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"According to Marc-André Lalande,  "a Personal Learning Network is a way of describing the group of people that you connect with to learn their ideas, their questions, their reflections, and their references. Your PLN is not limited to online interactions, but it is that online, global interactive part that really makes it special. It is personal because you choose who's part of that group; you choose if you want to lurk-just check out what people are saying-or if you share; because you choose when to do so, and how to do so." As for this graphic? You can thank Sylvia Duckworth, who always does a great job sharing simple sketch notes to help teachers. (She also took our 12 Rules of Great Teaching and created a predictably wonderful graphic to supplement the text, among others.) We've taken her graphic and provided starting points for each 'reason' a teacher need a PLN."

"It's official: coding is all the rage today. We are living in a world where apps dominate every aspect of our lives and are disrupting the way we do things. And creating these apps require-you guessed it-coding know-how. With the rising prominence of 'superstar' programmers such as Bill Gates and Sheryl Sandberg, coding has captured the attention and imagination of many youth, who are beginning to recognise its value. According to this Microsoft study, a resounding majority of students in Asia Pacific want to see coding as a core subject in school, believing it is instrumental to helping them acquire essential 21st century skills necessary to thrive in the fast-changing world of tomorrow. While some may argue that being a programmer is not for everyone, we can all agree that coding has some life lessons that we can benefit from, especially children and young people. Here are three reasons why you should get started coding."

7 reasons why Facebook is front runner in social media learning http://t.co/Vxfqh48b thx @pgsimoes

"The main arguments behind the push for students to learn to code, usually center around preparing students for future jobs. There is a skill shortage in the computer science industry which determines skilled job seekers can walk into lucrative contracts. This trend is predicted to rise. The other aspect to the usual argument is that even students who do not work in the technology industry will also benefit throughout their life and careers by learning computer science, as all industries now involve some component of programming. While these arguments are perfectly valid, there are many more reasons why kids should learn to code. They include:"

"The ThingLink Summer Teacher Challenge is a free, self-paced, online professional development opportunity designed to help teachers explore the powerful possibilities of using ThingLink for teaching and learning. This 5 week challenge invites teachers to have fun learning to use interactive images, slideshow channels and interactive video to power up your pedagogy and redefine learning in the classroom. Throughout the challenge, we will use the ThingLink flexible suite of interactive tools for schools to create media rich, customized resources for use in your classroom. The weekly challenge activities are designed to be beneficial to educators who are new to ThingLink and also to experienced users. We will explore all the flexible features of ThingLink and discover the tremendous potential for using this amazing tool. Here are 3 reasons to take the ThingLink Summer Teacher Challenge."

"This is my 20th year in education but my second year back in the classroom, teaching STEM full-time to 610 4th and 5th graders at Independence Elementary in Yukon, Oklahoma. Our STEM program is very unique, since it's in the "specials "rotation for all students that also includes PE, Music and Art. This is the 4th year of the STEM program in Yukon Public Schools. As we're about to wind down our school year, I thought it would be good to reflect and share about the reasons I love teaching elementary STEM in YPS. If you want to learn more, come to STEMseeds PD Camp June 2-4, 2015!"

"The Managing Complex Change model puts language to that which makes some schools successful while others struggle. The model looks at five components necessary to create a desired environment. These include vision, skills, incentives, resources, action plan. If any one piece is missing the model indicates results schools will experience including change, confusion, anxiety, gradual change, frustration, and a false start. When thinking of successful schools such as Science Leadership Academy, The MET, The Island School, The iSchool, you will find they have all those components in place. On the other hand, when I hear teachers lamenting about their school failures, the model brings clarity to the fact that one or more of these components are missing. Below is the chart that lays this out. Following the chart, I'll take a look at what each missing component might look like in a school environment. As you read, consider which, if any are components, are missing at your school. save image Lack of Vision = Confusion When I hear exasperated teachers spinning their wheels, working so hard to get ready for all the various mandates and requirements, but never feeling a sense of accomplishment, it is clear there is not a tangible school vision that has been communicated. In some cases this is because what is being imposed does or can not reconcile with what the school wanted for their vision. Skill Deficit = Anxiety My heart goes out to those with a skill deficit. They are required to implement a curriculum they are not trained in using or being evaluated via measures with which they are not familiar. Or…they are put into a position they were not trained for or prepared to embrace. Social media provides a great medium for helping these teachers get up to speed, but when the outreach occurs, the anxiety is abundantly clear. Lack of Incentives = Gradual Change It is not unusual for innovative educators to feel like and be perceived as misfits. Islands onto their own

