By Tom Whitby

This was a comment that I posted on a discussion that extended to this post.

Time and funding are becoming old chestnuts in the Tech ed discussions that have been going on for over 20 years now. With Web 2.0 tools available to teachers, funding is far less an issue as a software concern. Hardware has come down so much in price, that it is less of a factor than it has ever been. Consequently, funding should become less of an issue in the discussion.

A big stopping block for educators is always the time factor. It is a legitimate concern that must be considered. It also needs to be placed in perspective in regard to being a question of professionalism. We chose Education as a profession. As a profession we reap many benefits and experiences beyond that which a simple job would offer. There are also huge responsibilities that come with professions.

As educators the commodities we deal with are knowledge and learning. Neither of those commodities stopped being generated the day we received our degrees or teaching certificates. As long as knowledge and learning continue to grow, we, as professionals, have a responsibility to keep up or at least stay relevant.
I would not go to a cardiologist who has not kept up to date on procedures in the operating room. I would not employ a Lawyer who was not familiar with recent laws that might affect my standing. Why would I send my child to a teacher who has not stayed current with the world for 10 years, 5years. 2years, or even 6 months in this age of knowledge growing exponentially on an hourly basis.

Technology is a tool of education. As educators we do not teach computers, we use them. Our students learn from that modeling and also employ the tools to be lifelong learners. As knowledge doubles every six months we need to spend some time keeping up with what we can to maintain relevance. We must remember we are not teaching for our past or even for the present, but rather, for their future. That fact forces us as professionals to spend some time learning skills and developing competencies in areas that were not even a dream as we were younger students learning and growing. Time goes on as we continue to learn and grow, if we are truly educators teaching for the future needs of our students.

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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. Join over 1500 educators in several active groups and discussions in his newest ning, the Educator PLN!

Read Tom Whitby’s PLN Blueprint series to learn how to develop an effective PLN. Read Tom Whitby’s other thought-provoking posts on this blog!

If you enjoyed Tom’s post, you may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

December 1st edition!

My guilty pleasure is…. Twitter… as you can tell by this weekly series, What Did They Tweet?

Kid’s Digital Stories

@JohnMikulski’s students have created beautiful digital stories using Storybird. Storybird is one of my favorite applications that you can read about here! John describes the project which has students write a short story in which the protagonist discovers something he/she would have been better off not knowing. Please read the stories and leave these students comments on their stories. Below was one of many of my favorites!

The Tower on Storybird

Using Scenarios in Your E-learning

This brilliant Slideshare presentation provides a wonderful reflection of how we design our instruction. Although the focus is on e-learning, this really relates to the instructional design of all courses. Cathy Moore challenges us to reflect on our instructional methods to answer the question, “Are we teaching our students to solve problems?” This presentation was tweeted by @EthanKuniyoshi.

View more documents from Cathy Moore.

Project Peace for Students

@ddeubel has created an international global project for students everywhere! If you are looking for an easy project to connect your students with other schools worldwide, then you may want to check out the details here. Join the ning, choose 1 of 8 songs about peace, download the song cards, have students decorate them, then make a video! Here’s an example of one of the video projects.

Find more videos like this on PROJECT PEACE

Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference

One extremely valuable part of Second Life is the various free conferences you get to attend. @barbsaka, an amazing educator who has attended several Second Life conferences, tweeted about the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference taking place on March 12-13, 2010. Last year, over 3800 educators attended the event. Below is an example of what you can expect. If you feel comfortable with your Second Life skills, the conference is looking for volunteers, paper submissions, and presentation proposals. If you are new to Second Life, please join the SLife is Life ning where you will find educators like @barbsaka and me willing to show you around.

Dec. 4th Students Save the Rainforest!

This Friday, December 4th, at 12:25pm GMT, your students and you have the opportunity to ask Javier Dril Bustamente, a native of the rainforest, questions about saving the rainforest via twitcam. DM @chickensaltash to participate in the project. This will be a wonderful opportunity to get students involved in a project that helps them reflect about their responsibility to protect the planet.

Add the people in this post to your PLN by using this mass Twitter tool. Just copy and paste this list!

ddeubel, JohnMikulski, ethankuniyoshi, barbsaka, chickensaltash, larryferlazzo, kalinagoenglish

If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe for FREE to receive regular updates!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:

• Monthly Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• Monthly Tweets by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.

