "Learn French by Podcast" into a web search engine or the iTunes store, and numerous free programs pop up. The BBC has, for example, a 'learn Spanish' section that includes a series of podcasts (actually the BBC has a similar series for several languages).
Much like creating your own blog, you can create your own podcast. Far from being simply a mode of entertainment, podcasts now present a wealth of educational material, and can be structured to meet an individual students' learning style and desires. The ability to repeat a concept or a lesson, critical for those IEP students, allows significant opportunities for repeated reinforcement and review. Instructors are podcasting specific ideas and constructs, broken into manageable chunks and (like all electronic media) are potentially available year after year, everywhere your students are.
4.) Create your own podcast.
If you need something done right, and specific to your needs, you sometimes have to do it yourself. Whether it's podcasting lectures, or specific items for learning or discussion, or even a guest lecturers talk, podcasting can be as easy as blogging.
When podcasting, it is essential to have good material. Don't worry overmuch about your style or delivery - presenting quality material is more important than production values. There is a problem with copyright if (for example) you wish to podcast a guest lecturer or speaker. A copyright waiver form would be an essential part of doing so. Our school doesn't have an official one yet, but I use a printed version from the Creative Commons when necessary. If you are going to publish someone else's work, you will need their permission, in some form.
There are some specific technical requirements. Although blogging just requires a computer and internet connection, podcasting needs audio equipment. There is the Audacity software (free and open source) which can record podcasts and convert them into mp3 files. Even if your laptop comes with a microphone, buy a separate one. A USB microphone is usually pretty cheap, and the increase in sound quality is substantial - I've found wireless ones for under a hundred dollars on sale, which gives the added ability to record without wires and allows you to move about a classroom. After that it needs to be uploaded online. If it's not possible to host it at your school site, type "Free Podcast hosting" into Google and numerous resources will appear.
Lastly, an RSS feed (more on those in a later article) is needed to stream the podcast. This is what makes a podcast different from simply hosting an audio file - the RSS feed updates potential listeners that a new podcast is ready. This can be as simple as creating a blog, and then linking to the podcast in the blog, as blogs often have their own RSS feeds.
At that point you have a podcast. Getting it into iTunes is another step (if you so desire), but not one I am in any way an expert. Check out Apple itself on how to do it generally, or this article on how to use Google's free blogging service to set up the podcast feed for iTunes.
So, essentially thus far, pro-d this summer is reading blogs on material you already like, and listening to content via podcasts you already enjoy. The next article will introduce the personal learning network.
Cheers,
Ron Neufeld
Canada's Best Boarding School
3.) Listen to Podcasts.
If actually reading seems like too much work, then a perfect alternative is podcasting. A podcast is equivalent to a radio show that you can download onto your computer, and many portable devices such as iPods, and listen whenever and wherever you like. With the right equipment (i.e. a computer and a microphone and/or video camera) anyone can become a podcaster, and as a result there are many podcasts and multiple topics to choose from.
For a quick overview, try Podcasting in Plain English. Actually, going through the "Plain English" video series would make its own complete pro-d course.
So, download iTunes and install it (if you don't have it already), and click on "Podcasts". There are podcasts for keeping up with subject areas (aka Chemistry , and The Introduction to English Learning Podcasts has a good introduction to podcasts, and links to several podcasts for English teachers and students) and educational pro-d, but of particular use can be podcasts for students. A ridiculous amount of our students have an iPod and seem to enjoy using them - much to our chagrin sometimes. Rather than fighting this very expensive and versatile piece of equipment, finding ways to use may be more productive. Supplementary or assignment material for class as a podcast can then be downloaded and listened to in the same way as their favorite music. I was first introduced to this by a student who had found a series of biology lectures as a podcast (I didn't get the link, sorry), that corresponded to the anatomy lectures for Biology 12. Whether or not the school network allows students to connect to the iTunes store to receive podcasts, many teachers have their own private Internet connections, from which they can download content and then make it available at school, whether through Moodle or another medium. A reasonable 'first list' is at the Podcast Awards, and it includes a section devoted to education.
Podcasting essentially democratized audio content, with all the benefits and drawbacks that this implies. The popularity of blogging, which turned anyone into an online news commentator, caught the media establishment sleeping at the wheel (heard of any newspapers going out of business lately?), and the industry is trying not to make the same mistake with podcasting, which lets nearly anyone "broadcast" on the Internet. Traditional media have embraced podcasting, and have been quick to adopt it as well. CBC has a large number of podcasts, as does Scientific American, plus there's some great comedy as well. Most 'formal' news and entertainment organizations now have some kind of free content available through podcasts.
