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The conference will be of interest to educators, administrators, students, and community members who value the importance of integrating technology into the curriculum to improve instruction, learning, and business. Online learning involves various skills on the part of the instructor and learner. These include social and communication skills, social networking, independent learning strategies, critical and higher order thinking skills, creativity, and effective online and face-to-face facilitation. In addition, there are many challenges that educators, administrators, students, businesses, and community members face. The theme of the conference is, connecting online for instruction and learning that goes beyond the classroom. Presenters from around the globe will discuss the following topics: Connecting online to improve instruction and learning: Online learning and pedagogical/instructional experiences Experiences with the use of technology in face-to-face and online classes. What worked and what didn't work for you? How do you use technology to promote your online workshops, consultation, business, and communities? Research conducted on e-learning Books written on e-learning 21st Century learning and teaching Challenges of the 21st Century learning/teaching environment Leading a business with e-learning technology

The #edchatsa community is full of insightful, committed and innovative thought-leaders in the South African education space. As a member of this community you are invited to submit a blog post on a subject close to your heart as long as it has connection to education. Your post will then be published and will be available on this site for comment by others. You may want to introduce readers to a particular edtech tool, open debate around a particular topic, challenge paradigms or simply add insight to the #edchatsa topic of the week. You will also be able to point readers to your own blog or social media platforms.

This special report features a series of columns by Dr. Lawrence C. Ragan, Director of Instructional Design and Development for Penn State's World Campus, and will help you establish online instructor best practices and performance expectations. The following snippets are just a taste of the insider's advice found in the full report: Principles of Effective Online Teaching: #1 Show Up and Teach - The necessity of this statement is borne of the misimpression that the online class "teaches itself." Since most of the course is already authored and designed for online delivery, instructors may believe they simply need to serve as the proverbial "guide on the side" as the students navigate the learning system. Not true! Principles of Effective Online Teaching: #2 Practice Proactive Course Management Strategies - The online instructor can help create a successful learning experience by practicing proactive course management strategies such as monitoring assignment submissions, and communicating and reminding students of missed and/or upcoming deadlines. Principles of Effective Online Teaching: #3 Establish Patterns of Course Activities - Although the online classroom environment provides tremendous flexibility of time and place of study, establishing and communicating a course pace and pattern of work can aid both instructor and student, and alleviate confusion around how the course operates. Principles of Effective Online Teaching: #4 Plan for the Unplanned - For those small or not-so-small occasions when "life happens," having a strategy for informing students of these changes can go a long way to maintaining course continuity. Principles of Effective Online Teaching: #5 Response Requested and Expected - Timely instructor feedback is essential for the online learner to manage their learning experience. Instructors are expected to respond to student inquiries within one business day.

This Guide looks at how to use Facebook for Social Learning - that is to build a community, communicate, collaborate with others, as well as share information and resources. In addition it looks at how it can be used for more specific formal, social learning events and programmes.

The Department has provided these templates to assist school communities to develop agreements as to what constitutes acceptable use of internet, Ultranet, netbooks and other online and digital technologies in their communities. These agreement are templates. Schools can add and/or delete information where necessary to make them relevant to their school environment. It is recommended that teachers work through the behaviours described in the agreement (Part B) with their students and send a copy home for students to share and discuss with their parents

"Graphite is a free platform from Common Sense Education that saves you time by making it easy to discover the best apps, games, and websites for your classroom. With thousands of reviews of tools such as Edmodo, Kahoot, ClassDojo, and LightSail, our community of educators take the guesswork out of finding innovative ways to transform your teaching practice. Graphite is changing the way educators discover the best edtech tools by providing reviews written by teachers like you and experts in the field. On Graphite, you can learn best practices for teaching and connecting with our growing community of educators. Enjoy and expand your love of teaching with Graphite."

