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This has been true for centuries, yet our schools still function with the thought that things must be learned in the classroom. That thought is starting to shift and progress has been made, but we still have a long way to go to change some mindsets.

I love getting updates from friends teaching through outdoor classrooms or non traditional settings.  They always share the successes but also acknowledge any difficulties.  Trouble shooting is key for those making shifts to PLEs.

These are critical steps! We can't just assume students know how to do it. We have to teach them the skills either at first or as you go along. Throwing students into the situation is setting them up for potential failure.

Agreed Kim! I also made a comment earlier about student motivation factoring into this too

I use symbaloo for my library resources. I am able to embed it on my library page. What I like is that it gives the students the direct link to many of the resources without them having to hunt for them. There are times that I want them to do that, but sometimes it just needs to be quick and Symbaloo works well for that.

I like the links readily available for a teacher's specific unit. Symbaloo helps students stay connected to assignments and increases efficiency of finding information.

I really like this idea. I have never really explored Symbaloo enough or thoroughly enough to use it with students. I would like to explore that possibility more as part of my personal learning plan

I thought that was an interesting idea also.  We've discussed Symbaloo for years but I hadn't considered students creating their own.

I like the clean look of it. People get easily lost in many online sites. Symbaloo forces you to find the key sites. This can really force you to find the best of the best.

This is definitely a concept that we need to teach our students. Cooperative/group learning was something that I did not like growing up as I was usually the one most responsible in the group and ended up doing most of the work. We need to teach all of our students how this concept works so that it can be successful for all.

Very true for this to be successful.  I think a step before that is to do an in-depth training for staff.  So many times new methods and teaching tools are dumped in our laps without training, supports, or guidance.  PLEs could have lasting, powerful effects on students so I'd make sure it's all staff not just teachers to benefit from training.

Our teacher librarian uses Symbaloo to organize the library resources like databases, the library link, etc. It's a nice visual.

I saw this being used with Freshman- this was a way for them to organize their resources for a research paper.

I was doing some research on Symbaloo EDU and it looks like they have created something called Learning Paths- https://www.symbalooedu.com/learning-paths/ This would be a way for students to move through learning at their own pace.

I like how easy it is to share web mixes with others. You could use Google Classroom to share different symbaloo's with different sets of students.

This is true of teaching in general, especially when they are doing PLE!

This reminds me of the first grade blogs, I used to have my students do years ago. They loved the feedback from their parents and grandparents.

What would be the best social media platform to use for lower elementary students?

I love Symbaloo and the fact that it is user friendly enough for first graders to use!

We have 1-on-1 technology in our district, which is ideal for PLEs.  However, when the student forgets the laptop or has no power left in the battery, the smartphone comes in handy.  It is tougher to monitor the smartphone.

Autonomy is a great concern for me.  With collaboration being stressed in CCS, will students be able to conquer this skill without the use of technology?  At some point, some issues have to be discussed face-to-face, and there is a separate skill set for that environment.

I like the idea of Symballoo--kind of like a favorites list and bookmarks in my Google account.  What will take time for me is learning all the lingo attached to Symballoo!

What is aggregator?

I have always been a support of helpful tech resources that students are interested in, which is why I am always trying to learn more about different Apps and tools and explore them myself. Once I play around a bit, I usually introduce it to my students. Sometimes the resources are new, sometimes not, but there are so many wonderful tools out there. I visit Richard Byrne's site once a day! Currently, our language arts department has Chromebook carts for each classroom and the district is allocating more and more to different departments. They are wonderful to have, but students will get bored very quickly if they are only being used for tech sake. I LOVE the idea of having students create a Symbaloo. In fact, my plan is to have them begin one at the start of the school year and then they can add to it as we move through different units. This would have been particularly helpful during our research unit.  I also like the idea of "empower"ing students to use their phones and other mobile devices, but we do have a pretty strict policy on phone usage at our school. Sometimes students' phones work much more efficiently than the Chromebooks. (Alissa Hansen)

I think my students would love deciding which medium to use. I also have a lot of artistic students who would chose to create a paper/pencil project similar in format to a prezi presentation or blog with pictures.