Of particular use is podcasts for second-language learners, whether that's ESL, French, Spanish, Mandarin or German. In addition to regular programs in other languages (i.e. the CBC has numerous French podcasts), simply typing "Learn French by Podcast" into a web search engine or the iTunes store, and numerous free programs pop up. The BBC has, for example, a 'learn Spanish' section that includes a series of podcasts (actually the BBC has a similar series for several languages).
Much like creating your own blog, you can create your own podcast. Far from being simply a mode of entertainment, podcasts now present a wealth of educational material, and can be structured to meet an individual students' learning style and desires. The ability to repeat a concept or a lesson, critical for those IEP students, allows significant opportunities for repeated reinforcement and review. Instructors are podcasting specific ideas and constructs, broken into manageable chunks and (like all electronic media) are potentially available year after year, everywhere your students are.
4.) Create your own podcast.
If you need something done right, and specific to your needs, you sometimes have to do it yourself. Whether it's podcasting lectures, or specific items for learning or discussion, or even a guest lecturers talk, podcasting can be as easy as blogging.
When podcasting, it is essential to have good material. Don't worry overmuch about your style or delivery - presenting quality material is more important than production values. There is a problem with copyright if (for example) you wish to podcast a guest lecturer or speaker. A copyright waiver form would be an essential part of doing so. Our school doesn't have an official one yet, but I use a printed version from the Creative Commons when necessary. If you are going to publish someone else's work, you will need their permission, in some form.
There are some specific technical requirements. Although blogging just requires a computer and internet connection, podcasting needs audio equipment. There is the Audacity software (free and open source) which can record podcasts and convert them into mp3 files. Even if your laptop comes with a microphone, buy a separate one. A USB microphone is usually pretty cheap, and the increase in sound quality is substantial - I've found wireless ones for under a hundred dollars on sale, which gives the added ability to record without wires and allows you to move about a classroom. After that it needs to be uploaded online. If it's not possible to host it at your school site, type "Free Podcast hosting" into Google and numerous resources will appear.
Lastly, an RSS feed (more on those in a later article) is needed to stream the podcast. This is what makes a podcast different from simply hosting an audio file - the RSS feed updates potential listeners that a new podcast is ready. This can be as simple as creating a blog, and then linking to the podcast in the blog, as blogs often have their own RSS feeds.
At that point you have a podcast. Getting it into iTunes is another step (if you so desire), but not one I am in any way an expert. Check out Apple itself on how to do it generally, or this article on how to use Google's free blogging service to set up the podcast feed for iTunes.
So, essentially thus far, pro-d this summer is reading blogs on material you already like, and listening to content via podcasts you already enjoy. The next article will introduce the personal learning network.
Cheers,
Ron Neufeld
Canada's Best Boarding School
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Just 2 Things - Part I
A major project kept me away from blogging for a long time - luckily that's slowly winding down. Part of that project involves a focus-year for professional development for our school on technology. If it seems odd that I'm blogging about the importance of reading blogs...this was also emailed to my colleagues. Hopefully I don't end up in somebody's permenant blacklist for spam.
This is for those teachers that would like a head start on their pro-d, before classes, marking, and the usual marathon starter gun goes off. Funnily, most of the things you can do as 'pro-d' also qualify as an enjoyable summer's afternoon, so in this series of blog posts I will very roughly outline a few suggestions. Pick and choose or ignore.
1.) Start Reading blogs.
Whether it's in education, or your own interests, simply becoming more familiar with the ever increasing blogosphere would be a great investment in time. There are is a blog for every interest, some of my personal favorites are Bad Astronomy, Pharyngula, Skepchick, and Skepticblog, all of which keep me loosely up to date on science and critical thinking and any Internet memes that happen to be flying about. And if a student asks me an off-the-wall question about the Moon Hoax, I might have a chance of answering it.
Educationally, the following is my current list of education-based blogs that I'm reading:
I also have my own blog, which is either linked in this email, or you're reading this article in it. It contains such amazing advice I find I often have to hid it amid poor grammar, spelling and logic just to ensure Blogger isn't overrun with readers.
You may have noticed a particular theme running through my recommendations, vaguely along the lines of science-based resources. On the Internet, however, if you can think of a resource, somebody else has either invented it, or written about it. From the Blog "Making Teachers Nerdy", I found a much better list than my own: "Educational Blogs You Should Be Investigating", covering a wide variety of interests, plus 50 Must-Read Up and Coming Blogs by Teachers, and focusing on educational technology, check out 20+ Must-Read Education Technology Blogs. Beyond that, it would be useful if, having found some great blogs in your own subject area, share their recommendations here in the comments section for everyone else.
So, when your significant other mentions that some chore needs to be done, or certain relatives need visiting, you can slump your shoulders slightly and claim that you've already got some critical work to do for next year. And then snuggle up with your laptop/desktop and some good reads. My wife is probably far too busy to actually read my posts, so I should be able to still get away with this for some time yet.
