I have led professional development, and shaped a series of professional development classes, to assist teachers in the adoption of one to one laptop programs. Saying that, I couldn't agree with this blog post more. The dynamic change in resource for teachers, and the ever shifting landscape of technology, makes many teachers feel a sense of frustration in attempting to get a handle on what's "out there". This post articulates, and I believe my experience validates, that the answer to engaging these issues does not lie in more and more professional development, but rather, assisting teachers in the creation of their own learning networks for both support and guidance. PLN's are not only more effectual, professional development is expensive. I brought someone in to help our teachers establish personal PLN's, but I don't believe I properly considered how important this was to the process. As I'm quickly learning, PLN creation and engagement may well be at the foundation of any school transformation. ts

If I were to be honest (and I guess, why not), I would like to develop professional development that would assist learners toward meaningful understanding and engagement of PLN's. For me, the missing link is the PLE. I'm still grappling with that myself. What should my computer screen look like? I get your dingo's, the elephant head thing, tweetering, et al. I still struggle with a mental picture of how my new computer screen looks. What exactly is going on there? I think that is step one in this. Somehow. I'm going to figure this out. Somehow. And yes, I get the irony of posting a PD is dead reflection-and than wanting to create PD. Kind of not functionally getting it.....still missing something visually.....hmmmmm.....(love the process though:)..... ts

This was an interesting blog post that essentially asks, is it better to remain uninformed? This is a very real question for the passionate educator. Once one connects in to best practices, it can become increasingly difficult to abide in the current practice of one's own school. As an example, my wife is a nationally board certified teacher, she works in a private school with great resources (her third grade classroom is one to one laptops) , but through fairly poor leadership, the technology largely remains outside the circle of meaningful practice in her school. Her peers largely rejected any thought of instructional transformation, and as a result, her school has essentially provided every student a laptop computer to utilize as a sixth textbook, or a word processor. Being a progressive educator, engaging in professional reading, and attending conferences, can be incredibly frustrating when one understands the possibilities and sees dynamic change occurring elsewhere. It's almost like you are standing outside the gate, seeing the party, but have no means of entering. This might seem like whining, and the comments in the post somewhat bear that out, but it is part of the burden one must assume in working to create change. So, is ignorance bliss? In all honesty, sometimes it can feel so.... ts

I somewhat facetiously posted in my class introduction that I would not be "tweetered". I felt it only fair that I should begin my study on a topic for which I have distrust. This article did present an interesting and creative use of Twitter. The applicationn provided the means to accurately record data by having subjects record actions in real time (by tweeting). This gives the observer more accurate information, as there is no need for the subject to recall and reconstruct occurrences from memory. This research was directed toward a broader end of understanding the role of informal learning, the authors called these "learnscapes" as opposed to classroom learning. The lingering impression for me is the creativity in which technology is being applied in support of the redefinition and understanding of learning. It's why I believe this is actually one of the most interesting times to be an educator.