At the start of the school year, during the Technology Kickoff presentation, I challenged teachers to take their Professional Learning Communities to the next level – beyond the walls of the building and the boundaries of the school district. I thought that now, right before our PLC Professional Development Day, it would be a good time to re-issue that challenge and provide an idea on where to start.

I wrote about Twitter.com last year. This is a GREAT place to start. I know some folks will say, “What? Why on earth would I want to know what other people are doing during all hours of the day, every day of the week, and in 140 characters or less?!?!” Well, the key is in WHO those other people are. In Twitter you “follow” people with similar interests and backgrounds. They, in turn, “follow” you. It may sound like one big stalkfest (I know stalkfest isn’t a real word. But this is a blog and not even remotely close to anything resembling literature), but Twitter has proven to be the most valuable online tool I have used during the past year. After logging in to Twitter, within minutes tips, tricks, and resources come flying in.

If the key is in who to follow, how do you find the people? Twitter4teachers provides lists of educators on Twitter by subject area. Once you find folks that post information that you find useful, check out who they are following and follow them, too. If you know of others in your field, you can search for them on Twitter. It’s amazing how many people are tweeting–authors, professors, politicians (and, yes, Ashton Kutcher is tweeting, too, if you are into that sort of thing). Or, you could check out who your friendly-ITRT is following and start there. You will find me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tekkieteacher.

Once you have started setting up your online PLC, the next step is to actually post something. For those of you who are a bit shy, try “re-tweeting”, or just re-posting someone else’s post that you found useful. Be sure to include the “RT” indicator and attribute the post to the original person with the “@” symbol like the example below:

When working within an online PLC, you will get more out of it if you are a contributor to the conversation rather than just a bystander. Before you know it, people will start following you, too! I recommend always screening your followers and blocking anyone that you aren’t sure about. However, I have to admit that it was also very cool once some of the big names in the the Ed Tech world who I was following started following me, too!

Our PLCs are about helping and learning from each other to improve ourselves and the instructional process. There are 195 people in my Ed Tech PLC and I am much better at what I do because of them. Come join me!

This is the favorites list to end all favorites lists! Vicki Davis, one of the masterminds behind the Flat Classroom Project, has listed her 122 favorite online tools at 122 For You. There are links here to anything and everything (even including weight management!) - you will want to set aside a bit of time to explore all of them! She’s included descriptions for each along with ideas on how to use them for instruction.

Did you know President Obama was blogging?!?! OK, well maybe he isn’t the actual author of the posts, but it’s nice to see the White House joining in the 21st century’s Web 2.0 revolution. My favorite resent post was called A Good Day on the Swingset! Check it out!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/

This week’s featured website is Free Technology for Teachers, a blog is authored by Richard Byrne (twitter) who describes himself as a “teacher and web apps junky”.

Brace yourself. Once you get started on this site, hours will pass and you won’t even notice. He has researched countless techology resources, categorized them by subject, and provided specific examples of how they can be used in the classroom.

Late addition to this post: I realized that this site was blocked and asked to have the site unblocked. Our district, however, has decided to keep it blocked. The site is an aggregator and they feel that some of the links might not be appropriate for younger students. If you would like to access this site to learn about these tools, you will have to do it on your own time. The site, by the way, has been nominated as one of the top resource sharing blogs for 2008 (http://edublogawards.com/2008/).

I would like to introduce all of you to my Personal Learning Network, or PLN. It’s based on the same concept as our district’s Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), but PLNs have a few advantages:

• While our PLCs meet once, or maybe twice, a month, a PLN is available almost all the time.
• Our PLCs, as they exist now, are limited to those members who can be physically present. PLNs have no geographic boundaries.
• The topics and goals of our PLCs are often determined for us, while the topics I study and discuss through my PLN are ones of my choosing.
• Everyone in my PLN wants to be there.

Essentially, a PLN is what we hope our PLCs will become one day.

Where do I go to find my PLN? My RSS feed where I have listed the most current posts of all the Edubloggers I admire is where I go most often. But you can also find them through social networks like Ning.com or through virtual worlds like Second Life. And increasingly, I’m using Twitter.com to stay tuned in.

If any of you clicked on the links in the previous paragraph while still locked within the walls of our district’s network security system, you now understand while in the first bullet I noted that my PLN was “available ALMOST all the time”. It is very ironic that where I most need access to my PLN — at work — I am generally denied access to it.

That being said, I love what I do. So, when do I access my PLN? Usually in the evenings, at home, after my little one has gone to bed. And here’s the craziest part — I ENJOY it. And the resources I learn about are invaluable to me.

So, I’d like to invite you to join my Twitter PLN. Go to Twitter.com and create an account for yourself. Then, do a search for “tekkieteacher”. I invite you to follow me. I know it sounds a bit like stalking, but it really isn’t. Then, check out who I follow, and follow some of them, too. Check out the links to their other web presences – usually their blogs. Before you know it, you’ll have a PLN of your own! A lot of the chatter is just that, chatter. But every so many lines will come a wonderful tidbit of wisdom that you wouldn’t otherwise know about. The collective knowledge of a PLN can be truly astonishing.