2.) Write your own blog.
You didn't think blogs created themselves did you? And you don't think your own thoughts are important enough to publish? Nonsense. If everyone had that kind of attitude, the Web wouldn't be the kind of place it is today!
Seriously, even if you never intend to blog, investigating how it's done is useful in and of itself. I know of two people that write private blogs, viewable only by themselves, as it can never be 'found' in the house, and is accessible for writing anywhere there is an internet connection. I write a family blog with family photos that's only my immediate family can see. Whether you write for an audience of one or one million, or are even just exploring the process, set up an account and start.
There are many free alternatives for blogging, obviously I'm most familiar with Blogger, but there's also Live Journal and WordPress as two others that immediately come to my uninformed mind. Like always, somebody else has already created a great list of 40+ Free Blog Hosts.
Of course, I can't quite leave it at that without a word of warning. As will be true of anything that involves people putting content on the web, rather than just receiving content, use good judgement. As a rough guideline, if you wouldn't want to see it attributed to you on a public billboard, don't put it on the web.
Remember, nothing suggested is mandatory. If you find one blog with one article that was useful, you're good.
Cheers,
Ron Neufeld
Canada's Best Boarding School
This is for those teachers that would like a head start on their pro-d, before classes, marking, and the usual marathon starter gun goes off. Funnily, most of the things you can do as 'pro-d' also qualify as an enjoyable summer's afternoon, so in this series of blog posts I will very roughly outline a few suggestions. Pick and choose or ignore.
1.) Start Reading blogs.
Whether it's in education, or your own interests, simply becoming more familiar with the ever increasing blogosphere would be a great investment in time. There are is a blog for every interest, some of my personal favorites are Bad Astronomy, Pharyngula, Skepchick, and Skepticblog, all of which keep me loosely up to date on science and critical thinking and any Internet memes that happen to be flying about. And if a student asks me an off-the-wall question about the Moon Hoax, I might have a chance of answering it.
Educationally, the following is my current list of education-based blogs that I'm reading:
- 2¢ Worth
- A Plethora of Technology
- always learning
- Change.org's Education Blog
- Countdown to Teachhub
- Dangerously Irrelevant
- Generation YES Blog
- HeyJude
- Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech
- James McConville
- Moving at the Speed of Creativity
- open thinking
- Practical Theory
- The Fischbowl
- The Thinking Stick
- Weblogg-ed
I also have my own blog, which is either linked in this email, or you're reading this article in it. It contains such amazing advice I find I often have to hid it amid poor grammar, spelling and logic just to ensure Blogger isn't overrun with readers.
You may have noticed a particular theme running through my recommendations, vaguely along the lines of science-based resources. On the Internet, however, if you can think of a resource, somebody else has either invented it, or written about it. From the Blog "Making Teachers Nerdy", I found a much better list than my own: "Educational Blogs You Should Be Investigating", covering a wide variety of interests, plus 50 Must-Read Up and Coming Blogs by Teachers, and focusing on educational technology, check out 20+ Must-Read Education Technology Blogs. Beyond that, it would be useful if, having found some great blogs in your own subject area, share their recommendations here in the comments section for everyone else.
So, when your significant other mentions that some chore needs to be done, or certain relatives need visiting, you can slump your shoulders slightly and claim that you've already got some critical work to do for next year. And then snuggle up with your laptop/desktop and some good reads. My wife is probably far too busy to actually read my posts, so I should be able to still get away with this for some time yet.
2.) Write your own blog.
You didn't think blogs created themselves did you? And you don't think your own thoughts are important enough to publish? Nonsense. If everyone had that kind of attitude, the Web wouldn't be the kind of place it is today!
Seriously, even if you never intend to blog, investigating how it's done is useful in and of itself. I know of two people that write private blogs, viewable only by themselves, as it can never be 'found' in the house, and is accessible for writing anywhere there is an internet connection. I write a family blog with family photos that's only my immediate family can see. Whether you write for an audience of one or one million, or are even just exploring the process, set up an account and start.
There are many free alternatives for blogging, obviously I'm most familiar with Blogger, but there's also Live Journal and WordPress as two others that immediately come to my uninformed mind. Like always, somebody else has already created a great list of 40+ Free Blog Hosts.
Of course, I can't quite leave it at that without a word of warning. As will be true of anything that involves people putting content on the web, rather than just receiving content, use good judgement. As a rough guideline, if you wouldn't want to see it attributed to you on a public billboard, don't put it on the web.
Remember, nothing suggested is mandatory. If you find one blog with one article that was useful, you're good.
Cheers,
Ron Neufeld
Canada's Best Boarding School
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