4 Ways To Grow Your Personal Learning Network This Week

“Alone we are smart, but together we are brilliant. We can use the collective wisdom to do great things when we are connected.”

I said that way back on September 17, 2013 and yet I think it is even more true today than even back then.

When I was in the classroom, I felt isolated as a teacher. Teaching middle school math and science my first few years out of college I had ideas as to what I wanted to do but I really needed help. I would reach out to my colleagues but many were apprehensive to give away their secrets. They wanted their kids to be the best using the methods they had developed over the years. All I wanted to do was improve and I felt stuck.

We live in an age where we have near real time access to just about anything you want to know and to the people who know it best. Social media allows us to connect, to learn, to grow and to reflect not only within ourselves but with each other. As just as my quote says we are brilliant together.

Recently, on a webinar with my friend Erin Olson, she talked about an activity she does with teachers. She has them write 3 things they need to improve their learning and 3 things they can give to improve the learning of others. As you could guess it’s easy for them to write the 3 things they need. However, when asked about the 3 things to give many struggle to come up with one. Many educators still believe they have little to offer to improve the learning of their colleagues.

All of us have something to offer. An incredible lesson or teaching method that just worked. Or maybe it was an idea that was born out of a struggle to get kids to better understand their content. All of us have had those wins that could help others win too. Being a connected educator is more than just taking ideas from a Twitter chat or even this blog post. It’s about always being in pursuit of that selfish goal of improving our learning so we can improve learning for kids.

Our personal learning networks are all different. Mine looks different from yours and yours from mine. But that is where the beauty lies. Each of us has something different to learn and different to offer. They are going to naturally look different. And they are a constant work in progress. We don’t just decide to have a personal learning network and we find some folks to follow and we are done. Connected educators constantly have to be chasing down the learning they need and the educators who know it best.

4 Ways To Grow Your Personal Learning Network This Week

Edweb-Most know Edweb for their awesome webinars (like this one this week on school culture.) But what many don’t know are the extensive communities that come with those webinars. In those communities there are blogs, messages boards and tons of people to follow and learn from. And you don’t have to feel like you have to visit all the time. At the end of the day you can get a simple email that tells you all that was discussed and upcoming events. You can participate at your pace. The Leadership 3.0, Early Childhood Learning Solutions, Game-Based Learning and Amazing Resources For Educators. Come for the webinars, stay for the conversations!

ASCD Edge-The ASCD Edge community is full of some of the brightest minds in education sharing blogs, having discussions and posting resources. You don’t have to be a member of ASCD (although you should be) to join. Create a free account and browse the hundreds of groups, and insightful blogs. The groups cover topics like Being A New Teacher, Mobile Learning, Problem Based Learning and more. And if you don’t find a group that suits your learning needs you can request a new one created for you.

Google Communities-Often overlooked, Google Communities can be a great place to connect with others on loads of topics. Of course they have many Google related like the Google Classroom community. But there are several other active ones like Connected Classroom, PBL, and Digital Leadership.

Voxer-This one will surprise many, because I am not a Voxer fan. I have used it sparingly and honestly don’t know if I even have the app on my phone any more. For me Voxer doesn’t work. For others it may be the best thing ever. Voxer is a 2-way, walkie-talkie type app. Think of it like leaving a voicemail for someone without calling. You can create small groups and leave longer voice messages or text. The app is free and many educators use them for book talks, reflection, or to, believe it or not deliver professional development. This is a very comprehensive list of ongoing Voxer conversations that you can jump into.

If you are looking for more ways to grow your PLN, Shaelynn Farnsworth and I recently wrote a blog post about why it’s important to be connected, and you can check our our resources we shared recently at ASCD.

It’s important to point out here that the tool is just the means we use to connect. It’s what we do with those connections that really matters. The art of being connected is in the conversations, the discussions, the debates, the learning, sharing and growing that all take place when we connect to each other.

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4 Pieces Of The Connected Educator Puzzle

Steven Anderson and Shaelynn Farnsworth lay out what Connected Educators do and how it’s a always a work in progress.

