Connected Learning: PLNs
- Howard starts using social media in the classroom and wanted to learn from more experienced educators
- Online webinar - 150 educators and librarians from the worldwide come together on twitter
- Settling on a time for regular twitter chats can grow into an open, voluntary, shifting, and growing community that uses the same media they are teaching their students
- These people (Edchatters) are among the first to evaluate and maybe adopt new media that show educational potential
- Passionate learning networks (PLNs) is defined as the people you choose to connect with and learn from
- Shelly: A Global Netweaver, curator, PLN builder
- Shelly has a must of resources for educators who want to use Skype and videoskype to go global with their classrooms
- Shelly maintains a wiki of social media and resources for educators, and published a screencast about how to build your PLN using twitter
- Students can build their PLNs by starting with blogs to show them how to participate by commenting
- If teachers share their experiences, they’ll begin to appreciate the power of the PLN when other people thank them and tell them how their students were enriched by it
- PLNs are about open conversations - as long as you’re listening and contributing, the conversation continues
Screencasting
- Screencasting is a digital video and audio recording of what occurs on a presenter’s computer screen
- it is an effective instructional format that can be used for tutorials, demonstrations, digital storytelling, and narrated powerpoints
- A screencast can include different elements, such as music, sound effects, audio, and graphics
- It as emerged as a prominent teaching tool on the internet; students can learn by example, seeing step by step in great detail on what to do
- By being able to pause, it gives students the option to move at their own pace
- Flipped: What can be done in a classroom can now be done at home & vice versa