Developing my own ICT Skills and Pedagogy
Where to Start?
How can I continue to develop my own skills, pedagogy and professional development? What strategies, tools and resources can I implement to further develop my knowledge, experience and skills?
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| My Learning word cloud - worditout.com |
Since the beginning of this course, I have learned an enormous amount about technology. I didn't even really know what Twitter was. Nor did I know how easy it was to set up and post a blog. Now, I am learning about PLNs (Personal Learning Networks) and using feedly to connect with classmates. What an amazing learning community! I did not know that all these fabulous ways of connecting with others was so easy to access and really easy to learn. Of course, I still have a lot more to learn and that is part of my professional development plan. I plan to continue using PLNs, such as Twitter and feedly to continually get new ideas, collaborate, share, explore and learn.
It is amazing the amount of information and sharing that can be found on the web. As others have said, "don't re-invent the wheel." The wheel has already been invented it is just a matter of finding it and using it properly. The fire hydrant image below is how I feel when I am searching for information, ideas, tools or resources. It can be mind-blowing!
How can I get past all the information and weed through to the good stuff? Well, I just learned about a fantastic bookmarking tool called Symbaloo. This great tool allows you to have one place for all your favourite websites and it allows you to see what other people are bookmarking, so that you can follow their bookmarks too. What a great way to organize your learning networks.
Using Symbaloo will definitely help me to stay connected to my personal learning networks and to continue building my ICT skills, tools and resources.
A particular learning network that I came across is The Global Teacher Librarian Network. This network has many helpful links for teacher-librarians, including things like library routines to school library journal articles. This site will be added to my bookmarking tool so that I can access it more easily and regularly.
Overall, I have learned that educators and professionals are connecting and sharing their learning through Twitter. By simply, following such educators and professionals, I will be able to maintain my connections and networks, to further develop my knowledge, experience and skills. Also, I plan to set up a Symbaloo homepage to help me collect and organize valuable resources that I gather from educators and professionals on Twitter. Furthermore, my own professional development plan is to start a blog for my school library, where I can use it to connect with teachers, students and parents. Afterall, "blogs can be great tools for students to engage in book reviews, keep lists of favourite books and share thoughts with others" (Clarke, 48). I will continue to develop my ITC skills, pedagogy and professional learning because I am a life long learner who loves to challenge myself to continually learn new things.
References:
Clarke, Lane W. (2014). Reader Response 2.0 Using Technology to Support Literacy Growth. The NERA Journal, 50(1), 44-50.
Edublogs Teacher Challenges: Free professional learning for educators from educators. (2015). http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/
Fire hydrant image from: http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/step-6-using-curation-tools/
Symbaloo: Your bookmarks and favourites in the cloud. (2015). https://www.symbaloo.com/home/mix/13eOcLj6h4
Word Cloud Image - created using worditout.com
Symbaloo: Your bookmarks and favourites in the cloud. (2015). https://www.symbaloo.com/home/mix/13eOcLj6h4
Word Cloud Image - created using worditout.com
Great blog post! You clearly outlined the ease and benefits of cultivating an online network of colleagues and TL professionals that you can access and receive support from in your explorations and evolution of your program. Good descriptions and examples of networks you are finding and implementing into your own PLN and good tagging, linking and embedding!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post Rosie and really connected with the Fire Hydrant image! I like your word cloud - haven't tried worditout before. A similar tool that I used with students was called Tagxedo where you can design your word cloud into different shapes. They really liked it.
ReplyDeleteI too am finding Twitter to be a great source of quick and instant pro-d.
Thanks for sharing,
Jen
I agree, we've learned a LOT so far! I knew about Twitter, but only as something to browse when I was bored. It's exciting to think of the practical uses for it. And I thought blogging would be a lot harder, too. I definitely plan to keep using these tools beyond this course.
ReplyDeleteI like Jen really relate to the fire hydrant image, great find. I have used wordle, http://www.wordle.net/create to create the word clouds, but I like your idea Jen of creating them in shapes so I will check out Tagxedo too. Another great Learning Network moment :)
ReplyDeleteAs far as Symbaloo goes, I love mine. I put a link to mine on my post, and I hope there is no problem getting in to see it. I love that you can create unlimited pages under whatever topic you are interested in. I am creating one for my school library with pages dedicated to units my staff return to every year. I continue to return to it, and am starting to see more use of the resources posted. I am also getting more requests for pages from my staff. I hope you find it as useful as I do. I have also added The Global Teacher Librarian Network to my Symbaloo too. Thanks
I really like the fire hydrant image. It is so true. I will check out the Symbaloo. I could use some help with organizing too.
ReplyDelete