When you first begin following teachers on Twitter, it’s ok to lurk. Observe, and see how people communicate. Likewise, if you read an interesting post from a random educator, it’s ok to read the post and move on. Most teachers only read. Don’t get stuck there, though. It’s important to engage. Otherwise, you might as well read a book or memo. Our media is meant to be shared, not just consumed. That’s probably why they call it social media. So, reply. It’s not only warmly welcomed, it’s beginning to be expected. Most teachers using social media want to engage with other teachers, and want to get to know other teachers. Their goal is to develop a professional learning network. As Yoda might say,

Reading does not a PLN make.

By simply leaving a comment on a website, you separate yourself from 99% of all other website readers. As someone who has a website, I take particular interest when someone takes the time to leave a comment. I take the time to figure out who this person is, and try to respond in-kind. It’s not only a great way to get to know other educators on a global scale, but it’s just a nice thing to do.

When people comment on your content (videos, blog posts, tweets), respond. It might not be, “Thanks for the comment,” but it should be some gesture to connect with that person. Even responding with “;)” is engaging. That’s one of the reasons that it’s online. And please, don’t ignore them. I tend to unfollow people if I consistently leave comments for them, and they always ignore my comments. Flickr is a website full of great photos, but few conversations. Instagram is a community full of many conversations. Guess which one I spend my time on?

This is not a “squeaky wheel gets the oil” kind of philosophy. The goal is not to be the loudest or most obnoxious participant. Rather, by genuinely engaging with others, you make the content more meaningful for you and for those you’re connecting with.

When I’m at a conference, I no longer take notes. I write down important ideas and useful websites, but… I write them on Twitter. If my tweet is important or meaningful, someone will respond or retweet it. We have a conversation, and I remember it. My notes from the past are completely ignored, but the connections I make with others is immediately applied.

Learn how to leverage Twitter to extend your professional learning network. Get practical tips on setting up your Twitter account, and getting started on following other educators. You’ll become constantly surrounded by teachers that are passionate about educational technology.

Twitter Resources for Teachers

• Tweeting For Schools
• Educational Hashtags
• Storify helps its users tell stories by curating social media
• 100 Ways To Use Twitter In Education

You can download my presentation, or view it below.

So PowerPoint was introduced back in ’90, dude.
It’s not impressive for communicating through
A visual projected talk given to you

Oh, no.

It was the next step in the talk anthology
Rewritten by machine and new technology
And now you understand the problems I can see

Oh, no
It will bore children
Oh, no
They will ignore them

Video killed the PowerPoint star
Video killed the PowerPoint star
Movies came and changed your heart

Oh, a video

You can make movies in your own home studio
Download and playback from the youtube video
And you can add them to Keynote apropos

Oh, oh
The audience won
Oh, oh
They will have more fun

Video killed the PowerPoint star
Video killed the PowerPoint star
They’re not blind, it’s not up to par
You are assigned to raise the bar

Oh, a video
Oh, a video

Video killed the PowerPoint star
Video killed the PowerPoint star
They’re not blind, it’s not up to par
You are assigned to raise the bar
Movies came and changed your heart
Add to PowerPoint is smart

Integrating video into presentations

• replace images with video clips
• enhance content meaning through video
• mute volume if needed

Use presentation software to edit and organize videos

• clean way to present videos
• avoid searching for videos during a lecture
• videos begin at a specific time–no more fast forwarding
• show multiple videos without editing software
• use Keynote/PowerPoint text entrances to display notes at a specific time

Download YouTube videos

• paste link into http://clipconverter.cc/
• watch YouTube videos if the district blocks Youtube
• no buffering increases reliability
• distraction-free viewing

Scale videos

• add bullet points alongside videos
• show multiple videos
• combine videos with photos

Bill Selak talks about ____.

I know, it’s pretty exciting. As it turns out, the old podcast name was more confusing than informative (or humorous). So, without further adieu… today, Bill Selak talks about analytics. Here’s the cliff notes of the podcast: ignore analytics if you’re an educator. Worry about the content. Worry about connecting with other educators. Don’t worry about how many click you have, and where those clicks came from. If you bother to look and they’re low, you might stop creating content. If you bother to look and they’re high, you might forget about why you have a website in the first place.

Now, imagine if we could apply this model to professional developmoent. Imagine if we could spend all of those hours of staff meetings doing what we want. No more day-long staff meeting. No more week-long trainings. While the content of those is important, how teachers ingest that knowledge can be flipped.

@chrisbell found a great quote about blended learning (aka flipped classroom) from Michael Horn:

the overriding reason to adopt a blended-learning school isn’t because of its cost savings, but instead because of the benefits for students that can result.

If we apply this to professional development, teachers (not students) are going to benefit. Teachers will feel more empowered to take control of their professional development. Teachers will have more choices over how to develop professionally.

Sometimes, though, teachers will need to watch a specific video and discuss it. This is not the end of the staff meeting. Rather, administrators can deliver the content through video, and use staff meeting time to discuss issues, just as a teacher would do with a lesson. This would respect everyone’s time more, and begin to create more of a culture of collaboration.

This seems to be the next logical step in flipping/blending education. Ed Tech Moment launched in December 2011 (which I helped co-found), providing teachers with five-minute tech tutorials. Flip-Lab launched January 2012, providing workshops to teachers. The Infinite Thinking Machine re-launched in April 2012, showcasing innovative teachers.