Educators today can no longer just walk into the classroom, shut their door and teach. In every facet of our practice there are other educators doing amazing things that we can all learn from. Through the creation of our Personal Learning Network we find smart folks we can learn, share and grow with. The whole purpose of creating a PLN and becoming a Connected Educator is learning to network but also networking to learn. We are all smarter when we connect to each other.

The 4 Pieces Of The Connected Educator Puzzle

Connect-The first step in becoming a Connected Educator is to, well connect! There are so many great educators doing great things and they are sharing them on a near constant basis. In order to take advantage of all that learning we have to go to where they are. Traditionally, Twitter has been the entry point for many looking to grow their PLN. And rightly so. Twitter is easy to use, tweets are short in length, and by utilizing hashtags, has something for everyone. No matter your content area, grade you teach or topic you are interested in there are educators on Twitter to connect with and learn from.

Twitter works for many but may not work for all. Being a connected educator doesn’t mean limiting yourself to one place or another. We have to seek out diverse voices in multiple places.

• The Classroom 2.0 Community is one place to start. It is one of the oldest social networks for educators. 
• Another place would be the various Google Communities that are full of educators sharing and growing. 
• Edweb has many communities on a variety of topics like leadership, technology, literacy and more. 
• Facebook, too, is full of educator groups and pages to connect with others. 

It really doesn’t matter what place you go to to find smart folks to connect with. The point is to go to those places and find the voices that matter to you and your learning.

Consume- Once you are connected, then you can begin to see the large volume of resources, ideas, blog posts and more that are shared and exchanged nearly every hour of every day. There is power is lurking and consuming the stuff others are sharing. If we are lurking we are learning. And it’s a powerful second step to becoming a connected educator.

The places to consume wonderful educational content are vast and endless.

• Twitter again is where many start. Hashtags contain so many wonderful links and ideas you can spend hours there. #Edchat, #edtech, #makered, and #pbl are just a very small part of the much larger educational hashtag community. But remember, we need diversity in places to learn. 
• Blogs can be a simple and easy way to consume. And the Teach100 list has many to choose from. 
• Also, all the communities we looked at above have resources and great content shared all the time. 
• Need to learn on the go? The list of educational podcasts is growing day by day. 

Just like it doesn’t really matter where you go to connect, there is no singular best place to consume for learning. Both of us mix it up daily. Steven will read tweets and then listen to a podcast. Shaelynn will check out what’s happening in Google Communities and then read some blogs. Every day is different for us both. Learning and sharing happens everywhere and we have to go to where it is, everyday.

Converse- Consuming information is just part of the overall evolution of a Connected Educator. The next piece of the Connected Educator puzzle is to join the conversations. In Steven’s book The Relevant Educator he explains that Connected Educators discuss, debate and exchange ideas. There are many ideas in education that deserve more conversation, further inquiry and collegial debate. And it’s in those conversations, especially with those that have different views from our own, where we can push our thinking and extend our learning.

All of the places we’ve looked at to connect and consume have places for conversations. On many blogs the comments section provide a place to push back or extend the thinking. All of the communities have ongoing conversations that you can join or start your own to get others talking. Twitter chats are a quick and easy way to jump into conversations on all sorts of topics. Many of the hashtags that are great for consuming content also have synchronous chats that take place at scheduled times. There are non-traditional places too like Voxer where you can connect, consume and converse.

Contribute- The last piece of the puzzle for becoming a Connected Educator is contributing. All of us is an expert in something. Even if we don’t think we have anything to add we will find something in our learning that others can benefit from. Sharing is how we all learn from each other, finetune our craft and invite others into our classroom. Start a blog. Send some tweets. Start your own hashtag chat. Visit an Edcamp. Record your own podcast. Whatever you do, share your learning and your brilliance with the world.

Being a connected educator isn’t a specific recipe you can follow. You don’t master one step and move to the next. Both of us will tell you that, while we’ve been Connected Educator for many years we both still consider ourselves a work in progress. You never really “arrive” as a Connected Educator. It’s an ongoing process that you change and perfect over time.