"If you are like me, you like to spend time building your classroom community.   Now that we have a class set of iPads to use, I have turned to technology for many icebreaker back to school Ipad activities that I used to do on pen and paper. One reason is that it is fun and something a little different for my 3rd graders.  Also it sets the tone of collaboration that will be a huge component of our classroom.  Another bonus reason to use iPads the first week of school - you are teaching your technology expectations and familiarizing your students with the iPad basics - savings, sharing, uploading, taking pictures, screenshots, etc. right away!"

The Top 10 Reasons Students Cannot Cite or Rely on Wikipedia

100 Reasons to Mind Map

"Sitting is undeniably one of the comfiest ways to arrange your body. Almost as good as lounging, really, and just short of "dangling worry-free from hammock." But it has acquired a very bad rap over the past few years. A bad rap it doesn't quite deserve. Studies say sitting will kill us in all sorts of ways. It will kill us by heart attacks, kidney diseases, chronic diseases, and colorectal cancer. If it doesn't outright murder us, it will shorten our life expectancy and give us mental health issues. Sitting has been compared to smoking. It is the reason I panic-purchased an exercise ball chair from the internet. It is the reason fancier people buy stand-up desks and treadmill desks and have jogging meetings. New research from the Mayo Clinic Proceedings joins the pile-on. As Outside pointed out, the Mayo researchers found that every hour you sit reduces the gains of your daily workout by eight percent. Are those of us who spend our days in offices, homes, or cafes huddled in front of our computers, taking notes in lecture halls, or otherwise engaged in activities that generally require butt-to-chair contact really so screwed? "

"I have recently discovered Twitter, and it has supercharged my professional development. The reason? Twitter education chats! Two months ago I would have said, "No, I don't have a Twitter account." I may even have been able to vaguely explain why I really don't have space or reason for Twitter in my life. It certainly did not seem relevant to my work as an educator. However, during the last two months, my perspective has completely changed. I now eagerly ask fellow educators, "Have you experienced Twitter education chats? They are amazing!""

"If your school is planning to employ BYOD and is looking for some theoretical background about this trend then this comprehensive literature review is a must read. This review represents a reasonable and representative scan of the available literature on BYOD. The visual below is based on this literature review and sketches a general framework of what BYOD is all about, its models . reasons to use it and many more.This infographic is created by Pip Cleaves and the original version can be viewed from this link."

"Each time we post something about Facebook here we get some negative feedback from individuals claiming that Facebook is no good for students. While we do understand some of the reasons behind this argument but we are afraid we do not share the same line of reasoning. Social media websites do have some  educational potential in them and, as teachers and educators, we need to capitalize on this potential and leverage it in ways that can benefit our students learning. An elemental step in the integration of social media in your instruction is to raise students awareness about the dangers and risks involved in these platforms ; not to scare them away from them but to help them stay safe while using them."

"Top 5 reasons why every teacher or educator should be using the power of Twitter!"

"Why don't students read more? Digital distractions? No books at home? Too much testing? Kim Kardashian? It depends on the student. It depends on illiteracy vs aliteracy. It depends on how you define reading (does reading long-winded character dialogues in Square Enix games count?) So below, I've gathered some of the most common reasons students don't read, and provided some ways you can begin to address that issue."

"Whether they are doing storytime, teaching classes about social media privacy, or discovering new books to add to their collections, librarians always work overtime - and wear many different hats - to bring the magic that they do day in and day out to their communities. In short, librarians rock. Here is just a handful of reasons how and why:"