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Online communities and learning networks are helping hundreds of thousands of educators learn, reducing isolation and providing “just in time” access to knowledge and opportunities for collaboration. However, many educators are not yet participating and others aren’t realizing the full benefits. In many cases, schools, districts, and states also are not recognizing and rewarding this essential professional learning. For these reasons, the U.S. Department of Education’s Connected Educators initiative is launching Connected Educator Month in August 2012. Throughout August, there will be coordinated opportunities to participate in events and activities in dozens of online locations to develop skills and enhance one’s personal learning network.

An intensive, two-day online conference on transforming teaching and learning—featuring senior Department of Education officials and education thought leaders—will kick off the month. Plans are under way for opportunities such as: Month-long forums on key topics, such as personalizing learning and the future of the teaching profession, which will be moderated by noted education leaders and consist of online discussions, interviews, webinars, chats, and more. Guided tours and real-time community open houses, which will connect educators with communities, answering questions such as: Who can help me solve challenges I’m facing in my classroom and how do I best connect with them? How can I help change my profession for the better? Contests for addressing community challenges, developing innovative ideas, and creating compelling video demonstrations. Inauguration of a new series of open badges for connected educators as well as online communities. All events and activities will be archived and synthesized into multimedia “proceedings” that will serve as a permanent resource to educators and community sponsors.

7 Online Polling Tools to Help You Collect Student Feedback

Poll Everywhere c

I’m sure you are coming to realize the awesome power of Twitter and your PLN. But you may be finding it a bit hard to keep up. Given the global nature of your PLN, you have information coming at you 24 hours a day. Not only that, but from several different programs. I have profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. I save myself time by streemlining all my inboxes to one nifty Social Media Dashboard. A Social Media Dashboard allows you to view all your incoming messages in one place, but also allows you to filter incoming messages and send messages to multiple social networks simultaneously. I personally selected TweetDeck (see the screencast below) for its ease of use, but there are other programs out there. HootSuite is another popular option. Select one that suites your needs and use it.

Remember, it’s all about baby steps. All this new information can be overwhelming. It may seem as impossible to conquer as climbing Mt. Everest at this point. DON’T give up! DO pick 5 tools to use consistently through the year.

Regardless if you choose to blog with your students as suggested above, reflection is a critical process in learning. Blogging is, in essence, a reflection: your inner thoughts about your experiences (and a great way to demonstrate your own digital literacy skills and expectations to your students).