Teacher Reboot Camp » professionaldevelopment

Connect To The World Through Twitter (Presentation)

Shelly Terrell — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 21:29:27 +0000

Recently, I gave a Keynote for educators new to developing a learning network through Twitter. Please share the following resources with those new to Twitter in order to encourage them to join our passionate educator community. This PRESTO presentation is an updated version of my previous one, How to Build A PLN Using Twitter.

In order to be cutting edge and stay relevant in any career field, we need a Personal Learning Network (PLN)! A PLN consists of individuals who we choose to take part in our professional development. These individuals share resources, exchange ideas with us, offer support, and collaborate with us. Twitter is one of the quickest ways to establish a PLN. However, many educators new to Twitter may not understand how the process works. In the beginning, I used to only update then I discovered how to engage with others in order to build a strong PLN.

Do you have 3 minutes, 20 seconds?

You probably do not have the time to read all the Twitter materials available, but do you have 3 minutes and 20 seconds? In the PRESTO below, I share with you how to connect with educators worldwide using Twitter. A PRESTO, PRESent your TOpic, is a video presentation style created by Heike Philp. The speaker creates a PowerPoint of 10 slides that auto-advance every 20 seconds.

More Resources

by Oliver Widder, Geek and Poke, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 License

Help other educators new to Twitter by sharing these resources through your presentations or workshops:

My Twitter for Beginners Wiki filled with video tutorials and a 6 step guide to getting started on Twitter.
My Keynote SlideShow: Connecting in a Globalized World Through Twitter.
Youtube channel with video tutorials on using Tweetdeck, Delicious, RSS Readers, EchoFon, RSS Flash G, and more!
EchoFon- Free Iphone app that acts as a browser for Twitter
RSS Flash G- Tweet your favorite RSS feeds in seconds, share with others on Google reader, save in Delicious

Challenge:
Share these tools with educators in your school! I’m sure they have 3 minutes and 20 seconds!

You may want to subscribe to receive regular updates.

Edublogs 2009 Awards: Inspiration in Education

Shelly Terrell — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:14:07 +0000

My blog is relatively new and has become much more than I ever would have expected. I owe this to the various people and organizations I am nominating below for the Edublogs 2009 awards! I have learned by their examples. My knowledge as well as my passion for learning and collaboration I owe to them. Several others not on this list have also been influential.

My Nominations

Best individual blog- Kalinago English, Karenne Sylvester’s blog, has everything a blog needs from passionate posts to technology tips to controversial stances against the injustices in education! I’d also like to nominate Terry Freedman’s ICT in Education blog. He continues to write thought-provoking posts and provides useful tips for educators through his blog and other multimedia channels.

Best individual tweeter- Steven Anderson, @web20classroom, is an incredible representative of what an educator on Twitter should be. He is a close friend. He really cares about education and shares resources as well as helps as many educators through Skype. He does this in addition to working as the technology specialist for 19 schools. @Tomwhitby continues to inspire thought-provoking conversations which proves the 140 character limit is not limiting at all!

Best group blog- The Educator Royal’s Treatment, which is managed by Ken Royal, is a daily stop for me! I anticipate all the posts and have really had some great moments reading the various posts!

Best new blog- Ken Wilson has written one of the most compelling blogs that often reads like a novel. I would also like to include Marisa Constantinide’s blog, which is rich with teaching instruction advice and Tamas Lorincz’s blog which is thought-provoking and makes the educator deeply self-reflect.

Best class blog- Gelincik Grubu is a kindergarten class blog created by teachers in Turkey. They showcase the incredible work the children do which is an inspiration!

Best student blog- Adora Svitak is a 12 year-old prodigy who writes thought-provoking pieces such as how she feels befriending her principal on Facebook to poetry!

Best resource sharing blog-Several of my original posts began with links from Larry Ferlazzo’s blog. Rarely do I go a week without referring to a link within a post I found through Larry! I would also like to include Ozge Karaoglu’s blog, which has become a wonderful source of information to various Web 2.0 tools! Cybraryman also has a great website for nearly every subject imaginable.