Challenges:

Leave a comment for the children’s stories or have your students leave a comment! Join many of the other collaborative projects in this post! Attend the free Virtual Worlds Conference in March!

What do you think of these tweets? Leave a comment below!

Thanksgiving edition!

Have you ever come across a tweet you wanted to share? Check out this weekly series, What Did They Tweet? to discover valuable resources! Once again I have changed the format to provide you with the best way to see the resources. Please leave a comment to let me know if you prefer this format!

Tweetsgiving

What better way to celebrate this tweet series and Thanksgiving than by participating in Tweetsgiving! For more information, read this post. Basically, you tweet what you are most grateful for between Nov. 24th through Nov. 26th and use the hashtag, #tweetsgiving. You can also donate to the Epic Change organization which puts the proceeds to helping underprivileged students around the world as the video shows below. This event shared by @willrich45.

TweetsGiving 2009 from LittlePurpleCow Productions on Vimeo.

Student Cyberbullying Project

A great way to teach students about cyberbullying was tweeted by @technologytoday who had his students create a Wetpaint website dedicated to cyberbullying resources. The students displayed several powerful images and videos dedicated to stopping cyberbullying. Additionally, the students included a discussion forum!

Creating Phrases in Wordle & Screen Capture

Wordle is an amazing educational tool and @cheimi10 shared an incredible tip via Twitter. Read his post to find out how to create phrases in Wordle. I’ve included his video tutorial on how to screen capture the Wordle, because it is one of the best video tutorials I have seen!

A Quote for Educators

I’m adding my own tweet to the mix, because it included an image from Anne Hodgson’s presentation at the BESIG conference in Poland. I have included Anne’s slide which includes this quote by her co-author, Carole Eilerton, “Break a lesson into pebbles that the teaching and learning stream washes over and polishes.”

Dilbert & Twitter

Simfin tweeted this hilarious Dilbert comic about Twitter!

New Father Alert!

Our great friend, @TamasLorincz, announced he became a new father to a baby girl, Sophie! Stay tuned for his Twitter pics and baby tweets! Don’t forget to congratulate him!

Add the people in this post to your PLN by using this mass Twitter tool. Just copy and paste this list!

willrich45, technologytoday, cheimi10, simfin, annehodg, tamaslorincz, larryferlazzo, kalinagoenglish

If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe for free to receive regular updates!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:

• Monthly Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• Monthly Tweets by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.

Challenge:

What are you thankful for? Why not share on Twitter with #tweetsgiving?!

What do you think of these tweets? Leave a comment below!

Third week of November edition!

Have you ever come across a tweet that you really wanted to discuss and share with others? Here are the ones that grabbed my attention this week. Check out the rest of this weekly series, What Did They Tweet? to discover some valuable resources and links! Go to the original mindmap!

Kids Videos to Help the Environment

Getting children involved in solving world problems is always a fantastic idea! Therefore, I really enjoyed these infomercials by first graders who list ways to help the environment. I discovered these videos through Stacy Bodin, a wonderful sharer of resources. Below is one video, but I recommend you watch the rest of the videos by visiting @grade1′s website.

10 Ways to be an Inspirational Teacher

In this brilliant post, Terry Freedman, delineates 10 ways to be inspirational. These are what Terry suggests, please read his post for an explanation of each!

1. Throw out the syllabus, at least one lesson a week
2. If throwing out the syllabus for a day is too risky, then throw it out for 10 minutes
3. Use the pupils
4. Use a photo
5. Turn the tables
6. Work with other teachers
7. Invest time in reading
8. Definitely visit other schools to see what they’re up to
9. Go to conferences
10. Join a club

Spoken Word Podcasts

Giselda dos Santos shared this link to Spoken Word podcasts. I am a proponent of podcast resources for learning, because a majority of students have Ipods. This makes this technology very accessible to a majority of our learners. Moreover, there are several free podcast resources available for education. Spoken Word is one of these databases that has a variety of podcasts, vodcasts (videos), and slidecasts available on various topics. I urge you to explore this website!

Video Games & Learning

Carl Dowse tweeted this slide show presentation, Video Games The Learning Revolution Tesol France, by Paul Maglione. One of the reasons I enjoyed this tweet so much was because I wasn’t able to make the presentation. I think gaming is growing as an accepted tool for learning. I have read various stances on the issue and think debate is warranted on the topic. Do you believe video games are useful learning tools? Look at Paul’s slide show and see if you feel any differently!