If you are an administrator, try incorporating the flipped learning model in your staff meetings. Teachers are already doing this on their own, with sites like Twitter and Pinterest. Formalize it, and make it part of your school’s culture. It’s already changing classrooms, and it will change your school.

I don’t want other teachers looking at what I do. They’ll see I’m a fraud, & that I don’t really know what I’m doing.

Or, in infomercial terms: Do you feel like you’re fooling everyone? Making stuff up as you go? Do you ever wonder why you have been given a job as a teacher? Do you sit around and wait for your principal to walk in and say, “The gig is up. We need your keys.”

Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes coined the term Impostor Syndrome (or Impostor Phenomenon) in a 1978 research paper (it’s a quick read). They looked at feelings of inadequacy from a neuroscience perspective. More recently, Dr. Valerie Young believes that 70% of professional feel like they’re not as talented as people think they are. Even Maya Angelou said,

Each time I write a book, … I think, ‘Uh oh, they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody and they’re going to find me out.

As a teacher, it is easy to stay isolated and safe. If you never put your ideas out there, nobody will ever know that you aren’t talented. Sound familiar? The problem is that The Impostor Syndrome is killing teacher collaboration. Few teachers are sharing best practices, blog, share videos, share PowerPoints, etc. Instead, they keep all their (awesome) ideas to themselves.

The solution? Talk. EdCamps and Twitter chats require conversation. If you’re not participating in these, here’s how it goes: listen, participate, emulate, innovate. Simply knowing that others feel this same way could lead you to be willing to share your ideas and your work. Teaching is an art form, and I understand the hesitancy on the part of other teachers. So, while I’m still waiting for other shoe to drop and be pronounced a faker, I remind myself that most educators I know seem to think I’m pretty good at what I do. Now I just need to convince myself.

I created the seating chart as a spreadsheet. When you add points below a student’s name on the seating chart, they automatically appear in a column (called Participation) on the spreadsheet. You can import this spreadsheet into Numbers on your iPad. Then, you simply walk around your classroom and add points (or notes) to the seating chart, and the automatically appear next to the student’s name on your spreadsheet.

This template has five seating charts, and one main spreadsheet. If you’re a

• single subject teacher: use one seating chart per class period
• multiple subject teacher: use one seating chart per content area
• music teacher: use one seating chart per instrument group

Feel free to change the size and layout of the seating chart–it’s just a spreadsheet. If you don’t know how to link cells in a spreadsheet, just watch a YouTube video on it. You can always be low-tech and print out this template, but I think it works best if you have save it on your iPad, so that you can always have an up-to-date gradebook in your hands. You can easily add this spreadsheet to Numbers on your iPad via Dropbox or iCloud.

If you have suggestions or requests, please add them to the comments below. Feel free to share this template–I licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

improve teaching & learning powered by technology, leaving no child left offline.

Overview

Our first meeting was March 20 at the California Department of Education. Superintendent Torlakson began the meeting saying, “Technology is a big game changer.” It’s refreshing to hear that he already views technology in the classroom as mandatory. Our conversations aren’t about if we need technology in the classroom, but how do we implement. His vision is to extend the walls of the classroom through technology, and bring 21st Century tools into California’s classrooms.

We will create an action document, not a static plan. The previous education technology plan is already six years old; we will give him a hot-off-the-press plan to take to the legislature. We will look at the federal plan for technology, see what makes sense, and recommend concrete goals for the superintendent to take to the Capitol. He is looking for an agile use of technology–as an example, digital textbook adoptions should take one year, not six years (like it currently does).

There are 48 people on the Education Technology Task Force, including teachers, administrators, technology directors, superintendents, and researchers. Before the group met face-to-face, I already knew Mike Lawrence, Ken Shelton, Robert Craven, and Tory Temple through regional ed tech circles. Seeing the group as a whole, I am astounded by the diversity and the talent, from Esther Wojcicki who helped found Creative Commons, to Richard Quinones, LACOE’s CTO of Technology Services. With expertise in this many different backgrounds, I am confident that our action plan will be not only well-balanced, but also forward-thinking.

Our task force is divided into four subgroups: Learning, Teaching, Assessment, and Infrastructure. I am in the Teaching work group, where our task is to recommend ways to support educators that are integrating technology. We get to examine teacher and admin standards, as well as the tech support needs, and recommend how to improve the state of technology in the classroom.

I was shocked at the aggressive timeline this task force is on–we will have a memo written to the state superintendent by July 2012. This memo is about technology implementation, not about its efficacy.  Superintendent Torlakson will take the memo, draft an action plan, and take it to the legislature in fall, with the goals  being implemented in 2012.

Contribute

You can also follow @edtechtaskforce and task force members on Twitter. The groups’s hashtag is #edtechtaskforce. You can share the news release as a PDF, or share it on Facebook. If you want to submit input, visit comment.edtech.myboe.org. My BOE is promoting themselves as “Facebook for teachers.” It’s a great place to leave suggestions, ideas, and connect with other ed tech teachers. We will be reviewing comments from the My BOE website at our next meeting in April. As always, you can leave comments below, or tweet at me.

I’m excited to have an opportunity to actually make a change in the way California treats technology in the classroom.