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Teachmeet Clevedon
5 Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) for Educators
Flickr: Editor B Professional development and networking are vital in any field, and that’s especially true for educators. Whether it’s coming up with fresh ideas for lesson plans and classroom activities, seeking mentorship and support from veteran educators, or cultivating resources for technology integration or for meeting state standards, teachers need one another’s expertise. That’s why working with other educators in personal learning networks (PLNs) has become as important in an educator’s day as the time he or she spends teaching in class. Below is a short list of PLNs that already exist, followed by some resources to help teachers build their own The Educator’s PLN is a Ning site (or online platform for creating your own social network) that facilitates connections between educators.
Editor’s note : This is Part III of a guest post written by legendary Silicon Valley investor Vinod Khosla , the founder of Khosla Ventures . In Part I , he laid the groundwork by describing how artificial intelligence is a combination of human and computer capabilities In Part II , he discussed how software and mobile technologies can augment and even replace doctors. Now, in Part III, he talks about how technology will sweep through education. In my last post , I argued that software will take over many of the tasks doctors do today. And what of education?
Will We Need Teachers Or Algorithms?
Transforming online networks into communities is the key to successful social networking and best practice sharing. Photograph: www.alamy.com It's strange looking back now at when I first started teaching 10 years ago. I moved a long distance to take up my first post, and so the only teachers I knew in my new area were the ones who worked in my new school. When I left three years later, this was still the case. In those three years, the only teachers I discussed teaching with were those who happened to occupy the same staff room as me.
Online communities are transforming professional development for teachers | Teacher Network | Guardian Professional
I feel I need to start by saying that I am not questioning the need for lesson observations. They’re a crucial part of developing our professional practice and ensure T&L is quality assured. No, what this post is really concerned with is asking what we hope to achieve by observing teachers. For some time now I have been musing on the purpose of lesson observations as well as considering new ways to encourage staff to develop their teaching practice. This has been merrily percolating at the back of my brain for some time but has now, I hope, turned into something a bit more coherent. Firstly, I had hesitantly and clumsily begun to connect the process of lesson observation with the thinking that underpins effective AfL.
What’s the point of lesson observations?
Yesterday Kidsmeet Blackpool took place at Hawes Side Primary School and I thought that people would be interested to hear about it. The explanation of a Kidsmeet on the official site is KidsMeet is a concept developed from the success of TeachMeet . KidsMeet events provide children with the opportunity to speak about their learning in a positive environment.