Connect With Us!

Steven W. Anderson
Website: http://www.web20classroom.org
Blog: http://blog.web20classroom.org
Twitter: @web20classroom

Shaelynn Farnsworth
Website and Blog: http://shaelynnfarnsworth.com
Twitter: @shfarnsworth

Becoming Connected Is Easier Now More Than Ever

This post is sponsored by Samsung. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Across the globe educators just wrapped up celebrating Connected Educators Month. During October the focus was on helping all educators, everywhere, understand the importance of being connected to one another and an examination of all the ways to make that happen. It's always a fun month filled with book clubs, webinars, chats and conversations.

My one complaint with Connected Educators Month is that it's just a focus for a month. Being a Connected Educator can't be something we push once a month or for a week here and there. Being a Connected Educator is a mindset.

As Tom Whitby and I point out in our book, The Relevant Educator: How Connectedness Empowers Learning (Corwin, 2014) we believe there are 8 things all Relevant, Connected Educators do:

• Practices and Models Lifelong Learning
• Views Failure As Part of the Process of Learning
• Believes in Sharing and Collaboration
• Willing to Explore, Question, Elaborate, and Advance Ideas Through Connections With Other Educators
• Uses Technology and it's Connection to Other Educators to Learn and Teach
• Uses the Tools of Technology to Personalize Their Professional Development
• Comfortable With New Technology and Shows a Willingness to Explore
• May Put Creation Over Content and Relevance Over Doctrine

These Tenets of being a Relevant, Connected Educator should be embraced by all in the teaching profession. We are deliberately provocative for a reason. In order to maintain relevancy in the classroom for students and each other, educators need to connect together, to learn, share, reflect and grow. 

While it sounds like a daunting task for those that are just beginning to explore this world, it doesn't have to be. Our mobility, use of social media and access to devices has made making connections easy and impactful. 

Learning On The Go-More and more educators are writing, reflecting and sharing through blogs and articles. Because of the shear volume it can be difficult to find exactly what you looking for. And who has time to sit in front of a laptop for hours searching for just the right blog post. We can use those in-between times because of our access to mobile to do some learning, growing and reflecting. Waiting for a doctors appointment? Picking up the kids after school? Any time we're waiting can be time for learning. 

Apps like Flipboard curate the web and find the content that you want to see. It allows the user to customize the sources and type of content you want to see. For example, I can give a piece of content and thumbs up and now the app knows I like that source and like that topic and it will find similar content for me. Apps like this not only make learning happen anywhere, it makes that learning truly personal. 

Personalizing Professional Development-Personalized learning doesn't have to stop at apps. Educators, now more than ever before have multiple options to take part in professional learning from the comfort of their own home. As Samsung points out in a great post, over 90% of teachers have a need for specific PD in digital resources. And in most cases these needs are drastically different (just as they are in the classroom). The reality is, districts can't provide personalized PD to every educator. Therefore, we have to seek out those places on our own to fill those gaps. 

Edweb is one of my favorites. Edweb is a group of communities on a wide variety of educational topics. Leadership, digital learning, the arts, school communications, even school gardens are just a handful of the 100's of communities that are there. Communities have message boards to share ideas and ask questions, blogs, and more. But the best part of Edweb are the free (and on-demand) webinars that take place there. On any given day you can find 2-4 free webinars on an even wider variety of topics. And after each webinar every participant gets a certificate of attendance. Can't attend a webinar live? No worries! You can view it on demand in the community. 

Reflecting on our Learning-Just as it's important for students to do, educators need to reflect on their learning and share that growth with others. Often we just need to talk-it-out with others to better understand our own positions and thoughts. Teaching can be isolating but it doesn't have to be. Alone we are smart but together we are brilliant. We have to work and share together to all be better. 