Most influential blog post- Burcu Akyol has created one of the most influential blog series for educator’s professional development, Spread Your Knowledge. The Spread Your Knowledge series featured posts written from leading experts. Topics covered include getting published, how to tweet, creating a PRESTO, doing a presentation, blogging, and creating your own educational materials. I would also like to include the post by Scott Mcleod about Leadership Day 2009 which inspired several bloggers globally to blog about effective technology practices on July 12th.

Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion- #Edchat is a discussion which has included over 400 educators, parents, student teachers, and administrators. Through #edchat various educators were able to debate a topic with the incredible education author, Alfie Kohn. I am honored to collaborate on this great project with Tom Whitby and Steven Anderson. I would also include #teachertuesday which is managed by TheEngTeacher who also manages to feed teachers’ blogs on Twitter.

Best teacher blog- Chickensaltash not only shares various resources in his blog, but he also shares how his students collaborate with other schools around the world. Chickensaltash’s work with Cool Earth is inspiring to educators. His work with schools in Peru and his travels as an educator in the rainforest earned him a nomination for the education Oscar’s.

Best librarian / library blog-Library Tech Musings by Gwyneth A. Jones is a treasure trove of web 2.0 tools and technologies for libraries. The blog is also highly visual.

Best educational tech support blog- If I need to know how to use a specific technology I visit David Kapular’s blog, Technology Tidbits: Thoughts of a Cyberhero. David has also published 6 free e-books to explain the various resources in his blog and has developed a wiki dedicated to these materials.

Best elearning blog- Elearning Learning has each of my favorite elearning blogs in one spot.

Best educational use of audio- Breaking News English by Sean Banville has over 1o00 audio files to support over 1000 current events. Each audio file is relevant, interesting, has supportive text, and exercises to accompany it! Moreover, Sean has pair activities for each lesson and even asks educators what news they would like him to do an audio file and lesson for!

Best educational use of video / visual- Russell Stannard has created several teacher training videos on various websites and nearly every web 2.o tool imaginable! TEFLClips by Jamie Keddie hosts various videos and accompanying lesson plans.

Best educational wiki- Ozge Karaoglu’s wiki reviews several web 2.0 tools in depth, provides excellent uses of Glogster, and showcases the incredible ways she uses web 2.0 tools with children.

Best educational use of a social networking service- The Educator PLN ning was created by Tom Whitby and continues to be one of my favorite places to travel daily to mingle with over 1500 educators! Additionally, Steve Hargadon’s Classroom 2.0 ning is a thriving community of nearly 35,ooo educators.

Best educational use of a virtual world- Edunation, which is currently run by The Consultants-E, is the place educators go to teach lessons, create educational materials, and attend conferences in Second Life. This mass of three virtual islands has been a safe haven for educators and free for all to use. It is also an invaluable source of professional development.

Lifetime achievement- Sue Waters has been the most influential individual in helping me develop my blog this year! All her websites, wikis, blogs, webinars, individual help, and virtual chocolates have helped make me pass the 5 month blogger mark!

New Categories

In the spirit of writing in nominations and candidates, I’m including the following categories and hope these will be accepted or considered as categories for next year. I hope giving awards for these categories will inspire more educational projects in these areas:

Best Blog Series- my nomination is for Burcu Akyol’s Spread Your Knowledge series.

Best Virtual Conference- Heike Philp’s Virtual Round Table Conference had over 400 participants worldwide, 49 guest speakers, and brought together some of the best educational panels and experts for free! Educators even won over 3000 Euros worth of prizes and the entire conference took place online!

Best Example of an Educator Digital Portfolio- Ozge Karaoglu once again has shown what an excellent educator portfolio should look like. I encourage you to read her series on creating your own digital portfolio.

Best Classroom Collaboration Project- Arjana’s high school students from Croatia have made a deep connection with Monika Hardy’s students in Colorado. They even celebrated Thanksgiving together and collaborate frequently on a ning.

Best Webinar- Jo Hart, Phil Hart, Sue Waters, and Stony River bring us great webinars about various educational topics week after week for free! They deserve more than virtual chocolates. How about a virtual award?

