Twitter Chat

I will start by saying I was not a believer at the beginning of this class that Twitter would a worthwhile educational tool. I can now say that I have completely changed sides.  As the deadline has approached I started watching others in this class complete this assignment (which looked a lot easier to do than I had thought at first) and was impressed by the conversations they had.  The more research I put into this the more I kept getting excited about the amount of interaction I would have with specialists and experts in education. 
Last night I finally got the opportunity that I was looking for.  Let me first say I am glad I have been working on my speed reading because the more people in a twitter chat (maybe 20 or so in #atplc) the more tweets there are.  I'm not sure where I stand on the clarity of interaction, but here are a few things I took away:

• I feel sorry for the person hosting! People naturally want to talk about a subject someone else brought up or stay on the first topic you introduced all the way until you end the chat.
• This means that people are engaged and have something important to say however, these professionals were there to discuss things relevant to their schools and professions, nobody was there to talk about anything outside of education (though everyone was very friendly and helpful)
• I have enough info to sift through YEARS of ideas for how to assess, view data, interact with students, parents, and administration.
• ....I didn't think it would be so nerve-wrecking at first to interact with high-level administrators in an online setting since this wasn't a face to face interaction (literally nobody there was a classroom teacher, there were specialists, and most were principals or superintendents).  I moved past it when I finally realized these people were not here to criticize input; it was the exact opposite: they wanted unfiltered input on the topic
• In a school or district meeting you have a lot of noise (side conversations), and you have the same in a twitter chat too, but EVERYONE sees everybody's conversation so although it made it pretty hectic, the side conversations were very interesting and insightful.

This is something I will be reflecting on for quite some time, and to be honest I'll join more chats in the future because this one was such a positive experience.  I plan to go in Monday and discuss trying out a few ideas I took away from this chat, which is the entire point of building your PLC!

Week 7

So I decided to work with Wikispaces.com.  The main purpose of the site is basically for you to be able as an individual to build your own...wiki space (ok so more detail, you can basically build your own site: how to's, a general share space, presentations in some forms, etc.).  Many people (me included) see the word Wiki and immediately think of Wikipedia.  There are a few similarities to be had (and in a few specific cases the pages pretty much look like something you'd see on Wikipedia).  The point of the website in education can take on a much larger role however.  I have previewed/reviewed a few Wikispace sites before and how teachers used this as a virtual classroom, some decided to use it as a post space for a class webpage, others truly saw the site as a way to extend their physical room, bringing out deeper collaborative ideas for their students and ways to connect to the community and digital world.

I can't begin to talk about this tool without mentioning educationalwikis, a HUGE site that contains an amazing collection of real examples of how it can be used in the classroom.  (The site also includes a great resource section that you may have seen in your MET classes before, which will help you with setting up your own site, navigating others, or just understanding what more there is to a wiki).

Since I am a little familiar with the tool, I decided during this blog to look at it from a PLC standpoint.  One way to accomplish this is that Wikispaces offers the ability to create a professional (or student) blog http://electroniclearner.wikispaces.com/home.  It works pretty similar to Blogger in a lot of ways, if you decide to set it up as a dedicated educational blogspot.  I can see this being just as effective as Blogger at building a PLN, communicating with your school, parents, students, etc.  If you want to build a dedicated class website http://bernadetterego.wikispaces.com/home this is a really good example of how design can really affect your site.  This example also does a pretty good job of segmenting all roles of your classroom (area for sharing works, student info).  However it is this part of the website that really ticks all the boxes of a PLN.  She does an amazing job of showing tools you as an educator can use in your classroom and ways to incorporate them as well.  It is Wikispaces like these that truly highlight not just how to teach your students, but adds to your professional repetoir when creating new ways to present, share, and engage your students as well! 

Week 5

       I was really interested in the reading this week.  The chapter addressed a lot of issues that had been bothering me, and it went even further.  It more or less gave you ways to lobby for a networked school.  I was really fascinated by the cost effectiveness of introducing a true networked room.  If we just gave all our kids computers (in the way many districts have done for a long time), but not truly use them as the tools we could make them into, we do not only a disservice to our students, but really we waste money adding an unrealized tool into the room.  If we network the rooms the nice little chart in the book breaks down just how much money districts would save per child each year.  It is amazing to see what you wouldn't really need anymore once you network your students correctly. 
       One of the sites I looked into this week was http://www.edweb.net/.  I went through several of the suggested sites, and I think edweb is one of the better ones.  I liked the set-up process and how it helps tailor the info and content to your interests and teaching field.  I was pretty impressed with the capacity this site has to offer.  Within seconds I was able to connect with my interest in learning more about strategies for hearing impaired students.
       I also signed into google+ for the first time as well this week (although I was setting up this account Thursday night, so I couldn't join the class discussion and really see it in action!).  Until I get to try this out more I'll hold judgment, but everyone on Twitter seemed happy with it I noticed, and hangout seems to offer a LOT of professional and classroom potential.