Saturday, September 13, 2014

Tools To Create A Personal Learning Network

Tool #1 Blogs
I particularly like to choose my favorite blogs and click on the rss feed icons so that I can access them all in my start pages. It's easy for me, it bookmarks my favorites, and I can continue reading at my convenience. The best thing about start pages is I only log in once, usually to check my mail, and then I have access to a whole bunch of data. Since I can access my start pages anywhere, my favorite blogs are always available.  Although I enjoy reading interesting blogs, I also choose those that are written by experts in their fields. Their advice is invaluable for a novice like me, and would save me a lot of time and frustration if I gather their  tips for successful online course design.
Blog Choice # 1 http://elearninfo247.com/ The Truth and Realities of E-Learning 
 
What I like about Craig Weiss' blog is his product reviews. He goes into detail for example, about Moodle and writes that many who decide to go with the open source do not realize that there is a cost related to maintenance of the LMS system. He does not criticize so much as tries to see all sides of the product so that the user can make a more informed decision. Of course, the LMS companies want you to feel their system will work wonders, and at least here is a blog that will help instructors choose something they can work with rather than something that offers great service, but might have a hidden cost attached. Craig provides his reviews in pdf formats for the user to download and share. He claims his reviews are 100 % fair, honest and direct. This blog is useful to help me decide what tools to use in my online class, in particular, which LMS to choose for my modules.
Blog choice #2 http://www.tonybates.ca/  Online learning and distance education resources.

Tony Bates writes about online learning and discusses many interesting topics that is informative and interesting. He writes about adapting to the digital age and how learning and teaching design is affected by the digital resources available and how learner characteristics are also changing. He is dividing his discussions into chapters that are forming his digital book. Interesting, informative, and well worth the time for reading. Tony Bates covers all aspects of establishing an online course. Should I need reminders on what is next to do to improve my online presence, or to foster greater student participation, I check this site.
Blog choice #3 http://suewaters.com/ Sue Waters Blog

Sue Waters says that she writes random posts, but these posts are interesting and all about her experiences in digital learning. She is a go-to person for course design because she has the experience and is also a consultant for educational systems establishing their online presence. I chose Sue Waters because she writes in easy to understand language about the rewards and pitfalls of online teaching and learning.



Dr. Weimer is considered an authority on effective teaching for higher education. She writes about learner-centered course design and student motivation, engagement and performance. Her articles offers a new online instructor many guides based on experience, but also ideas on how to improve your online presence in the classroom. It is always easier to benefit from another's experience to save time and patience so Dr. Weimer's point of view is useful as I try to design a course that is engaging.

Blog choice #5 http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/    Lisa Neilson


 Lisa emphasizes learning in the 21st century and using the tools to make it happen. She advocates creative use of things like cell phones and twitter in the classroom, assistive technologies, online testing and more. She provides ideas and tutorials on how to use tech tools for education. I envision most of my students will be younger than I am, I need to understand how they learn and use technology so that I can apply some of the more common tech tools for learning in my online course.

Tool #2 LinkedIn

I like to use LinkedIn to meet other professionals who work in the same educational system that I do, but I have also joined other groups to improve my knowledge for teaching and learning. It was through LinkedIn that I first learned of blended learning for high schools.

This is an open forum where you can start your own discussion and other users could respond to your topic. Some of the members post information needs and others jump in to help. Most members are instructional designers, although not all of them work in a school system-they are trainers within the workforce. What is interesting to see is what the students will be expected to know after they finish their college years. As I design my class, I should keep in mind the kind of professional development they would be expected to go through as they enter the work force.
 
Discussions posted by members are about technology use in the classroom. It is a forum for sharing advice and how to tips. For example, one member, Jason Carroll posted a link to his blog post about twitter. The blog post gives advice to educators on using twitter to build social connections for education. Here is Jason's link to his blog http://blog.texthelp.com/2014/08/quick-start-guide-twitter-educators/ . Again, creating instruction that works in my online class will be improved because I get advice and tips from others who have the experience.
Connection #3 E-Learning 2.0

The group members are instructional designers, trainers, and educators They discuss online educational design, using technologies in eLearning, and techniques for online course design. Since this is a private group, you have to request to join. A private group is sometimes better to join because they are less prone to post ads to personal web sites. There are different preferences for course design, and getting input from a variety of people will keep my mind open to possibilities.
 