Best Blog Carnival- Karenne Sylvester had an impressive blog carnival which included a slideshow of blogs and a poll. The Edge of Education carnival hosted by We Teach, We Learn was one of my favorites as well with quotes from each blog!

Absolute Best Readers in the World- You!

Challenge:

Make your Edublog Awards Nominations! Which sites and blogs have been influential for you this year?

You can always subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

Cool Sites & Tools

Shelly Terrell — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 01:30:29 +0000

Every week, I share my favorite finds in this weekly series! Test these tools out. If you want instant access to these fantastic websites connect with me on Google reader!

IGNITE: A New Way to Present

In a previous post, I shared my Pecha Kucha Youtube playlist. I now have added an IGNITE playlist. IGNITE is Tim O’Reilly’s adaption of a Pecha Kucha except the entire presentation is only 5 minutes. I found this IGNITE video, Adapting with Technology, by Mark Argo on the Speed Geek Learning website which was tweeted by Diana Dell. Find more great IGNITE presentations by visiting the Speed Geek Learning website.

PinDax: Online Message Board

Sign-up for the free message board tool, PinDax! This message board service allows you to embed sticky notes with videos and audio files. You can also access your message board on your smartphone or embed it in a blog! Below is the demo board displayed on the website! Have fun exploring! A similar tool to Wallwisher, with a better design and features.

Kindersite

While attending the Virtual Round Table Conference, I learned about Kindersite. Educators and parents can register for free and have access to various tools for young learners learning various languages from English to French. These resources include comic strips, games, lullabies, songs, stories, and more.

Planbook Edu for Creating Online Lesson Plans

PlanbookEdu is a tool for online lesson planning. Register for a the free basic service and have access to the premium service for 30 days! Some of the features include the ability to attach files, check spelling, export to Word or PDF, access from anywhere, and share with others. The template looks very easy to use and I believe this is a great tool to get educators to lesson plan. Each year, educators repeat the same lessons so this tool with additionally save an educator lesson planning time in the long run.

Google Wave Index of Education Waves

Have you got Google Wave fever? I do and have added several people to various education waves. However, you can follow various education waves yourself by visiting the Wave Education Index. There are several waves listed to choose from, including some of my favorites:

Even More Cool Links

For a list of cool websites, check out Ozge Karaoglu’s series, Faves of the Week!

Challenge:

Use one of the tools! Leave a comment if you found the tip useful or if you noticed a problem with the tool! Join one of the education waves if you are on Google Wave!

You may want to subscribe for free to receive regular updates, leave a quick comment of how one of these tools helped you, tweet this, or share this series with your Personal Learning Network (PLN) through your RSS reader or Delicious account.

Attend a Virtual Pecha Kucha

Shelly Terrell — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:32:52 +0000

You may have heard about the excitement of a Pecha Kucha event. I had the privilege of attending a live one this past Saturday in Paris at a TESOL conference! I recorded all the presentations on my Youtube Channel. Watch Pecha Kucha presentations by Burcu Akyol, Ken Wilson, Lindsay Clandfield, Gavin Dudeney, Jamie Keddie, and Penny Ur. I laughed and learned so much simultaneously. Pecha Kucha has given breath to conferences that bore you with typical PowerPoint presentations!

What is a Pecha Kucha?

A presentation technique invented in Japan by architects Klein and Dytham. About 14 presenters or less deliver back to back PowerPoint presentations that must total 20 slides auto-advancing every 20 seconds. The PowerPoint presentation is only 6 minutes and 40 seconds so the content is highly visual and meaningful. For this reason, these events are gaining popularity at several conferences and have now entered the education conference scene! Watch Heike Philp‘s Pecha Kucha about a Pecha Kucha to find out more!

You’re Invited!

Do not miss the opportunity to attend the online Pecha Kucha event this Friday within a web conferencing platform! You will see at least 5 presentations back to back from Burcu Akyol, Sean Banville, Neil Chambers, Marisa Constantinides, and me. I will also be moderating the event and I can guarantee you will have an incredible experience. Topics include Twitter, teaching adults English, preventing Twitter Spam, using the the news as a learning tool, and tips to teaching children.

