'PLN Yourself'

Last year @suewaters collected some great data on PLNs which assisted her to build this ‘PLN Yourself’ wiki. Sue’s work has helped many, including myself, to inservice colleagues and grow our networks. Please help Sue Waters to collect data on the tools that assist our PLNs.

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PLNs and PLEs

Last year I started asking around, on Twitter, for the origin of the acronyms that I was reading so much about. ‘Personal Learning Networks’ (PLNs) and ‘Personal Learning Environments’ (PLEs) were so often used by the educators that I was following that it was surprising no-one really could source them. Recently, I have had more […]

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ISER Conference Presentation – Web 2.0 & PLNs

My intention for this presentation above, given at the ISER Regional Conference, was to propose a way that we could engage students using new tools by transforming professional development in our region with Web 2.0 concepts. Students would benefit enormously as our colleagues became more Web 2.0 savvy and ‘new thinking’ entered classrooms (along with laptops/learning devices and wireless connectivity). […]

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Twitter, Mobile Phones and Mark Pesce

…in the last six months, a lot of people in Australia have discovered Twitter – particularly those folks who, like myself, are interested in what’s up-and-coming on the Web. Nearly all of those folks use Twitter these days, and most of them follow one another. I quickly got swept up into this madness, and am […]

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Digital Citizenship & Flow

What percentage of students in Australian schools are explicitly taught digital citizenship skills? There are plenty of government sponsored projects that provide resources but how many kids are truly learning at school how to succeed in an online world?  How many teachers have the skills to teach them? I do not know. There’s no data. […]

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RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!*

“We need librarians more than we ever did. What we don’t need are mere clerks who guard dead paper. Librarians are too important to be a dwindling voice in our culture. For the right librarian, this is the chance of a lifetime.” Seth Godin “If you can’t dance a step, you can’t teach it, and if […]

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ALARM (A Learning and Response Matrix) #1

When Max Woods distilled the core of his presentation about ALARM (A Learning and Response Matrix) for the 200 teachers at the Chifley hotel this week to – this is all about ‘learning how to learn’ and sharing – he certainly won my respect. Ostensibly the two days of professional development were about improving HSC results, […]

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Teachers and Social Media

“If you can’t dance a step, you can’t teach it, and if you can’t teach it – we might as well all pack up and go home.” from STRICTLY BALLROOM cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Dell’s Official Flickr Page I read Steve Wheeler’s PLN post, ‘Tools of the trade’ this weekend and […]

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Teacher-librarians: Digital Communication Tools (Part II)

In the age of ‘infowhelm’ choosing the appropriate digital communication tools – to stay in-the-loop and professionally connected – is essential for any professional person, especially teacher-librarians. A teacher-librarian can make a start on developing a Personal Learning Network (PLN) by following these steps at their own pace: finding several excellent blogs to follow and […]

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Teacher-librarians: Context (Part I)

I am presenting to teacher-librarian colleagues about ‘digital communication tools’ this week.  I’d rather say we are ‘collaborating’ than I am ‘presenting’ and have used survey monkey to collect data from the delegates prior to the conference about their needs and yammer to seek advice about the perceptions of what ‘skills’ and ‘knowledge’ are needed […]

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How to use social media to collaborate*

Over the last few years my presentations and workshops, designed to share my enthusiasm for Web 2.0 with colleagues, have led to many new friendships as well as much personal and professional excitement at the future of learning. It is evident to me that all of us involved in education need to personally develop life-long […]

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Passion for learning…

For the first time in 20 years I do not have English classes to teach. The principal has requested that I am ‘off the timetable’ and work with all students on digital citizenship and creating a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) or, if you prefer, Personal Learning Network (PLN). This is another small step towards creating […]

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Thoughts About What’s Important in 2011 and Beyond at Our School

Hello colleagues, I jotted down a list of thoughts about 2011 that feel important for me to personally remember about our school and our directions. As you can imagine, it kept growing and is somewhat incomplete. Some are basic, somewhat mundane procedural matters that all schools employ but others are philosophically important, or fundamental, if each student is to […]

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2010 Edublog Award Winners

The 2010 Edublog Award Winners lists are up! Well done to everyone who participated, voted and read some new blogs. It is particularly pleasing for me to read that some of the bloggers I nominated – @MitchSquires, The Blog Dogs and @brightideasblog, BrightIdeas – have been awarded. Well done, folks! Of course, I am honoured to get a gong too. It is cool […]

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Time to Vote: 2010 The Edublog Nominations

It is time to vote in the annual Edublog Awards. Thanks to the Edublogs team who have worked hard to compile so many nominations. It really is a great way to find new blogs and bloggers. I feel honoured to be nominated in the Best School Administrator Blog category. You can vote in that category […]

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The 2010 Edublog Awards

The Edublog Award nominations are now open for 2010.  It is great fun to recognise the people who fill our readers with enjoyable, thought-provoking posts about learning and technology, education and ideas. What I really like about the awards is that they lead to the discovery of many new blogs and bloggers, tweeps and teachers. For […]

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Catalysts – making it happen!

The NSW Deputy Principals’ conference continues today. DPs have signed up to our conference ning and many more are using Yammer. Change is in the air. My presentation, ‘Communicating Online’ is ‘a prezi’. Communicating Online on Prezi   I had my PLN say hello via yammer and twitter during the workshop, there were some pearls of wisdom. […]

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#leadershipday10: the complete list

Here’s the complete list below of posts for #leadershipday10 from Scott Mcleod‘s blog, Dangerously Irrelevant. Leadership & Vision Blake Skidmore (@blakeskid). Pick Up the Mouse Your E-Mail is Ringing. I will be gliding through building technology at schools, and how to take some concrete steps for “old dogs learning new tricks”. Carolyn Foote (@technolibrary). Stepping […]

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10 IDEAS: blogED Prezi

This is a draft of my presentation, to be delivered next week at the Office of Schools conference, Engaging learners through innovative practice, about blogEd, the NSW DET blogging platform. Actually, the presentation is more about using blogs at school and in class, rather than anything specific about using this great tool for students and teachers. If you are […]

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Edublog Nominees: When You Have Some Time…

It really would be worth taking some time to explore the nominated blogs, wikis, tweeps, nings and educators nominated for Eddies this year. I intend to look at all of them during the holidays and reorganise my Google Reader to reflect my current interests. After reading Miguel Guhlin’s post it got me thinking about what is […]

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Viborg, Denmark 2011

Opportunities for professional growth and renewal are plentiful, if you work as an educator but rarely does one have the kind of opening to a new world that has presented itself recently. Carsten Søndergaard and I are exchanging our jobs for a term. Carsten is a Pædagogisk Inspektor at Viborg Katedralskole, establish in 1060, in, of […]

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