Fast, Free, Easy PLN: Why You Should Be on Twitter

Many people mistakenly believe that Twitter is a forum where people who have a lot of time to waste share what they had for breakfast and other equally shallow bits of information. In reality, it is so much more than that.

Twitter is perhaps the best and easiest way for teachers to expand their personal learning networks. You can search Twitter for any educational topic imaginable and you will find results you can use. Many tweets also include hashtags (the pound sign, or #, followed by a word or phrase) to categorize them. There are hundreds of hashtags related to education. Some examples are #edchat (anything about education), #elementary, #secondary, #edtech, #gtchat (gifted and talented education), #ellchat, and #spedchat. There are also many other, more specific hashtags that are sure to meet your needs.

Twitter helps you connect with educators around the country and around the world. You would never have the chance to meet many of these people in other ways, but on Twitter, you can find them, talk with them, follow their tweets, and benefit from their expertise. You can also join in and participate in weekly or monthly scheduled chats. I like #caedchat, which focuses on topics relevant to education in the state of California.

Twitter is an online resource, available when and where you need it. If you have been toying with the idea of trying something new in your classroom, you can go on Twitter, search for that topic, and come away with five new ideas in the space of five minutes. Have a question? Post a message, include an appropriate hashtag, and get input and answers right away. It is a place to get inspired, make new connections, and get new ideas.

Getting started is free and takes only a few minutes. Visit Twitter.com and find the area that says “New to Twitter? Sign Up.” Enter your name and email address, create a password, and you are off and running. Don’t worry about tweeting right away. Just commit to spending a few minutes a day looking for people to follow and reading their tweets.

If you would like to know more, I have shared an Evernote notebook of resources for new Twitter users. You can also find me on Twitter, where I am @CoffeeNancy. Still not convinced? Watch this video to see what Twitter can do.

CUE Reflections Pt. 1: Linda Yollis’ Session on Blogging

The long anticipated annual CUE conference last week exceeded my expectations. There was so much I learned that I will be sharing about it and the resources I received in a brief series of posts. One of my favorite sessions was Linda Yollis’ “Blogging: Teaching Commenting Skills and Encouraging Parent Participation.”

When using a tech. tool in the classroom it is crucial to have an objective to make an impact on student learning. Through blogging Linda facilitates the building of writing skills, commenting on the web, content across the disciplines, digital citizenship, internet safety, learning beyond the classroom, and inclusivity of the community. If you visit her blog it may be hard to imagine doing it all, but Mrs. Yollis encouraged the session participants to start with one thing, her blog has grown over the years.

A few best practices:

• Linda starts the beginning of the school year by using the blog. She posts a welcome back video published the day before school and emails it out to the class. She invites people to introduce themselves and reviews the comments with the class. 


• Cluster map gadget you can use this for geography, but also for math. Put the number of vistors, and explained number placement. Also for math instruction, posting a word problem, then encouraging students to create a story with a word problem. 

Bonus: Linda finds her students are more concerned about perfecting their work since students can view this work from around the world. To quote another CUE speaker Rushton Hurley, "When students create for other students they want it to be good, when done for the teacher they make it good enough."

If want to learn more about how to use blogging in your classroom check out Linda’s online resources:

Check out her blog: http://yollisclassblog.blogspot.com/

Blogging wiki: http://educational-blogging.wikispaces.com/

Video made by Linda and her students on how to comment on the blog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NQj9dpADEaY

Today is Digital Learning Day

Today is the second annual Digital Learning Day. There are a ton of resources to be discovered to integrate technology in your classes. So many resources that it can become overwhelming to find what you need. Edutopia has done some of the work for you by compiling a list of top 25 resources for digital learning.

A few examples:

For the beginner, a video on introducing technology integration in the classroom. 

• Teaching tips for integrating technology in elementary schools.


• Idea guide for using interactive white boards.


• Sample rubrics for technology based projects.


• Steps for integrating a successful 1:1 environment.

And so much more found here: http://www.edutopia.org/digital-learning-technology-resources