Time:

Fri 13 November 2009, 9:30pm GMT

Paris 10:30pm, Dubai 1:30am (Sat), Tokyo 6:30am (Sat), Sydney 8:30am (Sat), Los Angeles 1:30pm (Fri), New York 4:30pm (Fri)

For more information visit this website, http://virtual-round-table.ning.com/events/pecha-kucha-night

Hope to see you there!

If you like this post, you may want to check out Burcu Akyol’s recap on the TESOL Paris conference!

Challenge:

Attend one of the FREE Virtual Conference events on Thursday or Friday!

What did you think of the Pecha Kucha videos? Leave a comment below!

Cool Sites: Videos, Wiki Tool, Docs…

Shelly Terrell — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:34:23 +0000

Every week, I share my favorite finds in this weekly series! Don’t forget to test these tools out. If you want instant access to these fantastic websites connect with me on Google reader!

Teacher Training Videos

Have you ever wanted to show a video tutorial to your teachers? Have you ever needed a video tutorial on the best practices of using a tool? With Russell Stannard‘s site, Teacher Training Videos, you will find a video tutorial on several tools and topics. The videos are categorized into different sections. Now you can take charge of your own professional development or share the website with a teacher new to using technology or teaching English language learners!

Easy Wiki Tool

I love the ability to drag and drop boxes, which is why Intodit.com is the fastest and easiest tool to use to create a free wiki! It took me five minutes to sign-up, choose a template, and start dragging and dropping pictures, movies, widgets, and music. The space wiki shown displays the type of quality which can be achieved. I like this tool much more than PBworks and Wikispaces.

Youtube Channel: Pecha Kucha

I have been working on my Youtube Channel and have decided to share it with you. The latest playlist includes Pecha Kucha videos I recorded at the recent TESOL Paris conference. Watch amazing presentations from Lindsay Clandfield, Burcu Akyol, Ken Wilson, Jamie Keddie, Gavin Dudeney, and Penny Ur! Categories include:

Video Tutorials
Twitter
Education Technology
Education Inspirational
Pecha Kucha
English Lessons

Zoho Integrated with Google

When Zoho first came out, several educators debated which was a better service Zoho documents or Google Docs. Both tools can be used by students to create PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets, and word documents. Now, you can use both tools for free, because Zoho allows you to sign-up with your Google account and integrate your Google Docs. Matthias Heil gave me this tip!

Even More Cool Links

For a list of cool websites, check out Ozge Karaoglu’s series, Faves of the Week!

Challenge:

Use one of the tools! Leave a comment if you found the tip useful or if you noticed a problem with the tool!

How to Win Friends and Support People on Twitter

Shelly Terrell — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:50:17 +0000

Guest post by Neal Chambers

Most technologies that are easily adapted and made widely popular are usually improvements of things that already exist. Mail replaced messanger services; the telegraph replaced mail; email replaced mail; Google Wave (might) replace email. It is the same with Twitter. Twitter replaced online chat which (kind of) replaced parties. There are some key differences that Twitter adds to the table though. For example,

A) You can join anyone’s party, and anyone can join your party. If you have your feed unprotected, and you do have your feed unprotected right?

B) You can throw anyone out of your party if you need to. You usually don’t but it’s always nice to have the one button option of doing so.

C) People from around the world can join your party.

D) The party is going on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

E) People are asynchronously enjoying your party. One conversation can last a day, weeks, or even months.

With all these changes in mind, it’s still important to understand that it’s a party and it’s your party. You should keep in mind to be successful you need to be a good host. Let’s go over the basics:

Send Out Invitations

photo: pareeerica

Every good party starts with inviting people over for a drink. This can start with listing yourself in the various Twitter directories out there on the Internet. I just recently published an article on the matter – 14 places to find good quality followers. There I have listed all the major directories and follower recommending websites. It should be a great place to jump start your following.

There are other options though. Something that I regularly do is look at my friend’s ‘following’ list. These are Twitter users that your friend has actually chosen to follow. This usually comes up with better results than the ‘followers’ list because they might be spammers. When looking at this ‘following’ list, be sure to click through to the user’s profile and read their bio, last few tweets and check out their blog if they have one. Then add a few people you like.