Connection #4 EDUCAUSE

One member Z.M. Posted a great set of rules for LinkedIn use. These rules are applicable to most social media sites. His rules covers posting etiquette, acknowledgment of open forum and lack of confidentiality, and a call for mentor ship. I find these rules a reminder that establishing the parameters of online discussions is important within the design of an online course.
Connection #5 online teaching
 
This is a group that discusses online teaching experiences and job information. Discussions range from communication best practice in an online class, to discussions on where to start to teach online or weather using a laptop is better in the classroom than using an iPad. I can see how many younger students may want the mobility an iPad offers, connectivity may be an issue. It is important for me to choose an LMS that can be accessed by mobile devices as well.
Tool #3 Twitter

I was one of those people who did not see the point in short notes posted on the web. Then I started using twitter to communicate with my students, mostly as reminder posts. Now I use twitter to connect to other educators about issues in education, how to use online tools, and how best to design online learning.

Angela Maiers is an educator and author of Choose2Matter and YouMatter. She tweets about her blog so this is a link to it: http://linkis.com/www.angelamaiers.com/gMCa8 She is inspirational and writes about others who have inspired her, not with their knowledge, but with their belief in herself. Why do I follow her? She inspires the best in teaching, putting students and engagement first on the agenda. Here is one of her tweets: “Theres nothing that gives u more wellness,courage, inspiration,insight than knowing ur significance”. And this is what I want to bring to an online class as well.
Steven's bio is fairly long, he is an educator and a blog author. You can participate in live chats if you are online at the right time. These live chats are announced so followers will know what time they start. You can get this information through the twitter chat #Edchat which Steven helped to create. 
All kinds of educators speak out or about issues in education. Steven also provides links to interesting articles about digital learning and competencies of digital teachers. He posts links to interesting articles about technology and learning. This article is from The Daily Genius and is titled: The 7 habits of effective digitally competent teachers
http://dailygenius.com/habits-of-digitally-competent-teachers/ I think that Steven's links to articles are well chosen and will help me improve my own digital course design.


Jeff Bradbury is an educational consultant and has a website called TeaherCast.net. His tweets provide links and tutorials to new technologies that can be used in the classroom. His writing is encouraging, letting the reader know the value of the tool and how best to use it in the learning environment. He also reviews apps. I think my greatest weakness is knowing how to use all the tech tools available on the web. I need to learn what my students already know so that I could use the tools to effectively communicate in the learning environment.

Christopher Pappas' hashtag is #eLearning. He is the founder of eLearning Industry network and posts many blogs for that site. Christopher usually posts links to articles on the elearning Industry network that are connected to online learning and course design. I follow Christopher's tweets because he links to great articles, and posts tweets about course design.
Following #5 Jeff Herb @InstTechTalk

Jeff Herb is a high school associate principle and has a website called Instructional Tech Talk. He usually posts questions about technology and asks followers which technology do they think is most useful. It is interesting to see the responses, so if I had the opportunity, I would be more aware of the plus and minus of certain classroom tech tools, and get input from other educators who actually used them.
Tool #4 Diigo

I have used Diigo because I could access my bookmarks from where ever I happen to be working. I like the highlight and sticky note feature. I also like the search by tag feature that helps me locate links to sites that I may want to find. It helps to narrow down my search since others have found similar sites of interest and posted to Diigo as well. Diigo groups are made of users who have similar interests as indicated by their bookmarking habits, so it is easy to find groups interested in education or technology or course design.



This group shares links for best practices in online education, designing blended, online, and face to face courses in higher education. The discussion revolves around technology integration in online learning design and possible future trends. I follow some of the people in this group because they have very good links and the focus is on higher education in the online learning environment, which is where I hope to teach one day.
 
My Group #2 Cool Tools for Educators!
This group is great because teachers share educational tools, and they also post comments on how to navigate the website that they linked, or how the tool can benefit classroom instruction. These tools can also apply to an online learning environment as well. This helps in designing an online classroom because web tools can be used by the teacher to enhance online learning, and students can use these tools to improve communication in online classes.

