One of the people I am following just posted this link for finding other teachers on Twitter. I found it very helpful and thought I would share. Have already gotten some helpful information from the new teachers I’m following.
Last year when I began to use Twitter and Plurk, I had some of the same thoughts and feelings as many of you are currently experiencing. After giving both a try, I decided to focus my time on Plurk (lorim), but will still check in with Twitter (lmmiller). At the beginning it was slow, but I started looking at the friends of the few people I was following and then started requesting their “friendship”. It also helped when someone I knew introduced me to their followers on Plurk – I’d be glad to do so. If you haven’t done so, be sure to create a profile. I also did not set my timeline to “private” until I had established a network of friends. A year later, I have many “friends” on Plurk and some I really feel like I know even though I’ve never met them face to face.
Why did I eventually choose Plurk over Twitter? I only had so much time to devote to social networking and I liked the format better so Plurk eventually won out. The resources I’ve gained from “plurking” have been well worth the time I’ve spent.
It sounds like many of you are having a hard time building a PLN on Plurk and/or Twitter. Please remember, it takes time!
I suggest you check out the following video and links to help you get started.
How 2(.0) – Your Guide to web 2.0 and How it Can Work for You
Building a PLN One Tweet at a Time
Twittering, Not Frittering: Professional Development in 140 Characters
Building a PLN: Not Just Another Acronym
Good luck building your PLN!
– Jamie
We as professionals can find the benefits of social bookmarking to share and interact with our peers. How do you think social bookmarking can benefit the teacher/student relationship and be used in classrooms of all ages? What reservations might you have about using this technology with students?
Ok, I just completed my Learning/Technology Fair Project. I chose to begin a classroom blog as another way to share information about what we are doing in first grade with the rest of the world. I decided to record my students reading their constellation stories with my Flip video recorder. It is very easy to use. I then uploaded the videos with the Flip software. In order to load the videos to teachertube, I had to first save them to a file on my desktop. If I uploaded to youtube, I could have done it directly. So, teachertube had one extra step which was fine once I figured it out. Then I loaded the videos from teachertube to my blog by the html. It was a little time consuming, but now that I know how to do it it should be much faster next time. It was definitely a great learning experience and feel that I am just touching the surface of how a blog can become an integral part of classroom communication and learning tool. If you would like to see my blog it is wcmlyons.edublogs.org
This is podcast has been added to, and edited. I made use of the simple yet efficient sound recorder (which I have students use in class to capture audio that is not able to be download-able). I edited it with the crude audio editor on movie maker and converted it using the basic version of Itunes. All of this technology is available on our computers at Pal-Mac and easily accessible. While no means is this top of the line audio mixing, it is sufficient.
I will concur the geographic divide is annoying, the digital divide can be just as menacing. Somehow (by a mistake most likely by my own inadvertent actions) my group members emails were being deposited in my outlook “junk mail folder”. Sorry ladies, I didn’t realize this until this morning. My bad. It is interesting how a little thing such as that can inhibit ”connecting”.
And without further ado here is our podcast…
RMason, DWilkins, CFerland
I wanted to try my hand at posting a podcast. This material may become part of our group project. I recorded some comments from one of my studyhalls. We’ll see if this works!
We met on Friday to record our podcast and decided to just share our feelings about our topic rather than have a planned script. We discussed how students have changed related to the technology they use in their social and educational life. The podcast probably isn’t our best work as far as content, but we now have an understanding how to produce a podcast. We didn’t do any editing of the recording in Audacity – that will be another task to be learned at a later date. On the recommendation of a friend on Plurk, Gcast was used for our podcast. (One feature of Gcast is that you can record your podcast using your phone!) Keeping our fingers crossed that this works.
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This is my first “true” blog entry! I thought that I had begun weeks ago, but was merely commenting about other’ posts. I now understand how frustrated students become when everyone else “gets it” and they are missing a critical element. I have always been very independent. Plurk has changed the way that I approach learning, in a way that other experiences have not.
I have only been “Plurking’ for four weeks. I have learned more about teaching , learning , and myself,from this activity than I thought possible. It’s about connectivity, the core of Williamson Connects! My interest in photography has been stimulated and encouraged. I joined Flickr and am doing the 365 photo-a-day challenge. Sharing the links from educators, photographers and scientists added to and supported the exciting additions to my expertise made possible with WilliamsonConnects! Plurk offers an opportunity to have international associations with people I never could have met, and: Surprise!, interactions with highly gifted colleagues with whom there is never time for anything other than a passing comment. Another benefit is the social interaction which adds levity and support to each day.
Plurk seemed not only foreign, but somewhat offensive to me a few weeks ago. Now, I realize that stubborn independence does not produce effective results! I wanted to blog so much today, that I finally reached out to colleagues. Response was immediate! Plurk led the way. Now I want to further explore diigo. I’ve been bookmarking for weeks, but never go there.