Greet your Guests

photo: RuTemple

Okay, now the party is starting. Guests are arriving at all times of the day and night because after all this party is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s important to try to acknowledge any newer followers. It might be good to greet them and ask them where they are from and make sure they don’t need a drink or something.

There is a current trend right now to do this with an automatic DM or auto-DM. These can be okay if A) it’s not overly generic (e.g. Thanks for the follow! Look forward to your Tweets!) or B) You offer free stuff or more information about yourself through a link.

Personally, what I TRY to do is look through a user’s profile and ask a semi-personalized question like – How is teaching in Detroit? or I love the layout of your Teaching blog. This way they know I’m not just sending them a generic auto-DM. It shows you are actually taking the time to get to know someone which is one principle behind having a PLN.

Introduce Everyone

photo: ItzaFineDay

You know those fancy parties where you show up and some guy in a fancy suit announces to the party that you’ve arrived? Don’t worry if you’ve never been invited to one, because now you can live out that experience on Twitter. When someone logs on to Twitter the first time, chances are they don’t know anyone at the party. They’ve come because they heard it’s where all the action is or where all the cool people are (that’s us right?).

So, it’s good to give them a proper welcome by introducing them to all of your following. Be sure to include a relevant snippet about them in the Tweet and their username. You can do this as soon as they get online or wait for #teachertuesday or #followfriday.

Help the Confused-Looking Guy/Gal in the Corner

photo: CarbonNYC

From time to time, people will need help. After all, that might be one reason why they came to the party in the first place. You can help these guests out by filtering your Twitter stream with a ‘?’. This will give you all the Tweets of people asking questions. Sometimes you will come up with a few rhetorical questions, but more often than not you’ll find a friend in need. This is what having and building a PLN is all about, spreading information and helping others solve problems.

You can also use a neat little service called twithive.com This web app allows you to filter your stream by questions, conversations, links or retweets. It also packs in a few more features like Tweet clouds, which are clouds of the most popular terms for your stream. I find it offers you a way to look at your Twitter stream from a different angle.

Pop your Head in When it Counts

photo: meddygarnet

Since the party is going on all the time, it’s literally impossible to be at the party at all times. Many have tried and all have failed. Don’t be a Twitter addict. You have to pop your head in every once in awhile and make sure every one is still enjoying themselves. The key to this is to know exactly when to do this. There are a couple metrics you can look at to see when your following is online.

1) Click counts – If you use a URL shortener (and you should) then you’ll be able to track your click counts. I really good service for this is j.mp (AKA bit.ly). Take note of when your links are being clicked on the most and what links are more popular.

2) Tweetstats.com – This site can give you some stats on when a particular user is online. It breaks down tweeting frequency by days of the week and even hours of the day. You might want to check the stats of people with a big following and see when they are online the most. However, the more tweets someone has made the longer it will take for tweetstats to compile the data.

Enjoy the Party

photo: Wendy Piersall

It’s important to remember that Twitter is just a tool and not a lifestyle. It’s okay to step away from time to time and take a break. It’s also okay to let your personality and opinions shine through and add to the melting pot. Don’t take it too seriously, it’s party after all.

If you are on Twitter be sure to join me @nealchambers. I’ll see you at the party! Also, if you haven’t already, please take the time to fill out a short survey, I promise it’s painless.

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Neal Chambers has taught in Japan for just about 5 years despite graduating in video production. He is currently teaching at a private English conversation school in Osaka. He is a regular teacher contributor at EnglishSpark.com where he writes the series Teacher Stumpers about difficult and odd grammar. He enjoys attempting to climb mountains without injuring himself.

PRESTO: How to Build A PLN Using Twitter

Shelly Terrell — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:21:30 +0000

In order to be cutting edge and stay relevant in any career field, you need a Personal Learning Network (PLN)! A PLN consists of individuals who you choose to take part in your professional development. These individuals share resources, exchange ideas with you, offer support, and collaborate with you. Twitter is one of the quickest ways to establish a PLN. However, many educators new to Twitter may not understand how the process works. In the beginning, I used to only update then I discovered how to engage with others in order to build a strong PLN.

