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Getting Started with our K-12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum

A K-12 district, the Tri-Creek School Corp., has implemented a one-to-one laptop initiative for middle and high school students, allowing them to use social media for their school work. They are using Edmodo and Google Apps to submit assignments, leave notes for teachers, ask questions, and comment on each other's work.

The International Association for K-12 Online Learning Who We Are The mission of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) is to ensure all students have access to a world-class education and quality blended and online learning opportunities that prepare them for a lifetime of success.

Multiple links to STEM activities. Great for co-teaching.

541, videos

Great resource for national and state-by-state data on K-12 online learning. I subscribe to their blog as well.

This is a more atypical resource for our assignment but I felt that it was very appropriate for many of my K-12 peers. This text discusses the history of PLN and how educators must use PLN as a part of their learning tool kit today. Both authors are educators as well as business men who ofter a mix of experience in their attempt to convince you that PLNs are one of the major ways to captivate and engage students in the learning process.

This article comes from PSU's Education magazine. It's about bringing gaming into the K-12 classroom.

One of the highlights of the current Horizon report is the section on Personal Learning Environments. The report lists PLEs as being a personalized collection of tools and resources assembled to support your own learning. Horizon lists PLEs as being 2-3 years out from wide implementation in K-12 schools.

The study in the paper was interesting as it looked at K-12 educators and their use of Twitter to research, relate and form PLNs. Twitter and other social medias have allowed teachers to form networks that are specific to their needs and wants in terms of their own professional growth. In the "End of Isolation" the researchers findings touched on the fact that "over 82% of the time, the educators in this study chose to follow other educators or content experts related to their field of teaching so they were able to create a personal learning network meaningful to their professional needs." Now I just need to work with teachers at my school site to help them realize the individualized professional potential!

This study underscored the benefits of Twitter for the educational community. The article shared the advantages to new teachers in particular, where one participant stated it changed her vision and practice in the classroom. Very powerful!

Of all the resources I have read thus far on PLNs, this particular article forced me to think deeper and reconsider my interpretation of this concept. First of all, I found that the article provided a picture of the quality of interaction that can occur within Twitter. The data collected by researchers provides an in depth look at Twitter as a PLN - a feat that few other resources I have read have accomplished. By detailing the amount, quality, and type of interactions and connections, a tangible conception of a PLN emerges, even for someone who has little to no experience with Twitter. Of the 10 surveyed, a majority of their connections and tweets were professionally related. According to Nussbaum-Beach (video I posted), the difference between a PLN and a CoP is the familiarity of the people and the connection to an idea or problem. However, this study provides a different perception of a PLN that is largely professionally based with strong two-way connections. These conclusions made me wonder if it is possible for facets of a PLN on Twitter to transform into a CoP. Further, at what point can one argue that a PLN has successfully transform into a virtual CoP? Thanks for sharing. This was an excellent read!

The idea of managing an organizations body of knowledge. This article talks about how a wiki can aid in a community of practice. Educators are not great about sharing what they know (ironic right). The effort to share knowledge needs to be intentional.

Succinct blog post about what PLNs are, why they're useful, and how to go about developing one. The post is aimed at K-12 educators but can apply to anyone.

Great blog post that keeps PLNs simple with great explanation.

"K-12 Blueprint provides the insight and resources education leaders need to successfully plan and implement technology in education." What do you think about Intel's efforts to provide an online network and toolkits for educators? I find the site to be easy to network and great as a resource for teachers looking to build their schema.

Dr. Alice Christie's Web Site is an online resource for educators using technology to enhance teaching and learning in K-12 and university classrooms.

ARTSEDGE is the Kennedy Center's free digital learning platform for arts education. Our resources-- including lesson plans, guides, audio stories, video clips, and interactives-- support K-12 teaching and learning in the arts in the classroom, at home, and beyond.

This website offers step by step instructions on how to integrate subjects into physical education and vice versa. In addition, it offers several links to actual lesson plans and ideas.