Educators should exemplify how an individual uses digital tools and resources to become a skilled communicator, collaborator, and devoted lifelong learner. Modeling the use of a range of transliteracy tools is something teachers need to engage in on a daily basis. Most educators are familiar with Twitter, however many wonder how to actually put it into classroom practice. Twitter brainstorming is one way to begin, even in the early grades, because it does not require students to have individual Twitter accounts. Read the rest of this entry…

Just testing out a new resource for following Twitter chats.

Most educators are familiar with Twitter, but how do you put it into classroom practice? Join us and find out how to #teach w/ #tweet.

21st Century educators should exemplify how an individual uses digital tools and resources to become a skilled communicator, collaborator, and devoted lifelong learner. As a follow up to the immensely popular ISTE 2010 BYOL session, #tweet. #learn. #lead., Becker, Brueck and Craft return with a Model Lesson that will provide educators with sound pedagogical approaches to integrating Twitter into the classroom learning space. Participants in this session will learn how educators can use Twitter to support student learning goals while effectively modeling the path of the 21st Century skills.

Jon Becker, Jeremy Brueck and Christopher Craft will demonstrate ways classroom teachers can provide differentiated learning opportunities through the social microblogging platform Twitter. Participants will learn interactively during a focused and intense hands-on lesson that will leave them with an understanding of: How to use Twitter in the classroom for networked learning; How to use Twitter search, hashtags, groups and other 3rd party services to facilitate a classroom activity; Sound pedagogical approaches for integrating Twitter into the learning environment. After the session, participants will be prepared to create a personalized learning network in a virtual classroom space and lead students into a new era of networked learning.

We are less than a week away from ISTE 2010 in Denver, Colorado! If you are not currently pre-registered to participate in the BYOL session #tweet. #learn. #lead. with Jon Becker, Jeremy Brueck and Christopher Craft, we’d recommend you add our session using the ISTE conference planner. About two weeks ago, we contacted registered participants and asked them to complete a pre-session evaluation. Thank you to those individuals who completed the short survey! The data you provided were analyzed and used to help inform the design of our BYOL session. In order to make our 60 minutes with you the most rewarding professional learning experience possible, we have a few requests for you prior to ISTE 2010.

1. We have developed a self-paced online module to compliment this BYOL session. Prior to ISTE 2010, please take a few minutes to log in to Moodle and review the material. Pay close attention to the items in the BUILD BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE section of the course. By completing this portion online, we hope to provide participants with a basic understanding of Twitter and how educators can use Twitter for personal and professional learning. Materials in the RESOURCES section will also support those of you who are brand new to Twitter. Log-in information for the online module is below.

URL: http://brueckei.org/moodle/
USER: beiguest
PASS: iste10

To access the online module, paste the URL in your browser and navigate to the Moodle main page. Click on the #tweet. #learn. #lead. course. Enter username and password credentials when prompted.

2. The data indicate that most participants already have a Twitter account. If you do not currently have a free Twitter account, please sign up for one prior to attending #tweet. #learn. #lead. Video tutorials that demonstrate account creation and set-up are available in the RESOURCES section of the online course.

3. Prepare yourself for an exciting, collaborative and engaging professional learning experience.

While honoring these requests is in no way required to participate in #tweet. #learn. #lead., we hope these items will help set the stage for an exciting day of professional learning and enable us to meet the learning needs of all our participants. We are looking forward to our time together at ISTE 2010. See you in Denver!

Regards,
Jon, Jeremy & Chris

I am a member of a number of online communities. Some of them I am more active in than others. While it is very easy to become a member of an online community, I’ve found successfully learning in a online collaborative environment is actually very complex. When I analyze all the social networking communities I belong to, from fantasy sports leagues, to FaceBook and LinkedIn, discussion forums, any number of Nings, Plurk and many others, the online community I gain the most from has to be my Twitter network.

In an attempt to uncover how and why my Twitterverse seems to dominate my online collaboration time and learning, I’ve decided to apply a set of criteria laid out by Palloff and Pratt (2005) to help me determine if my PLN tool of choice is a successful collaborative online community. Palloff and Pratt offer a number of elements that they suggest contribute to a successful collaborative online community;

• people,
• shared purpose,
• guidelines,
• technology,
• collaborative learning,
• reflective practice and
• social presence

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NECC 2009 in Washington DC has come and gone. Going into the beginning of this week, I had mixed feelings about not being able to attend “the premier educational technology conference” this year. Kim and I had a great time in San Antonio last summer at NECC 2008. We were able to present a Model Lesson, attend a number of informative sessions and meet a bunch of great people, like Tim Holt and Ewan McIntosh.

As I was preparing my session proposals back in October 2008, I was really excited to get back to NECC and I promised myself that in 2009 I would actually take the opportunity to introduce myself to all the people I admire at the Blogger’s Cafe, like David Warlick, Dean Shareski and Dr. Scott McLeod. But it wasn’t to be this year. All the proposals I submitted were declined by the selection committee.

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