My Group #3 Classroom 2.0
This group provides links to web tools, but they also discuss social media and how it can benefit student learning, for example. Some members are very tech savvy and they post links to sites that also provide align with the Common Core standards. Other links are to professional development sites or sites that help teachers better understand their students' thought processes. This will help me in my course design because I will be teaching soon-to-be educators and they must concern themselves with the Common Core, since we have adopted the standards in the public school system. It is always best to think first about the learner and what motivates them. These are invaluable links for course design.
My Group #4 elearning 2.0

Some members of this group educate in the business world and so they are interested in how adults learn best. The links are eclectic with a singular aim of teaching in a 2.0 environment using social media. Since there are nearly 4,000 posts, I follow only three members who are online educators in higher education since the links they are more related to my interests in online course design.


My Group #5 TechinEDU

The goal of this bookmarking group is to provide links to resources for teachers to integrate technology in the classroom. Greg Limperis is the founder of this group and it is an extension to TechinEDU website. The intent of this group is to provide information to educators world wide about technology integration in education from K-college. I will definitely integrate technology in my course design and hope to pick up pointers to that end.
edWeb.net is a professional learning network that is geared toward education in the 21st century using technology in classrooms and online. The professional learning community come from all walks of educational endeavors and that is what makes this site a vibrant, social and learning community. The service is free and it helps foster new ideas using technology and methods that would improve student learning and ultimately, success in the real world.

All communities offer free webinars and live chats that are archived for those who cannot attend. Users are world wide and not always available for live chats, but the interface of this social learning network makes it easy to keep up with the trends and issues of the educational goals of the present and those we are preparing for in the future. Take the quizzes and receive a CE certificate that could be used for professional development at the job site.
Community # 1            The Digital Educator: Skills for Success
                                Community URL: www.edweb.net/digitaledu         Sponsored by Learning Bird

The Digital Educator is a community of teachers that want to improve 21st century instruction, introducing tools and instructional best practices to create blended or flipped learning environments. This community is useful for me in designing an online course because the discussion is all about instructional practices for online learning.
Community # 2            How Video Empowers Education
                Community URL: www.edweb.net/video         Co-hosted by edWeb.net and Eduvision

The idea of using video to flip a classroom is based on the idea that learners prefer to watch videos on the instruction. The advantage of using video for instruction is that it can be stopped at anytime to allow the learner to absorb the content. It can also be watch over and over again for learners to gain more confidence in understanding the main idea of the instruction. The class time is used to actually solve problems or use the time for real application of the concepts taught in the video. This community discusses best practices, and generates ideas for using video both as motivational tools and instructional tools. I particularly want to participate in the webinar: How to ensure you look good and sound good on video. I think this community will help me incorporated visual learning materials into my course design and I might be able to use the free resources offered.

Community # 3           TechTools for the Classroom: Easy Ideas to Engage Students
                       Community URL: www.edweb.net/tech-tools

This community shares ideas on how to use technology in the classroom. The resources include links to free tools online and ideas on how these tools could be used to engage learners. I have tried using different online tools, and sometimes the free versions are so limited, that they are not really practical for the classroom. With this group I hope to be able to find quality tools that would make a difference in my online course design to engage my students and to motivate them to share in discussions using these tools.
Community # 4                     Amazing Resources for Educators
               Community URL: www.edweb.net/amazingresources Co-hosted by edWeb.net and Big Deal Media

This community also discusses amazing tools found online, but they also look for grants that could help fund more resources for the classroom, research, assessment, and professional development. This community is about using the latest technology and how to fund their use in classrooms. I would like to first learn about this technology and try to use them in an online learning environment.

Community # 5                     Assessment for Learning
                       Community URL: www.edweb.net/Assessment Sponsored by Triumph Learning

The aim of this professional leaning community is to help increase student achievement by improving teacher skills and methods of assessment. The community shares best practices and discusses how to motivate older students to write. This community is certainly a useful professional learning network for me because it will help me learn how to assess their own online course, how to motivate adult learners to write, and how best to assess progress of these adult learners.

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