PLN/PLC

"If a teacher is not connected, it is by choice not by circumstance."

This quote struck me as being a perceptive examination of todays educators. Seriously, with so much access to resources through online platforms there is little excuse for not being connected professionally. 

Viki Davis contributed a journal article to Edutopia to discuss what a Professional Learning Network/Community is and its value in education.

Torrey Trust defines the PLN (PDF) as "a system of interpersonal connections and resources that support informal learning." The PLN is a cornerstone of modern connectivist theories of learning as advocated by George Siemens and Stephen Downes.

Some of my favorite PLN's are Google+ Communities like: Connected Classrooms, and Instructional Technology Integrators and Coaches. In addition to those, I have found tremendous value in Twitter and twitter chats. My handle is @erod129 (please follow and I will be glad to follow back), and I take part in chats like: #personalizedPD, #edtechchat, #haysedchat. Through these chats, not only do I gain valuable insights through experts and specialist in the field, I make connections that I can rely on for ideas and advise. Here is a directory that lists chats and when they are scheduled.

I think the last way that I try to stay connected is by using an app called feedly. This is a way for me to curate journals and articles that are of interest to me. You can bet that Edutopia is at the top of my list of RSS feeds. Using Feedly I do not miss any post from my favorite online journals. When you find a great online journal, you can search for it in feedly and add it to your list. Feedly will keep track of new posts and add them automatically. There is an option to share your feeds with others, but it is an option when you upgrade from the free version.

I would love to know how you stay connected. Please feel free to share your experience and ideas on how to grow your PLN/C

Hays CISD Digital Learning Team

I would like to give a shout out to my director, Jamie Locklin for his skill in forming and maintaining a cohesive and supportive Digital Learning Team. If you are interested in great ideas and ways to integrate technology into your school/classroom, he is the Jedi Master, which, I guess would make me his Padawan (I'm good with that). I am honored to be given the opportunity to learn and to help my district become more tech integrated.

When I applied for this position I was sure that there would be many more other highly qualified people that would be considered. I was shocked when I was contacted for an interview, and then truly humbled when I was offered the position. Jamie told me that the committee was looking for a veteran teacher that had strong background in pedagogy and content; someone that was familiar with technology but eager to learn more and easily trainable. Also, someone that people could easily relate to others, and someone that was personable. I was very honored that I fit those descriptions.

It was not an easy decision to give up 13 years in the classroom, leave comfort of familiarity, and begin in a new direction. Jamie made it easy. He is one of the most patient, and supportive supervisors I have ever worked with.

One of my favorite aspects to the work environment that I am in is the collaborative aspect that we have. When we meet, we bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. I am unceasingly impressed with the quality of interactions that we have. We learn from each other, and we are able to create products that help to support the learning of our teachers and students. I can witness the difference that we make to teachers and I know that translates into student success.

So, if you are an administrator, and you are hoping to build a team, please make sure that you consider the personalities of those you seek to hire. You may have the most skilled person in front of you, but if they can not take a joke then you have undermined your teams cohesiveness and therefore their productivity.

I can not over emphasize the importance of a teams interdependence and cohesiveness. This was never more evident to me when we planned PD for all administration in our district. Our Superintendent and all principals were in attendance. As a team we joined together to support the learning of all those in the room. Not one of us were experts in everything presented, but together there were at least one or two that could address any question about the technology that was being used that day. I am proud to be part of the team, not only because it went very well, and we received lots of positive feedback, but because I knew that I was not alone. I knew that I could rely on my team mates and my director to support me if a question or problem arose that I was not able to address.

I am excited to see our team grow and experience more success as we support the needs of teachers and students in Hays CISD. 

Digital Badges

My team is interested in creating and implementing digital badging under the guise of gamification. A team mate sent out a request for information to the Google+ community:  Instructional Technology Integrators & Coaches. I would like to thank him and the people that responded to the post. We have been able to compile a list of resources and considerations based in large part to this thread. Here is a link to the discussion thread, which is still growing. I am excited to delve into this and begin creating our own system of digital badges.

Here is what I have been able to discern what might suit our needs and options that might work for us:

1) We can create our badges in Google Draw. This is a simple and easy process, very user friendly.
2) We want the badging system to be visible and readily accessible so we might create badges that can be displayed outside each teachers classroom.
3) We are going to find out if the badges we create can be managed in our Learning Management System (LMS)
4) We need to decide how these badges are going to be issued, and if we can issue and kind of transferrable PD credit.

We were also referred to a Google+ Badging Community that has a great amount of resources for those seeking more information and resources.

I think we have a great start, and I look forward to how this might provide recognition for teachers that go above and beyond, and hopefully instill a little internal motivation for those who might be on the fence about trying something new.

TED Talks

A friend of mine told me a story about the response to a question asked during an interview. He asked the interviewees, "What is your favorite TED talk? Some knew what he was referring to others said that they really enjoyed Ted, and all of what he spoke about. If you do not know about TED talks and podcasts, don't be embarrassed. I had no idea a couple of years ago, but now that I do, I am hooked and love the thought provoking talks that I listen to from insightful minds!

TED, stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful, talks in about 18 minutes or less. TED began in 1984 and as a conference where Technology, Entertainment, and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics- from science to business to global issues - in more than 100 languages. I have listened to many talks. The one characteristic that I enjoy about TED talks is the level of thought provocation. The talks focus on topics that are engaging and the speakers are authorities in their fields. I highly recommend TED talks if you are interested in listening to some of the most cutting edge perspectives on global issues.