Twitter chats, as I have said for a very long time, can be a great starting point for these types of reflections. As a founder of #edchat, I have seen the evolution of Twitter chats over the last 7 years and seen the impact and power they can have for educators. In the beginning there were just a handful of chats to pick from. Today there are in upwards of 30 a day. Most states in the US have a chat, and there are chats that take place from all corners of the globe on just about any topic you can choose from. Check out the Twitter Chat schedule to learn more and, most importantly, commit to participating or lurking on a chat. 

As Educators, being connected should be an important part of our growth process. If we are truly committed to being lifelong learners and we want students to learn the importance of lifelong learning than we must use the power of mobility, social media and digital devices to reach out and learn, reflect and grow together. 

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8 Education Books For The Digital Age: The Connected Educator Series #CorwinCE

From The Shameless Promotion Department, I am proud today that I become a published author. My book, The Relevant Educator ships today. Below is a post (thanks to the most awesome Mark Barnes) about the entire Connected Educator Series from Corwin.

Ask any of the thousands of teachers who regularly use Twitter, Pinterest, or Facebook about connected education, and you may get an earful about using digital tools as a means to connect with educators and students worldwide. But if you ask teachers who have never used a social network, blog, or mobile device for learning in their classrooms to discuss connected education, you are likely to be met with blank stares, furrowed eyebrows and shrugged shoulders. 

Enter Corwin Press and the Connected Educators Series. 

In an effort to connect all teachers, EdWeek author and Corwin editor Peter DeWitt enlisted the help of his professional learning network (PLN) in order to launch a series of books on digital learning, digital leadership, mobile learning, digital citizenship, and everything else that is connected education. 

Series Editor Peter DeWitt, says, "It is our hope and intent to meet you where you are in your digital journey, and elevate you as educators to the next level." 

Corwin's Connected Educators Series features short books, about 70 pages, in both paperback and electronic formats, aimed at helping educators improve classroom practice and educational leadership in the digital world, something that has been sorely missing in the education book world. The first books in the series will be published in August and September. 

Below are all the books, so far in the series with a short description of each. 

The Relevant Educator: How Connectedness Empowers Learning, by Tom Whitby and Steven Anderson (Hey, thats me! ): Two of the profession's most connected educators explain how to effectively use social media to build a professional learning network. 

Flipped Leadership Doesn't Mean Reinventing the Wheel, by Peter DeWitt: If we can flip the classroom, why can't we flip faculty meetings and other kinds of communication with parents and teachers? According to DeWitt, we can.

The Edcamp Model: Powering Up Professional Learning, by The Edcamp Foundation: Professional development has never been so simple than when teachers create it. The Edcamp model connects educators to PD like never before. 

Teaching the iStudent: A Quick Guide to Using Mobile Devices and Social Media in the K-12 Classroom, by Mark Barnes: Knowledge is in the palm of learners' hands, making them iStudents. This book helps teachers understand how to maximize this incredible power.

Connected Leadership: It's Just a Click Away, by Spike Cook: In the 21st-century, it's critical that principals create a transparent school for all stakeholders. Principal Cook shows school leaders how to author blogs, PLNs and more, in order to open up a digital window to your school for parents and community. 

All Hands on Deck: Tools for Connecting Educators, Parents, and Communities, by Brad Currie: The connected educator doesn't just connect with students and colleagues. She connects with parents and community, using 21st-century tools. Currie shows readers how this is done.

Empowered Schools, Empowered Students: Creating Connected and Invested Learners, by Pernille Ripp: Connecting also means empowering. Ripp shares a variety of methods for teachers and school leaders to empower colleagues and students to help each other build a strong learning community. 

The Power of Branding: Telling Your School's Story, by Tony Sinanis and Joseph Sanfelippo: Connected educators must teach students about digital citizenship, and what better way to teach this lesson, according to administrators Sinanis and Sanfelippo, than by showing students how to brand their own schools? 

These eight books are the first in Corwin's ongoing Connected Educators Series. Several more are currently in production and scheduled for publication in early 2015. For updates, author biographies and other valuable information, visit the Corwin Connected Educators Series website here. You can order Any books in the Connected Educators Series here. Let us know what you think and what you'd like to see next.