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!

(Originally posted 12/8/2008)

For the past year, the Tech Team and I have maintained Hylton’s webportal at http://guest.portaportal.com/pwcs. However, I recently moved all of our links (and added lots of new ones!) to http://delicious.com/hyltonhs. Both PortaPortal and Delicious are online bookmarking tools. However, Delicious has proven to be much more user-friendly. It is easier to create bookmarks, and it is also easier to search your bookmarks. Once you have over 100 bookmarked sites (we currently have 297!), the search capabilities become very important!

Hylton’s Delicious site hosts a collection of bookmarked sites for teachers, students, and parents. Just go to http://delicious.com/hyltonhs, and use the tags listed along the right side to find tons of links to online tools for virtually every subject. We will continue to add bookmarks, so check back often to find out what’s new! And, if you know of a site that you would like included, forward it along to your friendly ITRT.

Hylton’s PortaPortal site will remain “live”, but no new bookmarks will be added. Instead, everything new will be posted at http://delicious.com/hyltonhs.

With final exams fast approaching, here is a link to Hylton’s collection of bookmarked study tools.

http://delicious.com/hyltonhs/study_tools

There are links for educational games, practice tests, and test-taking strategies. Take a gander, and if any seem appropriate, please share with your students.

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.

For the past year, the Tech Team and I have maintained Hylton’s webportal at http://guest.portaportal.com/pwcs. However, I recently moved all of our links (and added lots of new ones!) to http://delicious.com/hyltonhs. Both PortaPortal and Delicious are online bookmarking tools. However, Delicious has proven to be much more user-friendly. It is easier to create bookmarks, and it is also easier to search your bookmarks. Once you have over 100 bookmarked sites (we currently have 297!), the search capabilities become very important!

Hylton’s Delicious site hosts a collection of bookmarked sites for teachers, students, and parents. Just go to http://delicious.com/hyltonhs, and use the tags listed along the right side to find tons of links to online tools for virtually every subject. We will continue to add bookmarks, so check back often to find out what’s new! And, if you know of a site that you would like included, forward it along to your friendly ITRT.

Hylton’s PortaPortal site will remain “live”, but no new bookmarks will be added. Instead, everything new will be posted at http://delicious.com/hyltonhs.

Wondering where you might find other teachers on Twitter? Here is the beginnings of a nice Wiki that lists folks who teach the same subjects as you do.

http://twitter4teachers.pbwiki.com/

And a video on Twitter.

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.

I am loving Diigo. I know I’ve written about this site before, but the more I use it, the more I like it. I’ve been bookmarking sites like mad, and I’ve set up networks with a lot of the Edubloggers I read so that I have access to their bookmarks, too. It’s a bit of information overload, but most definitely provides a wealth of information and useful links. You can find my links at http://www.diigo.com/user/Tekkieteacher. If you decide to set up an account, feel free to send me a friend request and join my network. After all, in this Web 2.0 world, you are what you share!

One of my latest additions is Boolify Project. If you’ve ever wondered how to efficiently search the web, this tool will show you the way!

I tried to upload this last night, but TeacherTube was experiencing technical difficulties (technology is great as long as it works ! )

Here’s a video on this week’s featured website, Diigo.

Diigo Video

This week’s featured website is Diigo. It’s online bookmarking, social networking, and instant messaging all rolled into one site. Here’s a nice Wiki about how to use it, too!

What is Web 2.0? Here’s an example:

Last night I was twittering with other Edubloggers where I learned about a live EdTech webcast with Danah Boyd on social networking and education that was starting in just a few minutes. I logged in and joined the live chat while listening to the live audio stream. While participating on the chat I learned about Diigo, SqoolTools, and Buzzword, bookmarked them all on del.icio.us,  and added one of the participants in the chat room to my del.icio.us network.

It was way cool.

This is not your parents’ Internet.

We’ve all heard about Facebook and MySpace, but for those of us just a teensy bit older than 25, there’s another social networking service called Ning. Just like MySpace and Facebook, the site is blocked by the school system. However, I found I could still get to a really great Ning community called Classroom 2.0. The pictures don’t work if you are in the school building, but the text is there. It’s a great resource! If you’ve been thinking about learning more about social networks, nothing’s better than giving one a try!

Last week I was speaking with one of our English teachers, JJ, about an extra credit assignment he’d given his seniors for their study of the Iliad. JJ asked them to create a “myspace-like” page for one of the characters, writing an appropriate profile and communicating with other characters from Homer’s epic. He did not tell them they had to actually use MySpace to create their page. They could have used another software application or even hand-drawn the page.

What happened? Most students opted for the cyber-approach and the Iliad is now alive and thriving on MySpace!

Most of us have heard about MySpace and Facebook, but do you know what they are? They are social networking sites that many (if not most) of our students are using to find and communicate with friends.

Social Networking in Plain English

Are these sites sometimes used inappropriately, with students making inflammatory comments and posting questionable photos? Absolutely. Are they home to predators hoping to befriend minors for unspeakable purposes? Yes.

When used appropriately, though, these sites are not evil. Humans, and most especially the teenagers we teach, are social beings. Social networking is just another way to socialize. We can embrace this technology and strive to use it to make learning relevant for our students, in the process teaching them how to responsibly and safely utilize this resource. Or, we can ignore it.

But one thing is certain — it’s not going away.