Stephen Fry’s Take on Social Media

Sue Lyon-Jones tweeted this post on Stephen Fry’s take on social media. Although Stephen Fry is an actor, I think he has a lot of insight on the new generation of students who will grow up with social media. Read the rest of the article to find out more and watch part two of the interview!

Add the people in this post to your PLN by using this mass Twitter tool. Just copy and paste this list!

stacybodin, terryfreedman, carldowse, paulmaglione, giseldasantos, esolcourses, larryferlazzo, kalinagoenglish

On the mindmap, click on the earth icons to follow the links to the Twitter profiles, blogs or websites! You can also make this mindmap smaller or larger and move it around. If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe for free to receive regular updates!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:

• Monthly Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• Monthly Tweets by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.

Challenge:

Share the list of 10 ways to be inspirational with fellow teachers or have your students create their own infomercials to improve the environment!

Do you believe video games are useful educational tools? Leave a comment below!

Second week of November edition!

Here are the tweets that grabbed my attention this week. Check out the rest of this weekly series, What Did They Tweet? to discover some valuable resources and links!

Videos to Bring Languages Alive

Ken Royal runs an incredible website which is updated daily with several interesting articles by various educators. In this piece, Isabelle Jones, shares advice on how to effectively use videos to motivate students to learn languages. Isabelle also lists many video search engines and video tools. Below is the video wall from one site mentioned, Blinkx, which is a highly visual search engine that allows students to view what world events are taking place in real time.

Skype an Author

Patrick Larkin is one of the most progressive principals I have met on Twitter. One way to motivate students to read is by allowing them to interview and speak with their favorite authors. This activity is possible if you follow Patrick’s link with instructions and a database to help you Skype an author in the classroom. Below is a video from the website that shows you a class’ interview with author, Mike Artell.

Online Safety Video for Students

During our #edchat discussion about teaching students how to make a positive digital footprint, Kyle Pace shared this video. In the video, a girl realizes that posting her picture on the Internet has consequences. This commercial could be used to spark a discussion with students on the implications of several online behaviors. This discussion should be a part of all schools!

The Iphone App that Makes a Difference

My Iphone is definitely helping me to stay on track of projects with the various apps that help me coordinate, organize, and collaborate. Now, my Iphone can help me make a difference. Neal Chambers shared this tweet about the Do Good app for the IPhone. Daily your Iphone will provide you with activities that several people are doing to make a difference for the day. One example has people using less water throughout the day.

Cooperative Learning VoiceThread

Paulo Simões and José Carlos, who are from Portugal, have created this collaborative Voicethread for anyone to join and leave comments! The topic they are exploring is “How can a microblog promote cooperative learning communities?” Please add a comment to the VoiceThread.

Add the people in this post to your PLN by using this mass Twitter tool. Just copy and paste this list!

kenroyal, icpjones, bhsprincipal, kylepace, nealchambers, pgsimoes, jctf, larryferlazzo, kalinagoenglish

On the mindmap, click on the earth icons to follow the links to the Twitter profiles, blogs or websites! You can also make this mindmap smaller or larger and move it around. If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe for free to receive regular updates!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:

• Monthly Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• Monthly Tweets by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.

Challenge:

Leave a comment on the VoiceThread!

Which of these tweets really inspired you? Leave a comment below!

First week of November edition!

Have you ever come across a tweet that you really wanted to discuss and share with others? Here are the ones that grabbed my attention this week. Check out the rest of this weekly series, What Did They Tweet? to discover some valuable resources and links!

Technology VoiceThread for Schools

Monika Hardy shared this valuable professional development tool for effective technology integration. This VoiceThread discusses how to effectively integrate various technologies into any school and covers Internet safety. Video, thought-provoking images, and more are included. This Voicethread would be great to share with parents, administrators, students, and teachers.

Twitter Lists

In this brilliant post, Karenne Sylvester explains why Twitter’s new list feature is a great idea. Moreover, she offers fantastic advice on how to use Twitter lists!

Controlling Environment vs. Behavior

With the various technology tools being developed at the speed of light, we should learn to relax and limit our time on the computer. Finding a balance is a goal I am still struggling with. For this reason, I really enjoyed this article, Controlling Environment versus Behavior, tweeted by Myscha Theriault. The article provides practical tips, such as limiting the amount of distractions in your workspace to minimize your time on the computer.

