10 ways to help students develop a PLN… There has been some discussion lately about the precise meaning of the term PLN. I’m not sure why it matters actually. Like any other word in the dictionary (!), it has more than one definition and might mean different things to different people… My PLN is my ‘personal learning network’. As teachers begin to let go of ‘the old way’, to relinquish control and allow kids to take responsibility for their own learning, students too need to develop a PLN. 10 ways to support students in developing a PLN… Start simply… 1. Provide opportunities for students to engage with their in-class PLN. 2. Don’t do all the talking. 3. Model what good learning looks like and sounds like. 4. Let them work with students from other classes. 5. Create global connections. 6. Invite speakers from your local community. 7. Invite parents to share in the learning, in person, or by commenting on class blogs and wikis. 8. Start a class blog. 8. Whoever’s in your PLN, you need to know how to communicate. 9. 10.
Wiki:Main Page Instructor: Howard Rheingold Stanford Winter Quarter 2014 Mondays, 11:15-2:05, Room TBA Course Description: Today’s personal, social, political, economic worlds are all affected by digital media and networked publics. Viral videos, uprisings from Cairo to Wall Street, free search engines, abundant inaccuracy and sophisticated disinformation online, indelible and searchable digital footprints, laptops in lecture halls and BlackBerries at the dinner table, twenty-something social media billionaires, massive online university courses -- it’s hard to find an aspect of daily life around the world that is not being transformed by the tweets, blogs, wikis, apps, movements, likes and plusses, tags, text messages, and comments two billion Internet users and six billion mobile phone subscriptions emit. Learning Outcomes: Diligent students will: Cultivate an ability to discern, analyze, and exert control over the way they deploy their attention.Learn to use social media tools for collaborative work.
Curation as a tool for teaching and learning (with images) · hbailie “A curator is an expert learner. Instead of dispensing knowledge, he creates spaces in which knowledge can be created, explored, and connected.” (Siemens, 2007). According to Boyd (2010) curators help people to focus their attention on the most relevant and important information streams. Librarians, journalists, and teachers have always curated: they evaluate, select, collect, present, and promote material for their users, readers and students; but these days curation is becoming an important activity for a broad range of people and for a variety of reasons and purposes. So what is curation?
Connectivism: Connecting with George Siemens | Educational Discourse See on Scoop.it – Educational Discourse George Siemens, a main proponent of connectivism and a social media strategist with the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute (TEKRI) at Athabasca… Kelly Christopherson‘s insight: I’ve been doing a great deal of reading and thinking about digital citizenship. One of the main ideas that I keep thinking about is that digital citizenship, and to an even larger degree citizenship, it is about connections. See on www.youtube.com If you enjoyed this article, Get email updates (It’s Free) Teacher as Curator: Capture and Organize Learning Materials with Web 2.0 Tools - Ted Curran.net In the 21st Century world of abundant free educational content, teachers are challenged to shed the role of “content area expert” and adopt the role of “content curator”. Part of the shifting role of teachers from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side” means spending less time lecturing at students and more time supporting them to successfully access and think critically about content. Content curation is nothing new to teachers– whether it’s maintaining a great classroom library, hurriedly photocopying a great article you found, or organizing PDFs and YouTube videos in your online course, a big part of the job is creating an organized path through the best materials you know of. The objective here is to build up an enduring library of high quality web links, videos, articles, and online activities that “fit together” and are easy to consume as a collection. It’s not the tool, it’s how you use it The first step of curating good content is finding it. Capture Where You Read Like this:
Michael Hyatt | Intentional Leadership 20 Tips for Creating a Professional Learning Network - Getting Smart by Miriam Clifford “20 Tips for Creating a Professional Learning Network” by Miriam Clifford first appeared on the InfomED blog. Networking is a prime form of 21st century learning. The world is much smaller thanks to technology. Just this month, a tech news article showcased how Harvard scientists are considering that “sharing discoveries is more efficient and honorable than patenting them.” As educators, we aim to be connected to advance our craft. Learning networks are based on the theory of connectivism, or learning from diverse social webs. What are some ways to grow your PLN and improve the quality of your interactions? 10 Tips For Using PLN’s Keep the spirit of collaboration as your driving force. 10 Tools & Strategies for Establishing a Productive PLN Use Diigo, Evernote, Pocket, or Delicious to bookmark links. PLNs are a powerful change agent.