If I only knew then what I know now…

You probably do not have the time to read all the Twitter materials available, but do you have 3 minutes and 20 seconds? In the PRESTO below, I share with you how I continue to build my PLN using Twitter.

What is a PRESTO?

PRESTO, PRESent your TOpic, is a video presentation style created by Heike Philp. In a PRESTO, the speaker creates a PowerPoint of 10 slides that auto-advance every 20 seconds, which means the entire presentation is only 3 minutes and 20 seconds long. You can do the PRESTO on any topic you wish and Heike will coach you through it in an online meeting platform. Creating a PRESTO with Heike really prepares you for video presentations. During the process, I learned about lighting, nonverbal communication, voice, pitch, and presence. Therefore, I recommend you read Heike Philp’s post for more information about PRESTO and how you can take part in this type of professional development.

More Resources

by Oliver Widder, Geek and Poke, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 License

To make your Twitter adventure much easier, please visit these links and resources:

To learn more about each role, check out my guest post on Burcu Akyol’s blog, Spread Your Knowledge: Join Twitter.
Stacy Bodin’s website, Twitter Help for Educators, with over 300 educators to follow!
Karenney Sylvester’s Teacher’s Guide to Twitter!
Youtube channel with video tutorials on using Tweetdeck, Delicious, RSS Readers, EchoFon, RSS Flash G, and more!
EchoFon- Free Iphone app that acts as a browser for Twitter
RSS Flash G- Tweet your favorite RSS feeds in seconds, share with others on Google reader, save in Delicious

Challenge:

Make a PRESTO or try one of the tools mentioned in this post!

You may want to subscribe to receive regular updates, leave a quick comment of how one of these tools helped you, tweet this, or share this series with your Personal Learning Network (PLN) through your RSS reader or Delicious account.

Cool Sites: A Little Help from my Friends

Shelly Terrell — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 11:21:10 +0000

What do I do when my lesson is out of tune? The Beatles said it best, “I get by with a little help from friends.” Several of this week’s cool websites came from my Personal Learning Network (PLN)‘s blogs that I subscribe to in my RSS reader! I love my PLN who continually shows me new tools to breathe some energy into some of my lesson plans! What I love about finding tools in a blog post is that educators have the tendency to show the reader how to integrate the tool into the curriculum. I love reading the ideas and seeing the examples! I hope you will find some new blogs to follow with this post. If you missed the previous weeks of this series, just click here.

Scrapblog

Janet Bianchini revealed this wonderful tool for students to create visual scrapbooks or digital stories. Students will have all sorts of fun through embedding videos, integrating music, and choosing various transitions! Check out the Scrapblog example below, Imagine by Little_M. The example shows a type of lesson for English language learners!

LiveBinders

Pilar (aka Dreamer) revealed this website which allows students or teachers to create 3D binders. The binders are similar to 3-ring binders with tabs. Under each tab the teacher or student includes several links and resources. Check out this Web 2.0 tools binder by Lesley with an extensive list of resources!

Web2.0 Tools

DomoNation

Kelly Tenkely has one of the best educational technology blogs! She has even created her own song. I love her blog, because she shares various tools and explains how to integrate each effectively into the curriculum. This week she shares the DomoNation website. Domo is a funny character from Japan who my niece adores. In this website, students create their own stories with animations. They choose the backdrops, characters, props, music, special effects, movements, and create the dialogue! Read Kelly Tenkely‘s blog for more information.

Ziipa Links

I found some great links via Ziipa that I had to share.

Two great vocabulary sites that would help students improve their vocabulary are Weboword and WordAhead. Students remember the definition of difficult words by looking at cartoons that illustrate the meaning of the word through Weboword. Students can watch videos at WordAhead to discover the meaning of a word. Some of the cartoons and videos can help English language learners, but several of the words are very difficult.

With FunFacer, students can create animations, videos, photos, and games! They just upload a picture and have fun. Unfortunately, not every scene is student friendly so you may want to use this tool with precaution.