For me, the educational talks are of most interest. Here is a link to the educational talks that are listed on the page.

By the way, in my interview, I mentioned that my favorite TED talk was from Sir Ken Robinson, "Do Schools Kill Creativity?"

I hope you enjoy and I hope you learn something that will make you think about something more deeply.

App Smashing "Cam Scanner" with "Show Me"

A teacher wants her students to be able to take a picture of a historical figure and discuss letters that they wrote or literature that they are directly tied to. Her class is composed of mostly English Language Learners (ELL's) so there is great value in her students reading about the historical figure, writing a script to be read, and the actual voice recording of them reading so they can hear what they sound like. This was a GREAT opportunity to put together some apps that would suit the goals of her project perfectly. I decided to show her "Show Me" (Here is the link to the apple app store). The reason I chose this presentation app as opposed to all others is because it is free, and can house multiple drafts at once. This was important because she has about 16 students that will work in partners. So, we needed to be able to begin at least 9 drafts at one time. It was just what we needed, especially since there was a build in voice recorder and ability to take pictures and add them to the document.

As they continued to work I noticed that there were aspects of the picture taking that I would not want in a presentation. I showed them an app called Cam Scanner. This app is amazing for enhancing photos that are taken and making the presentation quality better. For instance, if there is a glare it will remove it. If the picture was taken at a skewed angle and has some extraneous background then it will attempt to correct it and eliminate the undesired background. You can turn a quick snap of a document into presentation grade images. I highly recommend that if you do not have the pdf. of or digital form of a file and only have the physical version and do not have time or the desire to reproduce it then Cam Scanner is your "go to". Needless to say, the kids were pretty impressed.

Twitter Chats

#PersonalizedPD, #edtech, #edtechchat, #haysedchat.... ever wonder, "What's with the hashtags?" There is a good reason other than people trying to be trendy (what is what I always thought).

Not until recently did I understand that power of twitter as a professional. As I slowly began immersing myself in this virtual world of tweets and twitter chats, I finally realized that there is a world of resources and minds that are ripe for the picking. You can find some of the most prominent people in a field on twitter. They are sharing their insights to anyone willing to read 140 characters or less. These "tweets", in and of themselves can be profound, but they can also lead to other great resources and other communities. For example, I began on twitter, which let me to Google+ communities, which also led me to Podcast channels, which encouraged me to register on feedly and begin my own blog which you are reading right now!

I was very fortunate to come across this calendar and chat list managed by:

@cybraryman1

@conniehamilton

@thomascmurray

@cevans5095

@jrochelle

https://sites.google.com/site/twittereducationchats/education-chat-calendar

This page give the time and date of the educational chats registered, as well as a brief description and possible link to a home page for more information. 

Here is a youtube video clip (less than 2 minutes) of how twitter can work for you- the educator.

This clip discussed the value of a PLN formed on Twitter.

Here are a few tips if you decide to participate in a twitter chat.

1) to find a chat, use the search option and enter the #......

2) usually there will be a moderator and they will post questions in the format of Q1 for question one.

3) if you want to respond use the notation: A1 for an answer to question 1, and don't forget to include the hashtag of the chat so your comment will be included in the discussion.

4) have fun, follow and be followed!

I hope that you seriously consider joining twitter and engaging in a twitter chat some time. Being a connected educator is a priceless commodity these day that will inevitably benefit your students in a tremendous way! 

Google Drive

If you are using Google Apps for Education (GAFE) in your school you have surely recognized the power of Google Drive. If you have not had a chance to work with it let me give you a little information as to why you should save your files in your very own Google Drive.

Here is a brief youtube clip that will help you better see how you can use Google Drive and what it can do for you. Also, here is a link to a document that was produced by Google to help you with the basic options and features.

When I was introduced to GAFE, it was the first thing that was taught. Rightly so, Google Drive is one of the main selling points for any teacher or school that is considering the implementation of GAFE. Google Drive in a school district allows for unlimited storage capacity. In my district, we have personal drives housed on a server that we could save files. We have limited access to these files through software called stoneware. There were limitations associated with this access. With Google Drive, you can access your files from any computer or any devise with ease.

One of the most powerful tools that is provided to you with Google Drive is the sharing option. If you want to share a document or file with someone the process is instantaneous. There is no need to use email as a means to share files. There are also options with the way that you want to collaborate with the person that you are sharing with. For instance, if you only want the person to be able to view your document, change the share settings. Google Drives inside a district account can also be protected by establishing limitations for who has access to the files in yours or your students drive.

Google Drive is a very powerful tool to help improve work flow, collaboration, and organization. I highly recommend it to any educator!

This is a snapshot of the Google Dive Administrative Options Tool Bar. It enables you to generate a link to a file/folder, view share options, preview the document, remove file, and more actions. You can customize how the file/folders are displayed, organized, and view the actions history, as well as settings of your drive.

  Your Google Drive will have a navigation panel where you can select which part of your drive you want to display. There is a section where you can view all document that have been shared with you, all your photos that are uploaded to your drive, the recent documents that have been uploaded, favorited docs, and trash. Documents are not completely eliminated until you remove them completely from your drive via your trash folder.

Share options are an important consideration because there are times that you may want someone to be able to collaborate and edit the document that you share, and sometimes you do not want them to alter the file. For example, you can share a document with your class and not allow them to edit it. They can make their own copy instead. This link can be used to imbed the URL of the document located on the drive.

There are additional options that you can use to move a file, rename, view details, manage the various versions of a file or document, make a copy, or download to your hard drive.