Google Wave Tutorials

Ana Maria Menezes shared a list of various Google Wave video tutorials that she created. Google Wave is still relatively new and these tutorials provide an easy way to start navigating through it with topics, such as creating folders, saving a search, or sending an invite!

Educational Resources Galore!

Often we search for a list of resources on any given topic to include in lessons or a presentation. Searching through the Internet takes too long, which is why I thoroughly enjoy Jerry Blumengarten‘s website, Cybraryman’s Educational Websites. Jerry, the Cybraryman, provides various links to numerous resources in nearly every subject area. He updates his resources often to keep up with the latest educational topics including Google Wave. The website is really easy to navigate and has sections for parent, educators, and students!

Add the people in this post to your PLN by using this mass Twitter tool. Just copy and paste this list!

monk51295, myschatheriault, anamariacult, cybraryman1, larryferlazzo, kalinagoenglish

On the mindmap, click on the earth icons to follow the links to the Twitter profiles, blogs or websites! You can also make this mindmap smaller or larger and move it around. If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe to receive regular updates!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:

• Monthly Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• Monthly Tweets by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.

Challenge:

Leave a comment on one of these blogs or on the VoiceThread!

Which tweet really inspired you? Leave a comment below!

Last week of October edition!

Have you ever come across a tweet that you really wanted to discuss and share with others? Here are the ones that grabbed my attention this week. Check out the rest of this weekly series, What Did They Tweet?

Cool Claymation Tips

The educator in me loves student projects, which is why this is my favorite tweet of a claymation video by four students. The music is amazing, the story plot resembles Romeo and Juliet, and the creativity is off the charts. How could this tweet get any better? Maryna Badenhorst‘s tweet also provides a link to a list of claymation resources and tips to get your students started in creating their own claymation videos! I really enjoyed browsing through the rest of the website which offers very cool educational technology tips! I am sure this will become a favorite part of my daily read!

Good Tech/ Bad Tech Debate

In this brilliant post, Jamie Keddie explores the parallels in describing the relationship between technology and the classroom. He uses the medical field as an example and illustrates with images how two pediatricians use technology to save lives in Sierra Leone. Read this thought-provoking post!

Hip-hop and Shakespeare

I attend several webinars and in nearly every one of them run into my webinar buddy, Mary Beth Hertz. During one of the webinars I sought some advice in teaching English language learners Shakespeare. Mary Beth later tweeted me a link to this amazing article about the rapper, Akala, hosting workshops for teenagers that relate Shakespeare to hip-hop. These types of projects are incredible for closing the achievement gap. Watch the inspirational video below about the project.

Creative Use of Pocket Change

Ashley Allain shared this wonderful post about a very creative lesson using pocket change. Dan Meyer walks the reader through this math lesson in using a jar of change to motivate students to critical think. The post is illustrated with amazing infographics and explains the process in more detail.

Wiki Full of Tech Tools

Janet Bianchini tweeted this wiki full of various educational technology tools. In the wiki, you will find extensive tips and resources on:

• Blogging
• Podcasting
• Voicethread
• Videoconferencing
• Wikis
• Social Bookmarking and Annotating
• Information Management
• Microloans
• Research and Reading
• Hearing Voices
• Presentations

Add the people in this post to your PLN by using this mass Twitter tool. Just copy and paste this list!

marynabadenhors, cheimi10, mbteach, aaallain, janetbianchini, larryferlazzo, kalinagoenglish

On the mindmap, click on the earth icons to follow the links to the Twitter profiles, blogs or websites! You can also make this mindmap smaller or larger and move it around. If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe to receive regular updates!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:

• Monthly Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• The Blogosphere, the Twitterverse by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.

Challenge:

Add a new blog to your reader or bookmark one of these websites!

Which tweet really inspired you? Leave a comment below!

Have you ever come across a tweet that you really wanted to discuss and share with others? Here are the ones that grabbed my attention this week. I invite you to check out the rest of my favorite tweets in this weekly series, What Did They Tweet?.

Students Making an Impact

In my last post, I shared my desire to raise students who are passionate about making a difference. This video shared by Lika, who often tweets about activism, shows a powerful speech given by a teenager to the UN. The girl does not paint a pretty picture, but reveals her frustration at the continual destruction of the environment by adults. Share this video with your students and witness their reactions. I believe students will be inspired by the video.