Choice can be such a motivator for students, we all have our strengths and weaknesses! 

This is something I also worry about with the students I teach. While I appreciate their willingness to use technology and the creativity it lends itself to, I worry about their ability to solve problems and communicate effectively face to face. How do you ensure they are learning these essential skills as well when things are so individualized? 

This made me think about how difficult it is to have a PLE in a traditional classroom setting. We have 1:1 technology in our district, but students are extremely limited in what websites and programs they can use (You Tube, all social media, etc is blocked for students.) We also do not allow students to use tablets or smartphones in the classroom, with some teachers wanting to enact a school wide ban on smart phones and tablets so that they are not allowed in school at all. I am so excited to be learning about all of the opportunities PLEs offer students, but I also think there are many changes that will have to be made before we can start moving in this direction.

I also worry about autonomy, as I teach freshmen English and 14 and 15 year olds do not have a "high level of self-management and awareness," at least not many. Like any classroom, however, guidelines need to be firmly in place and I think autonomy would need to be frontloaded before jumping into a PLE. I do think students would do very well in this type of environment. In fact, I often have students telling me about different resources they go to on a daily basis...whether it's to get advice, read a review, write a review, or even write a short story! The possibilities are endless, but I do think structure needs to be in place. At least to begin with. I start the year with my freshmen discussing and reading/watching material regarding civility, we made a code of civility in each class, and then we blog about our practicing of it throughout the year. I would like to implement a PLE in much the same manner. (Alissa Hansen)

I do think that using a Symbaloo is a great idea to manage resources, and it looks like something my students would enjoy working with. However, my school has really moved towards using Google Classroom and teachers having Google sites, which I spend a lot of time and energy on with both. I think too many tech items can be a cognitive overload for students and teachers alike. I think if I am to use something like Symbaloo, I would need to eliminate at least Classroom or Sites and maybe even some of the other many sites that I have students use (Newsela, NoRedInk, Kahoot, etc.). It's just hard for me, especially with the site that I have created because I have spent so much time on it over the past three years. I just don't think students would benefit from having to click around to a lot of different resources, especially if they are teacher-created. (Alissa Hansen)

I like the idea of a daily log in for updates.  I think this would work in the Green Belt classroom for relaying information as students don't attend the same schedule each day.

Great quote on the benefits of PLE, but getting students who are not "ready" or mature enough to handle this type of self-direction will struggle. A challenge for teachers indeed! I think the classroom (physical environment) setup is the first thing that needs to be changed in order to prepare students for this type of autonomy. What do the rest of you think? (Alissa Hansen)

I guess I should also state that I do not think students are getting enough opportunities to be autonomous, which is why they struggle and fear it when they are given the opportunity. (Alissa Hansen)

I am really looking forward to starting this with students. It's like a one-stop shop for their individual needs. One of the biggest setbacks I have faced in recent years was trying out a multitude of tech resources and although some were helpful, clicking around all over the place was overwhelming! (Alissa Hansen)

I was devistated when google removed igoogle, and I think this could definitely take its place. I agree that students will appreciate the convenience of this site.

Alissa, I get overwhelmed with the amount of resources and tools available. I often don't know where to start, so I opt not to. Thankfully, I'm taking this class and I have the opportunity to investigate and use some PLE tools like Diigo and Symbaloo, things I've never heard of until now!

I think this would be very powerful and I would love to create something like this, personally. I think my accellerated students would thrive, but worry that my lower level students would struggle due to a lack of confidence in themselves and lack of self-awareness. I wonder if there are certain organizational PLE templates that would work better for certain learning styles? Or perhaps a template would defeat the pourpose.....

I love the idea of supporting students individually, I just struggle to envision being able to support all my students adequately within my classroom. I feel like it would be easy to digress with a student over their PLE, but feel it could be difficult to find the time.

I sooo agree!!!! I would love to watch how an expert teacher teaches in a PLE classroom! I love the concept and the idea I am just struggling to make it work in the classroom.