Clipgenerator has the potential of being one of my favorite video tools. This service is similar to Animoto where you can create a fantastic video for free. First, choose from a variety of popular music. Then upload images and video. Add some text and complete! The set-up is easy, but the uploading of the video took some time then failed. This tool is still in beta so there are several bugs. I noticed that I could not upload pictures and instead typed in the image url from my Flickr account. Also, some songs would not allow me to upload any images. Right now this tool would not be stable enough to be used with students but when the bugs are fixed, students will love it!

Challenge:

Subscribe to the blogs mentioned in this post to receive fantastic tips on how to integrate various educational technologies into your curriculum!

To Use Edtech or Not: That is the Question

marisapavan — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:12:40 +0000

Part of the series: Investigating International Edtech Issues (Argentina)

When Shelly Terrell kindly invited me to write an article on Edtech in Argentina for her blog, I immediately got enthusiastic about it. Having Shelly in my Personal Learning Network (PLN) is an asset for me as she adds a lot to my professional growth and technological literacy.

Educational System in Argentina

First of all, I would like to describe the educational system in Argentina. It is unified throughout the whole country and obligatory from the age of five to the end of secondary school (about 18 years old). It is structured in four levels:

Initial education: from 45 days to 5 years old, being this last year compulsory
Primary education: from 6 years old to 12 years old (obligatory)
Secondary education: up to 18 years old. It is obligatory and includes two cycles:
- Basic cycle
- Knowledge-oriented cycle: different areas of knowledge
Superior education

The educational system comprises 8 modalities: technical-professional, artistic, special (for disabled students), permanent for young people and adults, rural, intercultural-bilingual (indigenous groups), aimed at imprisoned people, delivered at home or in hospitals.

Current Situation

Secondly, I want to briefly outline the current educational situation in my country. In the past, we boasted one of the best educational systems in Latin America but it has been diminishing its splendour decade after decade as a result of inappropriate educational policies. Nowadays, education is affected by the marked difference between the rich and the poor, which results in an enhancement of private schools and the struggle of public education to survive and offer good opportunities. This fact opposes UNESCO’s world motto: “Education for Everybody.”

The problem is complex and it is necessary to develop strategies that:

Re-state teachers’ pride and joy of teaching and responsibility for the results of the teaching process
Encourage students’ interest in learning
Foster the family’s commitment to contribute to their children’s school success
Make political leaders come to an agreement as to the ways of offering guarantees for the fulfilment of legal policies in education.

Edtech

In general, at schools in my country, educational technology is seldom used in the classroom despite the existence of a Website like the following: http://www.educ.ar/educar/index.html. Teachers, students and parents use the Internet to do research for projects and to find out information.

In the case of Language Schools, the situation is different. Language teaching, especially English, has always been at the avant-garde. I am a teacher of English as a Second Language and I work in a Language School. In this school where English is taught to students at different ages, from babies to adults, and from different levels, computers are used as part of the English class for presentation and practice of the English language. Nevertheless, the ESL teachers I work with feel they are not updated enough as to helpful tools to be used in the classroom. For that reason, I am organising some meetings with them so as to share with them everything I’ve been learning thanks to my PLN, which is made up of members who generously share everything they know as to educational tools, hints and tips.

My PLN list one

My PLN list two

Making a Difference

Thanks to Twitter and to the valuable members of my PLN, I have become acquainted with several tools that have proved useful for learning and teaching English. This year I have created wiki spaces for my classes where I upload tasks to develop the strategies my students need: listening, speaking, reading and writing in a way that is encouraging and highly motivating. In these wiki spaces, my students have folders where they can upload the tasks they do for me to check and they can write messages to me when they have doubts. They were vital during the month we had to interrupt classes in Winter as a consequence of the spread of H1N1 virus (swine flu). During that month, I was able to send tasks for my students and not have to stop the learning process.

Parents have expressed their gratitude to me for having created these sites and are very enthusiastic about their children’s possibilities to go on doing extra practice at home through a means that is more motivating for them. The language school administration has supported me at all times on this development and has congratulated me at all times for this contribution.
I also work as a one-to-one tutor at home and I have also built a wiki space I share with my private students for them to continue practicing at home. This is my website. If you want to visit it, please ask me and I’ll gladly include you among the users.