Wiki Projects You Should Support

Inspire students to improve their writing and reflect upon it by leaving a comment on one of the several projects listed in the Comments4Kids wiki. This wiki was created by WMChamberlain. If you have a student project you would like people to leave comments on, then you can add your project to the wiki!

Have a presentation you are proud of and want to share it with your PLN? Add your presentation under the several categories listed in Beth Still‘s presentation wiki page. You are welcome to use any of the presentations on the wiki. This project has several presentation formats and would be great to share with students examples before they begin their own projects or to share with other teachers during a training session.

20 Ways to Use Comics in the Classroom

TNschatz shared this slideshare presentation, which demonstrates 20 wonderful ways to use comics for student learning. Comics are great to use in the classroom, because they are visual, fun, and accessible to English Language Learners! The presentation also includes various links to free comic creators.

New Features in TweetDeck

Do you wish you could see your new followers’ bios? Karenne Sylvester has been asking Twitter to bring back the bios. However, this time Matthias Heil came to the rescue by sharing a link to TweetDeck’s version 0.31′s new follower feature. This feature will show you a column of your new followers and show their bios so you can quickly follow, block, or report them to spam! Watch the video below that Matthias shared!

Add the people in this post to your PLN by using Russel Tarr’s mass Twitter tool. Just copy and paste this list!

808lika, wmchamberlain, bethstill, tnschatz, matthiasheil, larryferlazzo, kalinagoenglish

On the mindmap, click on the earth icons to follow the links to the Twitter profiles and websites! You can also make this mindmap smaller or larger and move it around. If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe to receive regular updates!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:

• September Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• The Blogosphere, the Twitterverse (ELT 08/09) by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.

Challenge:

Share one of the websites with a fellow teacher or join a wiki project!

Would you like to be a guest host on this series with your favorite tweets? Please contact me!

Have you ever come across a tweet that you really wanted to discuss and share with others? I experience this so often that I have created this weekly series to bookmark these tweets and start a discussion with you about them. I invite you to check out the rest of this weekly series, What Did They Tweet?, if this is your first time.

If the mindmap is not coming out in the RSS reader, you can click on the image to go to the original mindmap.

The Fun Theory

Can we change students’ behaviors by making learning fun? Ed Webb shared this video and started a great discussion on his website about the pedagogy of fun. I would like to continue the discussion here, because I do think that the educational system is programmed to make learning tedious. Exploration, discovery, problem-solving, and collaboration should be fun, but often this part of learning is lacking in curricula. I believe it is the best part of learning, which is why I hope this video inspires you and maybe your staff! This tweet was recommended by Valentina Dodge, Karenne Sylvester, and Larry Ferlazzo.

Preaching to the Choir?

Often I hear we are preaching to the choir on Twitter, but I think people forget that the conversations we have on Twitter are extended to our schools. Bill Montana demonstrates how he enlightens other educators at his school in his post, Starting Conversation. He shares several resources, which any educator could use with their PLN to begin a conversation, therefore, challenging educators to reflect upon their teaching methodologies. Included in this post is this inspirational video by Alan November.

Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom by Alan November from Brian Mull on Vimeo.

Famous Failures

Nancy Blair introduced the following video, “If you’ve never failed, you’ve never lived.” This video of famous failures would be a great way to spark discussion with students.

Photoshop App for the IPhone

Kyle Pace shared important news about Adobe Photoshop’s app for the IPhone! To find out more about this incredible app visit this post!

95 Websites to Bookmark

Paula Naugle shared this website that describes 95 websites to bookmark! I found some really interesting websites I had not already bookmarked like FlashEarth.com which could be used with students to explore the earth virtually! This tweet was recommended by Amber Teamann.

Would You Please Block?

Paula White recommended a thought-provoking post in which an instructional technologist shares his response to those who request he block distracting websites. You really should visit this blog and read the letter! I loved it!

**Add the people in this post to your PLN by using Russel Tarr’s mass Twitter tool. Just copy and paste this list!**

edwebb, bmontana, blairteach, kylepace, plnaugle, 8Amber8, paulawhite, larryferlazzo, vale24, kalinagoenglish

On the mindmap, click on the earth icons to follow the links to the Twitter profiles, blogs or websites! You can also make this mindmap smaller or larger and move it around. If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe to receive regular updates!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:

• September Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• My Week in Tweets by Valentina Dodge.
• The Blogosphere, the Twitterverse (ELT 08/09) by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.

