Day 1: Connect!


Arguably the most important aspect of 21st Century Learning is Social Media.  Social Media is becoming an integral part of, not only our personal lives, but our professional lives as well.  You would be hard pressed to find a teenager who does not use Social Media on a daily basis.  You can use the power of social media to connect to your students.  Another way that every teacher should use social media is to develop professionally.  Join professional social media groups that share your teaching interests.  You have a question about something?  Tweet it or post it in one of your groups and you are guaranteed to have an answer quickly.  Here are some sites that I find almost essential.

 

T=For Teacher

S=For Students

P=For Parents

 

Social Bookmarking

Delicious - T, S  Store, share, and discover web bookmarks

Diigo - T, S  Bookmark and tag webpages.  Highlight and add sticky notes as well.

         My Diigo Page 

 

Wikis

What is a wiki?  Watch the video below for a brief example.

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Wikispaces - T, S, P  The only CMS approved wiki site.

PBWorks - T, S, P  Better than Wikispaces and also accessible in CMS

Wiki Examples:  Mr. Boyers 5th Grade Class and Mrs. Shanahan's Wiki

 

Blogs

Edublogs - T, S, P   Lets you easily create & manage teacher blogs, quickly customize designs, and include videos, photos & podcasts.  Great for communicating with parents and students.  Students cannot access Edublogs in CMS.

Kidblog - T, S  Have your students create their own blogs.  Use them in place of journals or other writing activities.  Kids love to write online when they know they will have an audience.  You can also embed any glogs, vokis, prezis, or videos your students create.

 

Social Networking

Yammer - T  A private social network for companies.  CMS has created its own social network through Yammer.  If you are not signed up, you need to today!

Edmodo - T, S  A free educational social network.  Like Facebook for school.  Great to use with your students.

Twitter - T  If you have not heard of Twitter, you are living under a rock.  Great for professional development.

Here are some of the people I follow on Twitter

 

After viewing all of the recommendations above, please spend time signing up for some of the sites and thinking of ways these resources can help you.  Start coming up with ways to incorporate some of them into your classroom.