As with all social networking tools, use them with caution. I don’t recommend allowing strangers to become your online “friend” or to follow you on Twitter. And be careful about sharing any type of personal information.

For some additional ideas on how to use Twitter as an educational tool, check out this article.

It still blows my mind that the writing over at Students 2.0 is done by students. They have some pretty hard hitting and at times controversial things to say, but they do say it very well. Check out Innovate or Die.

Blogs are a wonderful way to publish information and provide commentary on topics important to us. This week’s featured websites are two blogs authored by some of our peers here in the district. The first is the Bulldog Readers blog authored by our librarians for the Virginia Reader’s Book Club. Be sure to check out the student comments on each of the books. The second is the BRMS Blog done by their ITRT, Frances G. The BRMS Blog has some wonderfully detailed information about technology in education.

In addition, a number of our teachers are using blogs more and more through the SchoolFusion AfterClass suite of tools. To check out any of these blogs, go to our school webpage and then check out the Teacher Profiles under For Students & Parents. The teacher’s blogs are linked to their profiles. The entries and commentary from our World Languages classes are especially neat!

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project which keeps track of online trends and usage, almost 90% of all teens are online. Of them, 64% are creating their own online content.

That means that about half of the students in your classes are posting pictures and videos as well as writing for fun on the Internet.

Given our district’s initiative to raise our SAT scores, I can’t help but wonder how we could use Web 2.0 tools to help us in that endeavor. If kids are already online writing on their own, and writing helps improve literacy, what can we do to harness this for school?

There are lots of Web 2.0 tools that incorporate writing and blogging is one such tool. Blogs are very easy to set up and use. Here is a video from Commoncraft that explains blogging “in plain English”.

If you are interested in setting up a class blog, contact your friendly ITRT!

Download Video: Posted by cputnam809 at TeacherTube.com.

This week’s featured website is Students 2.0. It is an edublog (blogs that only deal with topics relating to education) written and published entirely by students from all around the globe where they express their views about education today. It’s pretty impressive and thought-provoking. Some of what they say may make you squirm in your seat a bit, but the posts are thoughtful and well-written. Be sure to check out the information under the About tab to learn more about their mission.

Check out the finalists for the 2007 Edublog Awards!

Today we have a whole list of featured websites–just slide your eyes a bit to the right and down and check out the Blogroll! Every blog has a listing of other blogs the author likes to read.  Therefore, if you like what you are reading here, chances are you’ll like what you find in the Blogroll. Although I read them all, my current favorites are Warlick’s 2 Cents Worth, McLeod’s Dangerously Irrelevant, Fisch’s The Fischbowl, and Gate’s Tipline. These blogs are much better written, much better researched, and way more interesting than mine. While my blogroll reflects my interest in technology and education, but there are over 50 million blogs out there on every subject. To find one on a subject of your choice, just google it!

Today’s featured website is our very own Technology Times. I know from chatting with a lot of you that you are reading this blog and that you seem to be finding it useful, but a blog is a Web 2.0 tool, and Web 2.0 tools are meant to be interactive. Web 2.0 is about collaboration and sharing. 

With that in mind, I want to hear from you! Post a comment to any blog entry between today and next Wednesday, September 26, and your name will be entered into a drawing to win a 1 gigabyte thumb drive. As we tell our students, meaningful responses are preferred, but for this exercise even just a friendly “hello” is fine.

And no, multiple comments do not mean multiple entries of your name into the drawing. Sorry.

So, are you up to the challenge? Can you figure out how to make your voice heard in this Web 2.0 metaverse?

(This contest is only for staff at CD Hylton High School)

The other day when I was driving my two year old home from daycare he started chanting “blog, blog, blog, blog, blog” over, and over, and over, again. So, what is this “blog” stuff, besides a word used to annoy a normally loving mother after a long day at work?

The word “blog” comes from “web log” and blogs started out as online journals for folks to record the sometimes mundane, sometimes kooky, happenings in their lives. The  word “blog” is used as both a noun, as in “I can’t believe what you posted in your blog!”, and a verb, as in “I blog, therefore I am”. Today, there are blogs on virtually every topic under the sun and the Blog Herald estimates that as of May, 2007, there were approximately 60 million blogs online.

Blogs are pretty easy to set up and maintain (this one is hosted by Edublogs, which is not blocked by the county), and you might be interested in trying out blogging for your classes. Here are some ideas on how they might be used:

1. Host Online Discussions — All blogs come with the ability to comment on the content of the blog. Because of this, they make nice discussion forums. The comments can usually be moderated and/or restricted to only those you want to participate. (You can do this type of activity with SchoolFusion’s Message Board feature, too)

2. Share Professional Resources — We are all members of one Professional Learning Community or another. Blogs are a place where we can come together and share ideas and resources.

3. Create a Class Publication — Our Journalism class is already looking into this, but what a cool idea for a class or group project. Blogs can be set up as “stand-alone” webpages on any topic of your choosing.

These are just a few ideas. If you are interested in trying blogging out, contact your friendly ITRT!