ASCD

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//**Avoiding Square Pegs in Round Holes: Organic Learning for Educators**//
//For educators, traditional professional development often ends in disappointment or fails to meet individual needs. Now, more than ever, possibilities exist to create and develop organic and personalized professional learning experiences. This interactive session will explore and demonstrate practical solutions for building and sustaining personalized learning networks. Participants will experience connecting with others via solutions such as blogs, wikis, and common social networking sites that boost professional learning and easily translate to improved instructional practice.//

This session is meant to provide an indirect approach to learning within your classroom the direct learning is for you the educator. Chances are, if we're not learning, our students will notice. The traditional model of professional development is not outdated so much as it is one-dimensional in meeting the many needs of educators.

After a bit of a talk/discussion, and to avoid being hypocritical, we'll explore and spend some time playing with the very tools that allow organic learning for educators during this session. Just scroll down on this page to get yourself started on your exploration.
 * Let's Get Interactive**

If you have a question or a comment you'd like to share, click the **Discussion** tab at the top of this page to post it to all. You're encouraged to answer each others questions through this or to just post a comment in reply to a post in the Discussion area.
 * Have a Question or Comment?**

Blogs
Some bloggers feel that reading is one of the most important keys to blogging. Reading other blogs can expose you to new ideas, meet other educators, make connections for classroom project collaborations.
 * Reading & Commenting**

[] []

Look for a blogroll (related links) of other bloggers Note how they write with hyperlinks. Do they link a post from another blog site?
 * Suggestions:**

Wikis
Wikis provide a space for multiple authors, called editors, to collaborate on projects, creating living articles and document ongoing learning. Remember, wikis are perpetual works in progress.

See how teachers & students are learning collaboratively: http://streamteam.wikispaces.com/

Social Learning Networks
Chances are if you are interested in a topic, there's a network or community built around that topic. Education is no exception. More and more networks are being built (this may or may not be a good thing) around a multitude of teaching and learning topics. The question is... what do you want to learn?

http://www.classroom20.com/ http://nyscate.ning.com

**Facebook & Twitter**
Why so popular? What is it about knowing each other's "status updates" that excites people? It's all about building relationships.

Facebook has millions of users, but it's not all about groups. Join professional organization groups or become fans of organizations that are important to you.
 * Facebook - Social Networking's Giant**

[|Twitter] is, at its basic level, a short messaging service similar to SMS texting or status updates in Facebook. The basic tenet is that a user "follows" updates of other users. Networks are built when those you are "following" begin to "follow" your updates.
 * Twitter:** **Micro-Blogging**

Start by following these users and organizations. Check out who they are following and follow those that interest you. [|@briancsmith] @garystager @ann1622 @angelamaiers @vgloucester @HeidiHayesJacobs [|@ascd] @WholeChildAdv
 * GET STARTED**

Search (must be logged into account)
 * SEARCH**

You can also follow searches (they use hashtags # to allow searching). #ascd #ascd10

Participate. Update your Twitter stream with a quote from a presenter, from a book or periodical, some epiphany you've just had or ask a question. Most importantly, you should @reply to someone... this let's them know you are interested in connecting with them and sharing some dialogue about a topic.
 * NOW WHAT?**

So what, who wants to know what you've got to say? Well, you'd be surprised at the amount of valuable feedback or resources you can acquire from people who follow you.
 * Reply and they will follow...**

Email
Think differently about your email. Your email can be your home base for managing messages and notifications from all the sites you find value in.
 * Use email to have sites reach out to you...
 * Google Alerts - http://www.google.com/alerts
 * Social Network Sites - e-mail notification
 * Blog notifications (comments too)
 * Filter email to folders or label them (in Gmail)
 * Try Google Mail for an entirely new and **easy** email experience

RSS
RSS is, in my honest opinion (IMHO), one of the most important technologies to be developed today. Much of how websites are structured and interacted with is based on XML from which RSS feeds are derived.

RSS in Plain English

Google Reader - [|http://reader.google.com] ([|Subscribe to my Shared Items]) Google Alerts - [|http://alerts.google.com]

iGoogle
Use Google homepage (iGoogle) to centralize and gather information RSS Gadgets - Add custom RSS feeds of your interest/need

Participate
Visit @http://www.classroom20.com and start with the WELCOME! area.
 * Go Where The People Are**
 * How do you feel upon entering this site/community? Was it welcoming?
 * Was it intuitive? Are there helpful tutorials/places to ask questions?
 * What features of the network site stand out to you? What were you looking for but did not see?
 * How social is the site? How would you define "social" in regards to this site?

⁃ Comment on blogs ⁃ Write your own reflective blog posts - Create and collaborate on documents, etc (http://docs.google.com) ⁃ Participate in a wiki ⁃ Participate in an online discussion - Create something beautiful with students and share it! - Ask a question of others
 * Read/Write With Others Online:**

If you are blogging, try writing a blog post and including links to another bloggers post that you find of interest. **Add your blog to the Discussion tab for others to read/comment on.**

Other Resources

 * Google Tools (Reader, Docs, Gmail, Gtalk, etc) (http://www.google.com/accounts)
 * Flickr (http://www.flickr.com)
 * YouTube (http://www.youtube.com)
 * Skype (http://www.skype.com)