Well, after playing around with Diigo for a little while, I found it to be much more friendly than Delicious. I love the highlighting and notes for bookmarking. As someone who is online surfing for information on a broad band of topics, I think this is a great feature. I look forward to exploiting it more, and growing my own list of resources!
I have been using Delicious (lmiller2) for about 2 years and have loved being able to access my favorite sites (both professional and personal) from any computer. I decided to check out Diigo and just setup an account (lmiller2). Currently, I have only bookmarked a few sites – I would like this to be a bit more organized than my delicious account. I am in the process of thinking how I would best like to tag things – especially sites to be used to enhance math instruction for my 3rd – 5th graders (grade level or by topic).
Diigo appears to have some of the characteristics of social networking – not sure I have time to comment on another site. (Currently have a Facebook account and am plurking.) Two features that I think I will find useful are the ability to highlight and to post notes about the article for future reference. I’ve decided to use Diigo for the next couple of weeks and then decide which I prefer and best meets my needs. Regardless of which I choose, I will definitely continue to be a social bookmarker!
I came across this article – thought it tied into our current discussion.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/education/story/756156.html
Since Socrates instructed his pupils in seeking answers we as a society have given our students the tools to seek answers. Many times they may not “own” the information but at least they are looking for the answers. Social networking can be a powerful tool that allows the students to take greater ownership of their learning, just what we want them to do. Sure getting by Bess and the other gatekeepers is a pain, though the kids know how, I just get annoyed that the blocking seems to be very dodgy in some places.
The issue that I face as an instructor is to find the time for my own educational social networking. Sure I have 2 blogs, a Facebook page, and am on twitter, but I can’t really say that I am involved in any of them because I have gotten into so many things at school and with State Ed, at least I keep my web-page up to date. If only I could drop something.
Someday it won’t be a matter of making time because it will be essential to have to actually do it or the students will be left wondering why we are not giving using the tools that that they are.
I must say that a year ago I would have agreed with the strict rules that schools impose on technology use in school. This year I have my own Facebook account, I blog, I twitter, I text and am amazed by what I learn, who I have reconnected with from my past and how easy it is to communicate with other people. Just like everything else, kids are going to find a way to do what they want. My 17 year old niece is so good at texting that she doesn’t even have to look at her phone, making it very easy to text me during her class. Technology is going to keep changing and so do we.
I read Creating and Connecting by NSBA a few weeks ago but never got to blogging about it. I still have the same feelings today. I need to stop thinking about social networking on the computer as a technology that should be avoided. I can see now that there are elements that could be utilized to pull in students and enhance learning in the classroom.
We have a local high school club and the kids keep asking my husband and I to get on facebook and myspace so that we can more effectively communicate with them. I guess it is time!!! I agree that the more we find out about what our students are doing, the more we can utilize these technologies for their benefit.
Just finished rereading Creating and Connecting by NSBA. Prior to reading the article, I didn’t realize how much time students, especially young students, are spending on social networking. Now that my own children are in their 20s, I no longer monitor their computer usage. When I asked them if they felt the numbers were accurate, they thought the percentages might even be low. My feeling is that if students are willing to spend this much time with peers networking, then as educators, we need to utilize this in our teaching. The more you practice something, the better you become. So if students are writing, reading and communicating effectively through this, then definitely utilize this tool to enhance their learning.
I found it especially interesting to read that the “nonconformists” (students earning a mix of Bs and Cs or lower) are the same students on the cutting edge of this form of technology. Sounds like social and educational networking is the way to go to actively engage this type of learner. Use the nonconformist’s expertise to promote not only his/her learning but that of their peers and educators.
I agree that we as educators (and the policy makers of our district), need to use and become familiar with the various tools available before we can make informed decisions as to how to best utilize this to promote learning and understanding. (The unknown is always a bit frightening.) The whole issue of to “block or not to block” access will also need to be addressed. Nothing is more frustrating than to have BESS pop up – an issue worth discussing at another time!
I think the whole concept of twittering is really neat. It really depends what your purpose is which determines the relevance in your life. I have just been experimenting the last few weeks by posting what I am doing. I found a neat person to follow who has many educational and thought provoking links. I was very excited to have 3 followers who I don’t even know. I will keep twittering and do see a value in asking questions of others and sharing information. It is just hard to put yourself out there.
I’m feeling kind of guilty for not posting sooner. I just don’t think I’m the journaling type. When I look back at my schooling, I remember dreading the classes where I had to keep a journal. I always ended up making it up the day before it was due. Though I like to write, I’d much rather tell someone something in person than write about it.
I’ve had a pretty eventful first 2 weeks. I am settling into my extra duty…I have a period every other day devoted to “tech support”. I spent that time this week trying to figure out a smartboard malfunction. It turns out that if you are running a projector and a laptop through a power bar you need to have a heavy Read the rest of this entry »
Searching for specific key words brought me the most satisfaction with Twitter. I typed in Down Syndrome and was able to find others talking about related issues. I really don’t have the time or interest to read everyone’s personal journals about their day. By weeding some of that out, I did find the whole Twitter experience more to my liking.
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