Take some time to look over this chart and see what you can do for the “digital natives” that you teach. As always contact your ITRT to help you with your New Year’s Resolution!!
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Reflections and Resolutions...
As you round out the 2010 calendar year and leap into 2011, I challenge you to reflect on your experiences as an educator and resolve to try something new in the coming year. All of us have heard of Bloom’s Taxonomy in our education classes in college, but I bring you Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy (click on the link for a more detailed explanation).
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
TMI (Too Much Information)
Too much information can be crippling when trying to stay up-to-date and in-the-know at work and at home. As teachers, we check our school email and personal email. We listen to our school, home, and cell phone voicemail. We read professional blogs, hobby blogs, news blogs, and our Facebook pages. We get all this information from our desktop, laptop, iPod, iPad, Kindle, Droid, Blackberry, etc. That is information overload!
Recently, the ITRTs attended the VSTE Conference, (VA Society for Tech. in Ed.), in
Too much information has been a problem since Gutenberg’s Printing Press got started in the 1400’s. As professionals, we can organize ourselves one tool at a time and let the term “TMI” roll right off our backs.
My first suggestion would be to Keep it Simple and Straightforward (KISS). Think about Marzano’s instructional strategy of using advanced organizers to help us sort or organize information. We can use the same organizational concept ourselves that we use with our students. In this case, the organizing tool is Google Reader. Google Reader will aggregate all of the information we like to read about online and put it in one spot for us to read when we are ready.
RSS Feeds and Google Reader
You might have seen the RSS icon in your web browser or web page and not realized what it was before now.
Tim Stahmer sums up RSS feeds easily when he explains that email is known as a “push” technology and RSS feeds are known as “pull” technology.
When you open an aggregator, it goes out to each of the sites you have in your list and pulls in the new information found on the RSS page. It then makes everything in all the feeds you’ve selected available to you in one place.
Think about it this way. RSS is like email in that both bring lots of information into one place making it easy for you to read and process.
Email, however, is a “push” technology. You have no control over who sends a message and when it’s sent. Someone else pushes information to you.
RSS, on the other hand, is a “pull” technology. You decide the source of the information and when you want to receive it. You are in control. And, since you choose the sources, there’s no spam.
Can't access YouTube at school? Click here for the CommonCraft Video: RSS in Plain English.
As always, contact your ITRT if you need help getting started. This is a great first step to get organized and in control of the information you consume!
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Developing a PLN...
A PLN (Personal Learning Network) consists of everyone you interact and exchange information with. The difference between a PLN now, as compared to even a decade ago, is how easily one can add to his or her PLN using online tools. For example, occasionally I hear about technology tools and integration ideas from my fellow ITRTs and from the educators in my building but unfortunately, our chances to communicate regularly with such differing schedules is tough. Most of the time, and I would estimate that number to be close to 90
%, my online PLN is the sources of my information because that information is available 24/7.
%, my online PLN is the sources of my information because that information is available 24/7.Why develop a PLN? Well, a strong PLN offers many benefits to educators including professional development as you learn from content-area specialists; a way to locate resources, new lesson plan ideas and technology tools to enhance learning; the opportunity to work with others in your field around the globe; and a way to keep up to date on the latest education news.
There are many ways to build your online PLN but too much at one time can be overwhelming. To get started, I highly recommend adding the following three resources to your PLN:
1. Twitter (micro-blogging)
I have to admit I was a Twitter doubter for a long time. Statements limited to 140 certainly could have no value in my busy life and really, is it really a necessity for me to know who is at the grocery store? But I decided to try it out one day and I was hooked. Let me also add that I do not use Twitter to its fullest; I have posted "tweets" (140 character statements) only a handful of times (and there are lots of others just like me - here is a great, short article about being mainly a Twitter reader). But just reading my Twitter feed for a few minutes a few times a week has been incredibly valuable. Not only can you follow specific educators from all over the world (a few favorites are on the Twitter feed in the right column of this blog), but there are education specific conversations you can follow... focusing on the level you teach and/or the content as well as general education chats (this page can be overwhelming but I want to list it here for future reference; your ITRT can help direct you to specific chats). Click here for a blog entry on ways to use Twitter in your classroom. Let your ITRT know if you are interested in more hands-on training in using Twitter.
2. Delicious (social bookmarking)
There are several places to store bookmarks online but one that is quite popular and that I use regularly is Delicious (delicious.com). Once you are logged in you can start saving the URLs of the sites you want to store, tag them by topic, enter comments about the site, and even see how many other Delicious users have bookmarked that same site. The "social" part comes in because your bookmark list can be seen by others (though you can control this if you don't want that to happen) which means you can see other's bookmarks. There is a search feature where you can search by tags or by what is popular. If you find other educators teaching the same topics or grade level that you are teaching, their bookmarks will often be just as helpful as the sites you have bookmarked yourself, with a little less time involved researching! Here is a link to my Delicious bookmarks for you to check out!
