I have decided to join a few online communities for educators to further my professional development as I (hope to be) entering the professional world soon after graduation in May! I have found many communities which appear to be very supportive and inclusive. I have selected a few of these where teachers are sharing ideas and resources about how to incorporate educational technology into their classrooms and are also sharing their experiences of how they were successful in doing so.
This group is titled: Elementary and Primary School Ed Tech. The description of this group is listed as “An ed tech community just for us foundation builders.” I had a good feeling about this group from the start since it was focused on the process of building and improving an existing system. While reading through posts in the group, I noticed that there are many different contributors who are sharing innovative ways that they are incorporating technology in their classroom to extend their students’ thinking. Some teachers are also reaching out to find classes around the world to collaborate with as 21st century “pen pals”’ through blogging. I absolutely love this idea as it will help students to learn more about other cultures from someone who lives in another country which makes their learning more personal and more relevant.
I am in the process of being “verified” by Edmodo but I am trying to join this community about technology and education. The members appear to be posting fairly often and it appears to be a community in which the members appear to be active and supportive of one another. I was interested in this group because it includes teachers from many different subject areas and grade levels who are using educational technology in a variety of ways in their classrooms. I hope to learn a lot from reading about their experiences using different digital tools in their classrooms and incorporating multimedia into their lessons in innovative ways.
ReadWriteThink.org contains a lot of great ideas for using Virtual field trips and technology-integrated lesson plans. They also have resources for how to use blogging in an elementary school classroom as well as other digital literacies. I also like the fact that they are affiliated with the ILA (International Literary Association) and the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) as these are two well-known organizations for teachers.
This group also has multiple options for interacting including following their posts, blogging, hosting discussions, providing resources, and highlighting relevant events. I have found their website to be useful in the past and I am excited to explore how I can become a part of their community.
I believe that joining these groups will help me develop as an education professional and assist me in improving my practice and providing me with new resources and techniques I can use to implement multimedia into my own classroom and encourage my students to use multimedia as a learning tool. Becoming a part of new online communities will help me improve my practice by analyzing how others are implementing ed tech in the classroom and considering how I want to design my own curricula. Referencing these first two steps in the ADDIE model will help me be more aware of my progress as a educator as I continue to learn about new tools, methodologies, and resources!
I believe that joining these groups will help me develop as an education professional and assist me in improving my practice and providing me with new resources and techniques I can use to implement multimedia into my own classroom and encourage my students to use multimedia as a learning tool. Becoming a part of new online communities will help me improve my practice by analyzing how others are implementing ed tech in the classroom and considering how I want to design my own curricula. Referencing these first two steps in the ADDIE model will help me be more aware of my progress as a educator as I continue to learn about new tools, methodologies, and resources!
Hi Megan,
ReplyDeleteYou are the second person who has discussed "Elementary and Primary School Ed Tech" and I might also join that community! The idea of 21st century pen pals is very exciting! When I was in fourth grade, my school had a pen pal program with another elementary school in the district and at the end we got to meet them. I actually still talk to my pen pal today! Although it was not done through multimedia (written notes), it was a truly great experience. I can only imagine how much more beneficial it could be by integrating multimedia into having pen pals. The options seem limitless and students of all ages can discuss issues and get to know people all over the world. They can experience different perspectives, which in turn can help students become more well-rounded, diverse individuals. Having multiple contributors in this community is also an asset. The rest of the communities you mentioned also seem very interesting! It is great that there are places for educators to go to discuss and learn how to integrate multimedia in their classrooms. Good luck on your project!
Hi Jen! I think pen pals are great! I love the idea of having pen pals around the world and I think multimedia is a great way to communicate (students could even Skype their pen pals on occasion!) When I traveled to Ecuador with Dr. Burroughs the first grade Ecuadorian students were pen pals with fifth graders in Florida. They were practicing their English but they could have gotten more immediate feedback from their pen pals if they communicated over the internet through email or Skype or blogging!
DeleteHi Megan!
ReplyDeleteSimilarly to Jen, I have been hearing so many good things about the first community you mentioned, "Elementary and Primary School Ed Tech". This sounds incredibly useful, especially for those of us who hope to teach younger grades! Many of the communities I found seemed to cater to a middle-high school student age group. Reading these posts, I am glad to see there are communities out there that are focused on technology integration in elementary school!
I also really like that you mentioned Pinterest! I have recently created a Pinterest account, and have boards dedicated to all things educational. Now that you mention it, this is definitely an "online community" that offers ideas and support! The thing I love about Pinterest is that it is often image based, but also provides links that lead to more extensive information. Pinterest is definitely a resource that I would recommend to any teacher, regardless of experience level! It sounds like you have found some great online resources and communities. Good luck! :)
Hi Sarah! I found a lot of groups that were catered towards upper grades too so I was excited when I found the Elementary and Primary School Ed Tech Google+ Group!
DeleteI love Pinterest! I have found it to be an incredible tool for everything teaching-related as well as fun recipes and DIY-ing! I wasn't sure if it qualified as an "online community" at first, but when I was thinking about it more I realized it felt like a community but in a less traditional sense. (Since it still brings people together from all over and you are still sharing ideas back and forth).
Hi Megan!
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I'm glad to see that you took the time to respond to your fellow classmates' comments here. Though responding to posted comments isn't a requirement of the course, it's great to maintain a dialogue beyond the scope of your initial blog post(s), and I'm sure your colleagues appreciate the acknowledgement.
It's great to see the diversity in platforms of the groups you selected to join! You never know if a community may die out over the course of a semester, so belonging to several (that all have different forms of 'membership') definitely helps you cover your bases in terms of finding content USEFUL to the development of your project!
It's great that you included Pinterest here as well. Several of your colleagues in the class have selected non-traditional forms of community groupings, which is terrific! Pinterest users aren't going ANYWHERE, so you'll be certain to find plenty of links to useful content via that site.
I look forward to seeing how your project is, if at all, impacted by your participation in one or more of the groups you've listed above!
Prof L