Technology plays an essential role in the learning process as it offers the possibility of adding variety to classes and of making new facts more memorable for students.

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Marisa Pavan holds degrees in translation, interpretation and teaching from Instituto Superior Nº 28 “Olga Cossettini”, Rosario and has two decades of experience in teaching English as a Second Language. She has over 6 years experience working as a freelance English-Spanish/ Spanish-English translator. She is skilled in languages, translation, interpretation, training students to develop listening, speaking, writing and reading strategies, CAT tools and communication. You can also find Marisa on Twitter, @mtranslator.

A Plan for a Pre-service PLN by Tom Whitby

Shelly Terrell — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:12:06 +0000

Before I start out on my explanation of fast tracking pre-service teachers with Personal Learning Networks, I would like to Thank Shelly Terrell for the opportunity, the help, and the location for this presentation. Shelly has been a large influence in my PLN, and a good friend.

Teaching Pre-service Teachers

Over the last six months I have developed a Personal Learning Network, which has influenced my educational philosophy as well as my teaching methods. I am an adjunct Professor of Education at St. Joseph’s College in New York. This semester I am working with sixteen students preparing to do their student teaching assignments in secondary English. For their preparation I am giving them the gift that keeps on giving, their own Personal Learning Networks.

As I have explained in other blogs I have developed and now maintain an extensive PLN of several thousand educators. It has become as much a part of what I do as teaching. I spent a great deal of time developing it, and I also spend a great deal of time learning from it. My pre-service teachers certainly could take as much time as they would like to learn from their PLN’s, but there is not enough time in the semester to really develop one. Students cannot learn from what they did not yet have. I needed a plan.

My Plan

I was not worried. I was dealing with the youth of America. They are tech savvy and eager to learn. I only had to mention two or three applications they needed to know and we would be off and running. To help out I created a Ning site and loaded it with many of the sources that I gleaned from my own PLN to help guide these students through their training to student teach. I was confident that I could accomplish this with the Ning site, Twitter, and Delicious. I would keep it simple. Of course you remember the best made plans of mice and men…

Surprises

On the first day of class I discovered first hand three applications that Tech Savvy American youth have never seen-Ning, Delicious and Twitter. Only one of the sixteen students had even seen Twitter. No one knew what a Ning was, and forget about Delicious. To complicate things further I broke my own cardinal rule as an educator. I had no plan B. I loaded the Ning site with video tutorials and plodded on. I needed cooperation from everyone and I needed it fast.

A Great Gift: A PLN

My friend Shelly Terrell volunteered to gather the names of my students as they opened their Twitter accounts. That was a great way to introduce collaboration on Twitter and provided a needed deadline for them to get on Twitter. My next step was to get them education followers who they could follow in turn. I once proposed that a great gift for Administrators would be a preloaded Twitter Account. Since that proposal, I believe that I have altered my opinion. The preloaded account does not enable the owner to understand the process. I believe I have found a better way.

As each one of my students opened an account I introduced them to my PLN. The PLN responded to my request to follow each of my students. The Twitter Timeline being what it is gave each of my students a different set of educators in each PLN. I am now going to refer my PLN to a list of all of my students so they can follow en masse. My students in turn will follow back. At the end of this process each student will have acquired a vetted PLN, since it would have come from educators I have gathered and trust.

Any educator with an effective PLN can do the same thing for an administrator. This is a blueprint for involving anyone in this process which is a growing movement among educators. This demonstrates the power of the Personal Learning Network in its ability to help people accomplish goals. Until the next best thing in technology comes along this social media is providing a platform for information exchange, discussion, and collaboration. Those are important components being offered globally to educators to promote learning.

Help Tom Whitby’s pre-service teachers by being a part of their PLN! Just add the names by clicking on this button!

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Tom Whitby is a Professor of Education in Secondary English, Linkedin group founder and owner of Technology-Using Professors, TWITTER-Using Educators, as well as NING-Using Educators.

Read Tom Whitby’s PLN Blueprint series to learn how to develop an effective PLN.