Spring Blog Festival 2015: Webinar

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Spring Blog Festival Webinar Presentation March 21, 2015

This was a terrific opportunity to look retrospectively at how I have been using blogs since 2008 for my professional development, teaching and learning,  and then to think about how to improve these pursuits moving forward.  I was so thrilled to see that attendees came from around the world!  Spain, Ireland, Hawaii, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Greece, and of course, where this all started with Nellie in Canada.  What a great experience!

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Spring Blog Festival (SBF) is a free one day event, hosted by Nellie Deutsch, that will take place on Saturday March 21, 2015.

The aim of the festival is to showcase bloggers and their work. Topics range from transformational blogging and reflective blogging to connectivity, history, evolution, teaching tools, multi-media, thinking & creativity, families, schools, educational applications, and content curation.
 → Presenters

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OER on Hybrid Course Design

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One goal I had for my sabbatical was to develop some open educational resources. Here is a new OER for Hybrid Course Design for educational practitioners interested in online teaching and learning. It integrates work from a previous resource I had on instructional design, but is specifically targeted for a blended modality. This is a work in progress, but enough has been developed that I feel comfortable sharing.

Feedback or links to supporting resources or practical examples are welcome.

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Web 2.0 in Educational Practice

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In the previous presentation, A Systems Framework Examination of the Impact of ICTs on Educational Practice, I suggested a few ideas for how to start thinking about integrating technology for your own professional development and teaching.

I also would like to share an opportunity to enroll in course that has just started - MoodleMOOC 2 on Wiz IQ. I highly recommend that you consider taking it as it promises to have something for new and experienced Moodle users as well as other topics of interest related to technology integration.

First post TOMOOC course

Getting ready to sign up for my first cMOOC [just learned the difference between cMOOC and xMOOC]. Excited, and a bit nervous, but really looking forward to learning and making connections

“How To Teach Online” is a massive, open, online course (MOOC) that takes a broad view of teaching online. This five-week MOOC is for instructors of all experiences who teach online. Whether you are new to online teaching or want to improve your craft of teaching, “How To Teach Online” is a great place to share, connect, and learn from others around the world.

This is an open-access MOOC – no fees are required to join and participate. For this MOOC to be successful, we emphasize and are dependent upon, participant contributions and discussions as a means of exploring how to teach online. Your contributions are what makes the MOOC a success.

Topics:

Week 0: Get prepared! (Sept. 2-8)
Week 1: Start with the fundamentals. (Sept. 9-15)
Week 2: Connect with your learners. (Sept. 16-22)
Week 3: Connect learners with each other. (Sept. 23-29)
Week 4: Create a natural critical learning environment. (Sept. 30-Oct.6)
Week 5: Create activities and assessments. (Oct. 7-13)

Sign up here for “How To Teach Online”.

Change Agent - Will Richardson interview in Education Week

Change Agent

Lots of food for thought in this article that encourages me to think that maybe what we have been doing in our technology course is a step in the right direction. That is, creating a web presence - a personal learning environment - to support, help organize, and encourage your learning and exploration of the possibilities of technology for teaching and ongoing professional development

Can Web 2.0 Save Teacher Professional Development?

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edweek.org Webinar
Presenters:
Barbara Treacy, director, EdTech Leaders Online, Education Development Center
Christopher Sessums,  College of Education at the University of Florida
Moderator: Anthony Rebora, managing editor, teachermagazine.org, Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook Themes: Online PD, teacher social networking, collaborative
Opening questions: what's happening? what are the opportunities & issues?

I. TREACY: Elements of effective PD? Which Tools Support Elements? Some Examples
PD needs to be well designed & delivered and to be better respected in its role for the educator.
Web 2.0 can support effective PD

ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE PD

• be intensive, ongoing, connected to practice
• focus on student learning
• address teaching of spec content
• alignt school prop
• build strong working relationships among teachers.

Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook: Teachers Use of Digital Technology

Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook: Teachers Use of Digital Technology

Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook: The World's Largest English Department

Social Networking

A Ning group for English teachers reveals the potential of online social networking to break the culture of professional isolation.

Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook: The World's Largest English Department

this thing called blogging...

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so i too need to learn how to be a good blogger and post regularly. i am reminded of when i kept a journal as a youth. there was a period between about grade 9 - 12 that i wrote in my journal religiously. i still have them and get a real kick out of reading them. at the time my journal was an important part of my life, it gave me a place to sort out some of the things that were going on - all those ups and downs teens go through, so many questions i had. then my writing dropped off and i picked it up again sporadically in my twenties. as an academic i've found keeping a notebook - more like a semi diary/ideas/catch-all - can be a nice way for bringing together the different elements of my life. i dont seem to write the personal, emotionally-laden stuff any more but more creative ideas or plans for things i'd like to achieve. thing is i find that if i dont drag my book around all over then i end up writing things on bits of paper that get lost...keeping organized is always the challenge isn't it?

playing with technology

there are so many cool things to learn when it comes to technology. for example, i remember getting all excited about taking a flash workshop - i had all kinds of ideas that i wanted to develop for my teaching, so when the chance arose to take a course i was really looking forward to it.

i think many of us are used to learning technology by taking a tutorial or workshop. it is usually full of exciting new information that goes by in a flurry. then at the end you gather up your notes and handouts, and go home thinking about what you can do with your new learning. truth is that unless you sit down and play with it right away, the notes inevitably get lost somewhere in that so-well-organized filing system and it just seems to get more and more difficult to get back to. time passes, and when you finally do get the chance to sit down - if you do get it --- well, let's say that i have yet to create even one of those brilliant flash ideas of mine...

the possibilities...

when i started my career in education, i was far from expert in technology. i knew how to do the email thing, use a browser, word, a bit of powerpoint and excel. i dont even recall my teacher ed program having a tech course -- now it seems to be standard to get at least one. it wasnt until i started my M.A. that i stumbled across the potential of technology to support learning. my first tech course was taught by marlene scardamalia - whom i later discovered is an internationally renouned cognitive scientist/educator. anyway she and her husband carl bereiter [who i also later took a course from] have developed this collaborative learning environment CSILE [computer supported learning environment] which has since morphed into KF [knowledge forum] and the Institute for Knowledge Innovation & Technology [IKIT]. the whole premise of this environment was to support online learning communities by supporting what they call knowledge building - a collaborative approach to sharing the learning experiences that eventually lead to the creatio of new knowledge products.

this is of course very closely related to the ideals of web 2.0 needless to say, here i am some 13 years later, still excited about the possibilities, still exploring...