I like this concept, I think it is easier to do in a classroom that is content specific.  I can see where it would be more difficult if a teacher was responsible for teaching multiple content areas.  At the same time, that teacher doesn't have to be the the information source for all the students, time is just the factor.  

That's interesting.  I think PLEs would be easier to manage in multiple content areas because they would have to be working on their own thing.  The environment is really suited for it.

Subscribing to news feeds and blogs would be a great technique to compare and contrast views related to the students' topics of interest. This could be difficult for the teacher to monitor, digo might be a great way to track this!

This is what I am trying to develop in my preschool class room where the students are in charge of their own learning, and I am more of a resource. What I struggle with is classroom management, I feel like all of the students are demanding my attention and I can't help everyone. 

Sometimes it is hard to fathom the classroom management of a PLE of 12-22 students, which is what I currently have, let alone 30+ like many districts have.  

Having your students be more independent is wonderful.  This past year I did less large group instruction and more small groups.  I taught my kindergarten students "Ask 3 before me".  They had to ask 3 people for help or what we were doing before coming to me.  When they came to me, especially when i was working with my small group, I asked them "did you ask 3 before me?".  If they didn't, they would just turn around and go find something.  This is a start for having your students become more independent.  BY creating a PLE for young students, they feel more in control of their learning too.  If you, the teacher, set it up and give them access to a variety of things to do, they will enjoy what they are doing and feel they are making "their own choices".  

I don't want to sound negative in my post here because I really am all for personalized learning. I wonder how we can get administration on board with us. I struggle with old school administration who tell me as a teacher that I can not use my phone during the day, that I can not use facebook, and about passed out when they realized that parents text me, questions and changes in their child's schedule. I did have a secret facebook page and it was wonderful I would use it to include parents with our studies. 

Good point. I agree with your post. It is hard to get some administrators going along with this new idea of personalized learning. Even at my other school I taught at Facebook and some other social networking sites were blocked. I like the idea of having a Facebook page with parents and students to keep parents informed with stuff going on at school, and also a way for students to post and communicate with parents and classmates. I think these social websites are necessary in schools, but the big question is how do we get teachers and administration to go for it? 

Our District has blocked a lot of the social sites as well, it comes from the upper levels of administration and not our building admin.  I think they tend to be out of touch with the possibilities and fear the unknown.   It would be great to use Facebook for connecting with parents and students.  The alternative given to us is Canvas in which parents have access to teachers.  But it isn't as easy or convenient as Facebook.  That is certainly one site I wish we could use at work.   I do like the idea of personalized learning environments, especially the concept of students seeking knowledge that is useful for them!  This appears to be the best way to create life-long learners!

Facebook is blocked at my school as well, which is a shame since it'd be a way to create an immersion like setting in my Spanish classroom.  If I see something cool on the site that related to class, such as photos from a friend's time in Panama with the Peace Corps, I turn the wifi off on my phone so that Facebook will work, and just walk around the class showing kids, which is risky, I know.  I'm sure there is a cord that I could connect from my phone to SmartBoard to make this more feasible.  I should probably get a separate teacher facebook page for things like this.  Some of the articles that pop up in my feed from magazines like Women's Health are not school appropriate!  

by teaching students how to be self learners and how to be active in the learning process I think that as kids and adults these students will want to be life long learners and not someone who only does it because they have to. Or worse yet lets everyone else do it for them. I love the independence PLE classrooms create

I see so many students who do not understand how to play an active role in their learning because they have been conditioned to rely on the teacher. Many students get very anxious and really don't know what to do when they are asked to complete self-directed activities. I think PLE will provide students with the opportunity to take responsibility for their own learning, which will help them throughout their lives.

This is very important! I see the (LMS) approach in our school and in many other schools. I feel like it wouldn't be hard to confuse (LMS and PLE) these different approaches, because they seem so different. The chart gave a good outline of how different they are compared to each other. 

The chart is helpful in understanding the differences.  The LMS could also be a tool in a student's PLE.  

Agreed, charts and lists make learning so much easier than paragraphs, at least for me. 