"Celly is an easy way for teachers, coaches and administrators to communicate with students and parents Send school wide alerts and keep parents updated Schedule reminders or curate class discussions Use polls and surveys to engage students"

"Class Messenger makes it effortless for teachers to send home important notes and updates about the day's learning experiences. They can even see exactly which parents have read each note. And whether via app, text or email, communication through Class Messenger is always private." It takes a Teacher about 30 seconds to build a Class. Then Parents or Students or both (depending on what's appropriate) can either sign up online (kind of like following someone on Instagram or Twitter) or get invited by email by the Teacher. After that, everyone can exchange messages via the app, website, email or text….you choose. You can send photos + documents, create surveys, donation requests and meeting requests all with a few touches or keystrokes. And it's free!

SchoolNet SA is a non-profit NGO focused on creating communities of educators integrating ICT

Mozilla Webmaker wants to help you make something amazing with the web. We've got new tools for you to use, projects to help you get started, and a global community of creators - educators, filmmakers, journalists, developers, youth - all making and learning together. The goal: help millions of people move from using the web to making the web. As part of Mozilla's non-profit mission, we want to help the world increase their understanding of the web, take greater control of their online lives, and create a more web literate planet.

A Learning Community of Teachers, Students and Parents From Over 200 Countries. Classroom-Ready Projects and Activities Collaborative Learning Tools Such as Blogs, Wikis and Media Galleries. Quality, Standards-Aligned Content from Respected Educational Brands. Showcase of Outstanding Teacher and Student Work

This guide examines the use of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) models in schools. It looks at the potential opportunities and benefits, as well as the considerations, risks and implications that arise when schools allow students and staff to use personally owned devicesin the classroom and school environments. Strategies,tips and techniques are included to address the considerations and manage the risks. The guide is NOT a step-by-step manual for implementing  models that enable students to use personally owned devices in school. While teachers, parents, community members and other stakeholders may find the guide informative, it is written with school and school authority administrators and leadership teams in mind. It is meant to inform their decision making and strategic planning should they decide to support a BYOD model in their schools.

A common question that we get with regard to technology projects is "how do I grade it?" The 21st-century communication and collaboration skills which are used with most technology based projects are, in many ways, real-world problem-solving skills. The standard, multiple-choice type tests simply are not going to be able to assess students' learning. Instead of thinking of the assessment itself as the measurement, we are going to need to examine our students' performances of understanding. In other words, the assessment is the tool through which we can gauge how much our students have learned.

Our local schoolnet  teacher community where you can become part of a programme of professional teacher development and network with other teachers around the use of ICT in education

CoursePeer provides instructors and teaching assistants with a suite of interactive Web 2.0 tools to convert their classes into trusted hubs for learning communities. This enables students to study and engage with each other while building their career portfolios. CoursePeer is FREE for instructors and students. 

"Discover the tools and techniques today's teachers and classrooms are using to prepare students for tomorrow -- and how you can get involved. What should collaboration, creativity, communication, and critical thinking look like in a modern classroom? How can parents help educators accomplish their goals? We hope this guide helps bring more parents into the conversation about improving education. (And when you're done, don't miss our Home-to-School Connections Guide.)"

I love the idea of Twitter etiquette. Twitter just like any other social networking site has its own rules and guidelines that any new member has to accept before opening their account. But there are also other rules that are formed by force of actual use and though they are not as binding as the written ones but they are just as much important. As teachers and educators, the purpose behind using Twitter is primarily to connect with other teachers, learn from their teaching experiences and share with them ours.In doing so we build a community of people that we interact with and for this interaction to be effective we need to abide by Twitter code of ethics. Corey Talked about 11 Twitter etiquettes and based on his list I made the graphic below. Enjoy"

"The Practical Ed Tech Handbook isn't just a list of my favorite resources. I've included ideas for using these resources and in many cases I've included links to video tutorials about my favorite resources. In The Practical Ed Tech Handbook you will find resources arranged in seven categories; communication with students & parents, web search strategies, digital citizenship, video creation, audio production, backchannels & informal assessment, and digital portfolios."

LinkedIn Groups are communities of like-minded professionals who share a common experience, passion, interest, affiliation, or goal. Groups provide members with a private and focused space to discuss relevant topics, share news stories, network, and collaborate with others. Start a conversation with LinkedIn Groups today at http://www.linkedin.com/groupsDirectory

"We offer courses from the top universities, for free. Learn from world-class professors, watch high quality lectures, achieve mastery via interactive exercises, and collaborate with a global community of students."