Background – Development Impact and You The Development Impact and You toolkit has been specially designed for practitioners to dive straight into action. Yet the tools presented here are grounded in existing theories and practices of innovation, design, and business development. This section offers a ‘bird’s eye view’ of the main pillars underlying the theory and management of social innovation and for each of these topics we have provided references for further reading. 1. Innovation is sometimes written about as an almost magical process. Although every real innovation is a complex story of loops and jumps, there are various stages that most innovations pass through. The seven stages are: Opportunities & challenges: These include all the initiating factors like a crisis, new evidence, inspirations etc. which highlight the need for change. Generating ideas: Most of the ideas you come up with at first won’t work. Developing & testing: New ideas are always helped by robust criticism. Further reading on the stages of innovation:
The Best Tools for Nurturing Your Personal Learning Network If you're an educator of any level, you know the importance of maintaining a great personal learning network, a lifeline in the digital age. It doesn't matter if you're a teacher, administrator, or any other form of educator—a personal learning network sustains and nurtures you in many ways. Developing your own personal learning network gives you flexibility to get information on your own terms. You're no longer only limited to just the professional opportunities that your school provides. Social media and other online tools have broken down the barriers to learning; this is just as true for teachers as it is students. You have much more control in your own professional development nowadays. Let's look at some of the finest avenues for support in sharpening your career and craft. 1. Wabisabi is a global community of educators just like you. 2. LinkedIn is currently the world's biggest professional network. 3. Twitter is a great starting point for teachers. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Additional Reading
IS UNIT WEB SITE - IPTS - JRC - EC Starting date: May 2009 Duration: 18 months Client: European Commission, Directorate General for Education and Culture, Unit Jean Monet, partnerships and relations with agencies (EAC A3) Objective: It is acknowledged by policymakers and researchers that a fundamental transformation of education and training throughout Europe is needed, not only to maintain existing levels of education and training in the population, but also to develop the new skills and competences required if Europe is to remain competitive and grasp new opportunities. To direct policy action appropriately, a methodologically sound approach is needed, outlining possible visions of a European knowledge society in 2020 and indicating emergent novel competences and ways of acquiring them. Key findings: The central future learning paradigm is characterised by lifelong and life-wide learning and shaped by the ubiquity of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Key challenges: Consultation and Dissemination Activities
3 Steps for Building a Professional Learning Network Published Online: December 31, 2014 —Photo by Sean Chaffey, via Flickr Creative Commons By Brianna Crowley Recently, a colleague asked me, “What is a PLN?” She was taking a graduate course on technology implementation and was required to form a “PLN” using digital communities and tools. But after signing up for various wikis, Nings, and virtual professional groups, she was overwhelmed: “Do I have to actually log in and check all of these things on a regular basis?! Her question prompted me to articulate how I define a professional learning network (PLN) and how I have shaped my own. A professional learning network is a vibrant, ever-changing group of connections to which teachers go to both share and learn. Teachers build PLNs the same way they build any network: by investing time to find and connect with people they trust, who have shared interests and passions. Although technology is often the vehicle to build connections, a PLN is about relationships. Step One: Find the Professionals
What does an instructional designer do? In the past few months, I’ve been asked by a number of different people what an instructional designer does and how to get into the field. I love instructional design because it is a field where I am constantly learning and I have a great variety in what I do. I use so many different skills—writing, web design, graphics, collaboration, planning, plus of course how people learn. Since this question has come up more than once, I thought it would be useful to collect all the information I have emailed people privately and post it here. This will be a series of posts over the week or so. I have about five pages of emails to revise for this format, so it’s waaay too long to put into one post. So without further ado, here’s the first installation: What does an instructional designer do? I’m emphasizing “experiences” here deliberately, even though that isn’t always how others would describe the job. How do we do that? Update: Other Posts in this Series Free Subscription
Personal Learning Networks for Educators: 10 Tips - Getting Smart by Guest Author - EdTech By Dr. Mark Wagner I often begin my workshop on personal learning networks (PLN) for educators by asking these questions: Who is in your learning network? Who do you learn from on a regular basis? Who do you turn to for your own professional development? I usually ask these questions at conferences, which are frequently only annual events – and rare treats for many educators. Learning to Network and Networking to Learn 1. 2. 3. 4. Networking Tools and Anecdotes The four tips above are the core activities of building a personal learning network, and they can be applied using various tools to connect with others online. 5. 6. 7. 8. Final Thoughts These final two tips will help keep your initial frustrations in perspective, and help you avoid the temptation to focus on unimportant metrics as you grow your network. 9. 10. Note: For more on this topic, you might also want to explore Jeff Utecht’s book Reach: Building Communities and Networks for Professional Development.
Instructional Design