I like the idea of getting student feedback on technology and the use of different resources. You can really learn student interest and their honest opinions through surveys or different forms of feedback. 

These look like awesome reasons why Symbaloo is a great learning tool for students. I can definitely see this resource being used in grades k-12. Although, for example, I teach 1st grade and I can see my students loving this, but they will need lots of guidance and modeling of how to set it up and use it to help them become independent with it. I can see once it's set up it would be awesome for students to have all of their favorite resources and sites all in one place! 

I like the idea of having research available at one spot.  So many times when I ask a student where he/she found the information, it cannot be located.  I want to see projects with more detail.  

I have a concern about distractions.  Students tend to use their phones and computers more for entertainment and chatting with friends over research and presentation.  

Agreed, a high school I taught at did not have locks on lockers, meaning kids brought their phones to class so that they wouldn't be stolen. Preventing snapchatting was difficult for me!  

I have experienced the same issues with my high schools students.  I may take a different approach based on one of the side articles that stated, "students are still learning while they are wasting time because they will see consequences are for late work."

I would like to have some strategies to help students having an understanding of the shift in learning for them to become more involved in their learning.  How do I motivate them to go beyond bookwork to exploring topics?

When you find the answer, please fill me in too!

I feel this is a big struggle right now in our district.  Teachers are wanting their students to dig deep into a topic or their work.  Students are given choices but still only surface the top of the water, doing the bare minimum, when we want them to dive in and go to the bottom.  In my classroom, my students have a writing journal.  We write in this "special" journal once a week.  At the beginning of the year, I give them ideas to write about.  Some write while others will simply draw a picture because they don't know how to write.  By the middle of the year, every is writing something, whether it is a complete sentences or a few words.  I will give them a few choices to choose from or they can write about something they want to.  BY the end of the year, they know to take out their journals and write about anything they want.  I want my students to take control of their own learning and reflect back on their work over the year so by having this year long journal, they can see their progression and how they took control over their writing.  

With my limited experience with Symbaloo, I agree with the fact that it does seem easy add and customize content.  I think my students would find this to be a helpful tool.  I also like the idea of encouraging students to use it for tracking both personal and school related information.  

This is a good reminder.  Students need to take on a more active role, but there is always a good balance.  It probably shouldn't be all one way or all another way.  

How true!  It will be difficult for some students to lead their own learning.  They have been passive for so long it will be a shock to their systems.

So like the apps that come with an iphone. 

Just set up my account and can't wait to see what else I can add.  This is a great time saver.

I really like the idea of showing students how to use this technology and their learning for both "professional and personal use." I think when you tell students that it is "ok" for them to use technology this way, they learn more because they aren't compartmentalizing their usage of this technology as only for school, which means that they are more likely to use the program and play around with it, which will increase their learning opportunities.

I think it is a great idea to have a place for students to "store" the information they need to research and interact with their content. My students have used symbaloo in computer class and it has taken away a lot of the management concerns. Students know where to go to find the tools they need to keep progressing with their learning!

What a great idea!  When that notebook with all the notes is missing, it could be stored and used during class instead of searching or pretending to search.  Maybe we could teach them responsibility again!

This is exactly what we want - students to have a high degree of control over their work! By allowing them to customize the learning experience and connect with others, including experts, students are getting real-life experience that will help them solve the problems they face in their everyday lives. A PLE can help students organize this self-directed learning. Students will likely know what they want to learn but organizing that learning is often what students need support in. PLEs are helpful in providing students with tools they need to gather information, conduct research, and present their findings!

In my opinion, this is exactly what we want students to be able to do! By supporting students in their academic endeavors, students learn to view teachers as guides or facilitators rather than "the one who knows all." In thinking about what we want students to be able to do when they leave school, we want students to be able to do seek out their own research, contacts, and resources to solve everyday problems. If students are never presented with opportunities to direct and manage their own learning, they will not be as successful!

You are right!  If students do not get to practice this skills by doing then they will struggle when they enter the workforce. 