Challenge:

Share one of these videos with at least one teacher at your school or with your students!

Would you like to recommend a favorite tweet for next week? Please contact me to share your favorite Tweet! Please mark the tweet as a favorite so that I can find the tweet!

My favorite tweets this week were all articles and posts, which struck an emotional chord with me. Therefore, I will not have beautiful videos to share with you like I usually do. If you prefer the more visual tweet links, then I invite you to check out the rest of this weekly series, What Did They Tweet?, in which I share some of my favorite educational tweets.

If the mindmap is not coming out in the RSS reader, you can click on the image to go to the original mindmap.

The Rubber Room: Teachers Stuck in Limbo

I first heard about the “rubber room” from one of my favorite podcasts, This American Life. Check the link for a description of the story and to listen to the story. The rubber room is where teachers who get in trouble in New York school districts go. They may end up staying here for years and are not allowed to teach, but wait for a judgment. Deven Black, a blogger known for his heartfelt posts, mentions this.

As an educator, I often worry about dealing with students bureaucratically. What I dislike about the rubber room system is the feeling of hopelessness and abandonment. After giving so much to students, some educators will just be left in limbo under the wrong circumstances.

The Origin of Hiragana: Learn About Japanese Culture

Brett Fyfield shared this passionate post about the origin of Hirigana, a component of written Japanese and the name of the woman who originated it. Within this post, you learn about the Japanese culture and the beauty behind the writing. I really enjoyed the storytelling quality of the piece. No amount of summary would do this post justice, therefore, I urge you to read the post yourself!

Second Life Saves Lives: Virtual Worlds for Professional Development

Shelly Blake-Plock urged his education students to start a conversation with this article detailing how Second Life saves lives. I would like to urge educators to begin the same conversation about using Second Life as a teaching tool and for professional development. This article exemplifies how Second Life has been used in health care issues. In the first example, the Children’s Memorial Hospital uses Second Life to train hospital employees to evacuate patients in emergency situations. Several drills are performed in the virtual world with various situations. The article explains how the virtual world was the best way for these drills in order to add realism and prevent the hospital from shutting down. These are just one of several examples of hospitals using Second Life to train employees. I have attended ISTE conferences in which I have seen how pre-med students are trained on Second Life.

In the second example, the article discusses how Virtual Ability, one of several peer support groups on Second Life, is able to provide emotional support and advice to 400 of the people that live on its islands who suffer severe physical, sensory, emotional, and mental disabilities. I know several educators still fail to see the potential of Second Life as a valuable tool due to bad experiences. However, I urge you to read the positive research about Second Life and give it another chance. To find out how to be oriented by a volunteer educator on Second Life, please read this previous post.

Value of Negative Learning: Alfie Kohn Article

Fred Podolski shared a recent article by Alfie Kohn entitled, “How Traditional Education Can Produce Nontraditional Educators.” In this article, Alfie Kohn writes how all but one of the biographies he came across of nontraditional educators involved a traditional education. I believe that several educators can identify with learning how to teach from bad examples of teaching. Unfortunately, with the focus on standardized tests, several schools are approaching education with the theory that one type of learning fits all! Ironically, the results of these tests reveal that most students fail with this approach to education. You have to pay to read the entire article. Read a list of free Alfie Kohn articles by clicking this link.

Add the people in this post to your PLN by using Russel Tarr’s mass Twitter tool. Just copy and paste this list!

spedteacher, rainbowhill, teachpaperless, fredpodolski, larryferlazzo, vale24, kalinagoenglish

On the mindmap, click on the earth icons to follow the links to the Twitter profiles, blogs or websites! You can also make this mindmap smaller or larger and move it around. If you enjoy this series, you may want to subscribe to receive regular updates!

If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these posts with a more extensive list of favorite tweets:

• September Best Tweets by Larry Ferlazzo.
• My Week in Tweets by Valentina Dodge.
• The Blogosphere, the Twitterverse (ELT 08/09) by Karenne Sylvester, Kalinagoenglish.

Challenge:

Read one of these posts with your students to spark conversation or enjoy with a great cup of coffee!

Would you like to recommend a favorite tweet for next week? Please contact me to share your favorite Tweet! Please mark the tweet as a favorite so that I can find the tweet!