Earlier this year I wrote a couple of posts about developing a PLN (Professional Learning Network), and just last week I presented at the VITTA Conference about ‘The Power of the online PLN’. It was very much a reflection of how I had developed my own network over the year as a direct result of me needing to learn more about new technologies and online tools for learning, for my role as an Ultranet Coach.
The talk I gave highlighted four key tools that got me connected -
Now I am moving into a new role, that of Assistant Principal for a new college (currently undergoing a name change) with a focus on ICT and Student Learning for the 21st Century. With this in mind I am planning on developing learning programs that exploit networking tools and new technologies.
Our students are widely connected in their own lives and would benefit from having similar networks cultivated for their learning to become richer and more meaningful.
Only last week a colleague, Stony River, sent me a link to a great video called “The Networked Student”. I think it is great video that will help me promote this style of learning to my staff, students and parents.
Professional Learning for teachers can take many different shapes and forms. There can be workshops, presentations, action research and peer coaching. Most recently Online Learning Networks have emerged through the Read/Write Web allowing teachers to learn anytime, anywhere.
In their research Joyce and Showers (pdf) tell us that Coaching (Peer Coaching) is the most effective way to ensure skills and knowledge are transferred to the classroom. We all know how easy it is to lose IT if you don’t use IT!
As a classroom teacher myself for many years, I fully appreciate the need to have the real person right there by your side or just around the corner to call on for support. However, I also see the great advantages of the read/write web and that there are many opportunities to call on support in an online world.
So I am very excited about the possibilities of Peer Coaching and developing Professional Online Learning Networks – especially in the area of embedding ICT across the school and the curriculum.
I am running training in the Western Metropolitan Region this semester and look forward to meeting many teachers from both primary and secondary levels.
Training dates :- August 26th and 27th, September 12th, October 20th, November 10th, December 4th
When I first began teaching in the 1980s as a graduate, the people I would turn to for support would be my fellow teachers and my leadership team. They knew everything I needed to know about what to teach and how to teach it. Or so it seemed.
At times, depending on budget allocations, I could go off to a PD to hear what was happening with Literacy or with new technologies. This information sat with me until I was ready to use it or would be buried within my mind with all the chores that were more pressing at the time.
In 2008 this would no longer be enough for me and wonder if it is enough for others. Admittedly I am not a graduate teacher anymore but still feel that there is a wealth of new knowledge and experiences, especially in the area of ICT out there that I cannot ignore. So would my immediate colleagues be able to support my desire to learn and grow now?
In the last 8 months my life as a teacher and learner has changed somewhat to include a new online Professional Learning Network (PLN). A network that is growing and fluid enough to accommodate my wonderings and discoveries, my shifts in mindset and my whims.
As a result of joining these online communities and developing them into my own PLNs, I have been on a huge learning curve and also a journey that I have some say, in how and when I learn. I am able to self regulate my professional growth and can share my reflections along the way through the same networks that support me. This blog helps me to process and document my journey.
Recently I met up with, what I choose to call, my new Learning Partners. These were educators who I had met online through Twitter and our respective blogs, through Diigo and more recently Second Life. It was wonderful to meet them in real life, but know they are just a tweet away in my PLN.
This is a photo taken recently at the ICTEV 2008 Conference, on Saturday May 24th. Jo McLeay, Tony Richards and Jess McCulloch are enjoying an ‘unconference’ in the sun. Without my online PLN I would not have known these educators, nor would I have been able to share and learn with them.
Earlier this month Sue Tapp organised our first Bloggers Feast in Melbourne. We had a wonderful time. You can hear and read about it here -