This sounds absolutely ideal. The challenge we as educators face with students using their own technology during instruction and competing for their attention has steadily increased over recent years. How cool would it be if it were used to enhance their learning rather than get in the way of it!

I do have some concerns that a lot of the PLE is based on on-line learning. Students use technology constantly, but I have also seen them get frustrated with technology and on-line learning when it seems hard to navigate or they are not receiving adequate feedback.

As someone completely new to this type of program, I really like the looks of it.  It appears friendly and seems to lend itself to some really great things.

This is really handy for parents as well.  I send them the link and they can access my web mix at home.  When I make an update, I alert parents via my shutterfly site.  Parents can go to my web mix and have their child show them games we are playing that reinforces our learning goals.  It is also nice because parents don't have to download anything or search for hours on something educational for their child to do because it is already done for them.

This is so great because I can share this with parents and their child can access my game page at home.  If parents allow screen time at home, I feel that by providing this web mix to them to access will only benefit their child and help them learn and reinforce our learning in the classroom.  

This is the comment many teachers were hoping to read.  I understand the hesitation to give students control of the learning environment, but is it working by controlling them?

PLE research shows there are less behavior issues because kids get to learn based on their interests promoting intrinsic motivation to learn.  I think it would be great to teach in a PLE.  

This is definitely a balance that I am still trying to find within my classroom and even one that I think my students are trying to figure out. There are some days where they would rather take control on their own, but other days when they want to be given more structure and told what to do or how to do something. I think this balance is hard to find depending on the particular student because some really struggle with the autonomy provided in online learning and still need those additional structures in place. Is there a formula to follow in terms of finding that balance? Does the balance vary from class-to-class depending on your students or can it be a one-size-fits-all approach? These are things I know I will figure out in time, but it can be frustrating at first.

I agree with the comment above wholeheartedly. I think this is what caused my genius hour plan to not be what I had hoped a couple years ago. I saw weak projects and kids not very motivated. This is what I want to make sure does not happen again. I just wonder will I really be prepared and confident? Will I have learned enough? Hope so!

I use Sybaloo and can definitely see how its use by students as they are creating/ learning in Personalized Learning would be useful.

This is true for a lot of teachers--I think we are often slow to set up our own professional learning tools whether that's joining a professional learning network via an LMS, Twitter, or just tools to help us organize our own resources.

Yes, passive learning doesn't get far in personal learning so we have to find ways to change the narrative and train learners to understand a new set of "success criteria." What used to look like being a good student won't work as well.

I've used symbaloo as a way to organize myself and I've even put together webmixes on a specific professional development topic before. Reading about Symbaloo in this context makes me rethink how this tool might be helpful in personalized learning. Building in interaction is a really interesting idea I had never considered.

What does that look like? Explicit expectations for what learning looks like, encouragement, assistance and tutorials for tools, formative check-ins to see how things are going and offer guidance. There's a lot to think about .

I think that writing with a rubric only becomes "wooden" if teachers present the idea and implementation of rubrics as a formula rather than a "guideline or set of criteria" that have been noted in effective writing.

I think that the inclusion of minmum numbers of references/usages is the leading cause of this. If you give a student a minimum, it becomes the target and all they care about. Just tell them you will look for something done well and you get better and more natural results.

Something else that might help to keep students' writing from becoming "wooden" would be to have examples of great writing and discuss how those pieces meet the guidelines of the rubric. I think this shows studnets that they can continue to use their own style when writing - as long as they also pay attention to the expectations of the assignment

I absolutely agree that rubrics can assess more than a product; it can and should assess the process or "thinking process."

Interesting.

This paragraph about weighting certain  parts of the rubric goes directly to what our group was discussing last week regarding our rubric we were creating. This is a kind of how-to.

Yes, this explains how a multiplier can be used to show some criteria weighted. I would like to see examples of rubrics using weights.

This is nice explanation of how to assign different weights. When we were discussing it lsat week, I think I was making the process more difficult in my own head! I would also like to see examples. I think that weighting dimensions of n ssignment differently can be very helpful in focusing on the most important aspects of an assignment.

