During the holidays I was lucky enough to attend the Ulearn conference (where I even got to meet a few of you face to face!). Thanks to the Core team for yet another great Ulearn! Common themes dealt with at the conference were around how quickly the world is changing and how students are changing also - the term Digital Natives was mentioned often. When it came to workshops I attended several that dealt with Google Apps. I was particularly interested in the development of Google sites, particularly when these are intergrated with other Google apps such as embedded forms and calendars.
As any good conference does, I came away with many questions.
How are we meeting the challenge of faced paced change and meeting the needs of increasingly diverse learners (I refuse to believe they are indeed all digital natives). Also, how are we starting to integrate all of the great software out there? Are you embedding apps into your wikis? Embedding forms or calendars or videos into moodle?? It feels like it is no longer about one software, but more about the effective integration of a whole range of tools and strategies to meet specific teaching and learning needs. Your thoughts (and own questions) are invited!
The last week of last term was a quiet week on the ICTs in English forum.
The following is the post I sent out during that week (any other recommendations about who to follow is also invited!).
One idea that seems to be going down well is the idea of using Twitter as a PLN (Personal Learning Network). All this really means is that you create a Twitter account for yourself and simply "follow" people or companies that can keep you updated and deliver you relevant links and readings to your home page.
You don't even have to "tweet" yourself if you don't want to. I have only recently got back into Twitter, and have found that it is really effective as a kind of personal professional development tool that can be completely tailored to my own needs and interests. Below are some of the people and places I have been following:
Considering Twitter as a PLN!
Who you could follow on Twitter:
MinEducationNZ Ministry of Education NZ
Edscapes PPTA Professional
edconnectnz Edconnect
tedtalks TEDTalks Updates
TKINewZealand Te Kete Ipurangi
educationweek Education Week
TeachersTV Teachers TV
netsafeNZ NetSafe NZ
SirKenRobinson Sir Ken Robinson Los Angeles
As any good conference does, I came away with many questions.
How are we meeting the challenge of faced paced change and meeting the needs of increasingly diverse learners (I refuse to believe they are indeed all digital natives). Also, how are we starting to integrate all of the great software out there? Are you embedding apps into your wikis? Embedding forms or calendars or videos into moodle?? It feels like it is no longer about one software, but more about the effective integration of a whole range of tools and strategies to meet specific teaching and learning needs. Your thoughts (and own questions) are invited!
The last week of last term was a quiet week on the ICTs in English forum.
The following is the post I sent out during that week (any other recommendations about who to follow is also invited!).
One idea that seems to be going down well is the idea of using Twitter as a PLN (Personal Learning Network). All this really means is that you create a Twitter account for yourself and simply "follow" people or companies that can keep you updated and deliver you relevant links and readings to your home page.
You don't even have to "tweet" yourself if you don't want to. I have only recently got back into Twitter, and have found that it is really effective as a kind of personal professional development tool that can be completely tailored to my own needs and interests. Below are some of the people and places I have been following:
Considering Twitter as a PLN!
Who you could follow on Twitter:
MinEducationNZ
Edscapes
edconnectnz
tedtalks
TKINewZealand
educationweek
TeachersTV
netsafeNZ
SirKenRobinson
eschoolnews eSchool News
DigistoreNZ Digistore
Software4LnrNZ
Interfacemag Interface Magazine Auckland, New Zealand
shiftingthinkng Shifting Thinking
NZCERPress NZCER Press
CoreEducation Core Education
nzcurriculum NZC
Another good technique is to have looksy at who like-minded educators are following, and poach from their list! You could check out:
ClaireAmosNZ That's me!
virtuallykaren Karen Melhuish
DigistoreNZ
Software4LnrNZ
Interfacemag
shiftingthinkng
NZCERPress
CoreEducation
nzcurriculum
Another good technique is to have looksy at who like-minded educators are following, and poach from their list! You could check out:
ClaireAmosNZ
virtuallykaren
fionagrant Fiona Grant
Let me know who you recommend from the Twittersphere (including yourself!) and how you use it.
Let me know who you recommend from the Twittersphere (including yourself!) and how you use it.
2 comments:
A perspective..."There are no natives here..."
Thanks for your great "twitter follows" starter list! It's all about getting people started with PLN, teachers of French too will benefit from reading your post.
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