There are many ways to build your online PLN but too much at one time can be overwhelming. To get started, I highly recommend adding the following three resources to your PLN:
I have to admit I was a Twitter doubter for a long time. Statements limited to 140 certainly could have no value in my busy life and really, is it really a necessity for me to know who is at the grocery store? But I decided to try it out one day and I was hooked. Let me also add that I do not use Twitter to its fullest; I have posted "tweets" (140 character statements) only a handful of times (and there are lots of others just like me - here is a great, short article about being mainly a Twitter reader). But just reading my Twitter feed for a few minutes a few times a week has been incredibly valuable. Not only can you follow specific educators from all over the world (a few favorites are on the Twitter feed in the right column of this blog), but there are education specific conversations you can follow... focusing on the level you teach and/or the content as well as general education chats (this page can be overwhelming but I want to list it here for future reference; your ITRT can help direct you to specific chats). Click here for a blog entry on ways to use Twitter in your classroom. Let your ITRT know if you are interested in more hands-on training in using Twitter.
2. Delicious (social bookmarking)
There are several places to store bookmarks online but one that is quite popular and that I use regularly is Delicious (delicious.com). Once you are logged in you can start saving the URLs of the sites you want to store, tag them by topic, enter comments about the site, and even see how many other Delicious users have bookmarked that same site. The "social" part comes in because your bookmark list can be seen by others (though you can control this if you don't want that to happen) which means you can see other's bookmarks. There is a search feature where you can search by tags or by what is popular. If you find other educators teaching the same topics or grade level that you are teaching, their bookmarks will often be just as helpful as the sites you have bookmarked yourself, with a little less time involved researching! Here is a link to my Delicious bookmarks for you to check out!
3. Following Blogs
Does the thought of having your own blog seem overwhelming? Then start by reading them! Many educators have blogs that are worth reading to collect new ideas, collaborate, or sometimes just to feel like you are not the only one battling a certain issue in your classroom. One blog I highly recommend for everyone to read is Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day. He may not teach the same course, content, or level as most of us, but his posts are always full of new ideas and web tools appropriate for many of us and his blog is easy to navigate to find topics he may have posted about previously. And if you go to his blog and subscribe for email updates, you will receive his blog posts via email, once a day, so you don't even have to remember to go to the blog! Subscribe here by entering your email address!
Another blog I highly recommend for ideas for all levels is the one at Learning Today. Again, you can enter your email to subscribe right on the main page and the blog entries will come to your email account. "Reading" a blog this way is very manageable... you will get minimal emails from subscribing and if the topic doesn't fit, just delete the email. If the topic fits, you may find a new, exciting, or even better way to meet the needs of your students!
And the last blog to get you started is Free Technology for Teachers. This one might be more overwhelming for educators not totally comfortable with new technologies but on the main page he has listed resources for content areas that you might find useful. Again, remembering to check blogs can be hard so have the blog entries sent to you... click here to enter your email address!
And of course, you should subscribe to this blog too! Find the "subscribe" box on the right, type your email address, and hit enter!
If you have a great blog you think others would be interested in following, can offer comments or suggestions on using Twitter, or use a social bookmark site, leave a comment on this post so we can all learn from each other!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Welcome to our Website!
Welcome to the LCPS Instructional Resources blog, created by the Instructional Technology Resource Teachers at Louisa County Public Schools! We are Amanda Hurd (Jouett Elementary School, Thomas Jefferson Elementary School), JoAnn Marshall (Moss-Nuckols Elementary School, Trevilians Elementary School), Kate Straley (Louisa County Middle School) and Liz Goodwin (Louisa County High School).
Our blog entries each week will feature technology tools and tips to enhance educator productivity and/or classroom instruction. We will also continuously update the links across the top of the page with online resources ~ ones for specific content areas and others that will work in a variety of areas. Don't forget to also check the live Twitter feed for ideas from other educators around the planet!
Feel free to contact us at anytime with suggestions, ideas, or questions. You can do this by leaving a comment on a blog entry or by clicking on one of our names over in the right hand column.
This blog is designed in Blogger... a great tool for educators to use to keep parents informed about what is happening in the classroom with the ability to not only write about activities but to embed videos, podcasts, pictures, and many other projects designed in programs we will be sharing in the coming weeks! Come back soon!
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