I agree that this weighting could help to fix one of the possible problems with rubrics. When you give the same points for various categories sometimes you are giving an easy way to get a grade without always doing the most important part of the learning.

Creating own rubric can  be very effective but also time consuming.

Creating rubrics with the help of students is something that I found very effective when I was in the classroom. Studnets had more ownership of the work and a very clear understanding of expectations when they were part of the process of creating the rubric.

This is really where the Iowa/Common Core is taking us. How many teachers are going to be prepared with ways to measure how their students are progressing in problem solving before the students are being assessed with the new assessments? Since the new state assessments are supposed to emphasize these skills more, will more teachers need to use rubrics to meaure these skills rather than just thinking that rubrics are for judging the quality of writing or projects?

I think the key here is whether or not the rubric is written in a way that is user friendly. Sometimes, they get so specific that they are too long and the reader stops reading. I would think this would be a problem with kids in particular.

This is true at all levels of education, not just high school. How often had you had a student who was struggling on an assessment and after having the expectations explained to them in a different way completed it easily?

Absolutely, it is frustrating as a teacher for students to struggle with understanding an assignment and not perform well because of lack of understanding the directions and not the information. I find that in an online environment, this can be even more problematic.  Directions and rubrics that I feel are clearly written, are easily misunderstood by others, and people who would have gleaned understanding from questions others asked in class, feel silly asking questions themselves.

How do computerized essay graders fit into this? This would seem to be a direct attack on their use.

Hadn't thought abou tthis but it totally makes sense. We already do this reflection, as was evidenced by our rubric activity last week, but having the rubric to frame our thoughts makes the process much more efficienct.

interesting point

Oops- I kept this private. How many teachers did I have that graded in red? I remember many especially in math and writing all over writing assignments. I used to think that the assignment was complete, it was time to move on, and I just had to accept what they said. Rubrics do give the student a voice when they self assess. I find it interesting it is rooted in the word red or reddish.

These are good questions... red is a color we have pre-conceptions about.

The english teachers who attend Iowa Writing Project professional development are discouraged from using rubrics because of formulaic writing in students. These teachers are encouraged to only score a couple of criteria on each assignment instead of trying to "fix" all of the writing and discouraging students.

I tok the Eastern Iowa Writing Project 8 years ago. Even when I taught, I told the kids, that I would give anything to not have to give them an actual grade. I followed the ideas and allowed them to write whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. I saw huge growth in their writing, but I know I did poorly "grading" them. I told them over and over to focus on writing process, trying to improve themselves, and comments I gave to help them improve.

This is my biggest concern with rubrics. I am glad to see it articulated because I have been a little reluctant to share this because rubrics are so popular lately that it seems like I am being negative if I don't care for them. In my highest level projects, I expect students to "wow" me to get an A. It is hard to do that if you are simply following a formula.

Yes, rubrics can limit creativity. We re-learned this with our Ollie group rubric assignment this week with the powerpoint and audio files that did not match the "written" rubric my group designed.

Kids always remember when they are up and doing thing rather than just sitting in their seats listening.

When reading this I agree and truly believe this is essential, however with a large group (90+) students how do you get the time to spend on learning every student's PLP? This seems overwhelming...

I have had to re-read this paragraph over about 5 different times. First because it is overwhelming to read how many abbreviated terms there are, remembering what they are and then really trying to understand them. Am I the only one feeling this way?

This whole thinking is exactly how I feel when students need or want help. I want to help and I need to remember that I need for them to help themselves by also asking a question to help their learning process. I also have an old mindset though of feeling like I've let my student/class down by not helping.

I looked into these Thinking Maps and I love them! So much that I would like to use them, however you have to go through a whole school process. Does anyone know how to get these without doing that?

In my opinion, any graphic organizer would be beneficial to use for those visual thinkers. It looked like to me that it was exactly as you said...a whole school process, but you can still see the eight maps and possibly tailor it to your student learning.

Powerful statement that I need to continue to repeat to myself in order to best serve students and even my children at home as well.