PLN

It's not the destination that matters its the journey; and what a journey it has been. I went into this course not knowing what to expect, when I found out we had to design a site, I was both excited and a little intimidated. I had tried to learn to code in the past but never had the attention span or the drive to master the art. I remember first logging into blogger and being instantly relieved, the site is a breeze to use and offers users a lot of control over layout and design.

I have learned a lot of invaluable skills that will help me become a better educator once I take the plunge and step into the classroom. Having just completed my bachelors in December, I have yet to enter the world of teaching. This class and the others in the program have given me more confidence in my abilities and after my son is born I'm going to start subbing to gain experience before I eventually pursue a position within a district.

But I will have developed one heck of a Personal Learning Network by the time I'm ready to stand in front of the whiteboard (or the digital whiteboard). PLN's were a foreign concept to me before taking this class, but once I understood just how indispensable they were, I was bought in. As I talked about in an earlier post I was happy to find that the teaching community is so warm and welcoming. Our insructor Ed Warkentin encouraged us to participate in twitter chats and follow other Tech Ed leaders in order to grow our PLN. It was through my PLN that I was able to connect with Jimmy Casas one of the authors of What Connected Educators Do Differently, I interviewed Jimmy on the benefits of being a connected educator and what we can expect for the future of education (link to interview).

One of my biggest challenges is going to be pushing myself to continue blogging and growing my PLN, but I'm ready to take on that challenge. I've set reminders on my iPhone to write a post weekly on my blog, and to send daily tweets. I've learned so much in this course and its bittersweet that its ending so soon but I'm stoked about how much I've grown in these six weeks. To my fellow ET735 classmates thank you for the constructive feedback! I look forward to seeing your blogs blossom and stealing from your PLN's ;-P. 

It's a Boy!!!

We just found out we're having a baby boy!!!

Introducing Marcelo Arcadio Melville 

Trending on Twitter

This week Pokemon Go was trending big time on twitter! If you're one of the few people who haven't been bitten by the bug or formed an opinion on the game let me give you a brief overview. Pokemon Go is an augmented reality game by Niantic Inc that allows users to catch Pokemon that are overlaid in the real world by using a smartphone's camera and gyroscope. The game promotes exercise by requiring players to get out of the house in order to hunt down Pokemon, there's also a social aspect to the game because players can choose 1 of 3 teams and take down gyms together. I participated in an Edtech chat on the topic and was happy to see that a lot of educators are seeing the game through a positive lens. I brought up the fact that a lot of the gyms and pokestops are street art and statues since I started playing I've gotten the chance to discover art within my city that I otherwise probably would have never seen. Another educator brought up the fact that Pokemon Go is a numbers game, it takes strategy to level up and math skills are definitely utilized.

Not to mention the health benefits of the game! Pokemon Go has gotten more people to willingly exercise than any health app or fitness tracker ever has. I walked 10 miles in a single day without even realizing it!

What's your opinion on the education potential of games like Pokemon Go? Comment below.

Ed Tech Flipboard Mag

View my Flipboard Magazine.

PLN

Personalized Learning Network 

Social media is one of the most important tools that connected educators have at their disposal. Sites like twitter and facebook, make it easy for to educators to collect, collaborate, communicate, and create with other teachers from around the world. Personal Learning Networks or PLNs, are networks of connected educators that share resources and ideas in order to become more effective teachers. 

Our instructor Ed Warkentin has issued us the challenge of becoming connected educators and building our own Personal Learning Networks. The go-to tool has been twitter for its ease of use and large user base. You would think that sifting through all the content to find quality post would be difficult, but the amount of educators contributing to the site makes finding valuable content and resources a breeze.

had hesitations at first about reaching out to others, but I was pleasantly surprised just how helpful and welcoming the teaching community is. One of the most fun assignments we've done was a video interview with a connected educator. For my interview, I reached out to Jimmy Casas one of the authors of "What Connected Educators Do Differently" he agreed to sit down with me and answer some questions about ed tech and the future of education. Our conversation was one of the most inspiring and inspirational experiences I've had on my education journey. You can find that interview here.

It is truly a small world after all, since creating my twitter account I've connected with educators from Africa, Germany, and France. I've also enjoyed viewing my classmate's blogs and twitter postings. With online classes, you rarely get the chance to interact with other students outside of the class forums. It's nice to have another platform for interaction, and I've been impressed with the content and resources that my fellow students have shared.

I recently picked up a Samsung Gear VR and they have an app that allows you to interact with others in virtual meeting spaces. I imagine that once the technology becomes more prevalent these spaces will become another place for educators to network with one another. What Do you guys think? Will VR will become another PLN tool in the near future? Comment below. 

Follow, Find, Take

This week's assignment required us to FOLLOW a connected educator on twitter. I stumbled upon David Geurin's twitter account by accident, and I'm lucky that I did.  David started out as a highly motivated basketball coach and worked his way up to being a High School Principal. He recently authored a book about how Social Media can help educators, by subscribing to his blog you can get a free copy! Go check it out . David's twitter account is a gold mine for connected educators, I recommend everyone go click that blue follow button. 

For the FIND part of this assignment, I recommend the blogging tool Grammarly. Grammarly is a plugin for the Google Chrome browser that proofreads your post for you. The free version is plenty powerful but they also offer a paid version that promises, even more, capabilities. 

As for the TAKE action portion of this assignment, I plan on taking part in some edtech chats on twitter this week. My interview with Jimmy Casas inspired me to reach out to other edtech leaders so that I can get involved in the community and better prepare myself for the future. I also plan on doing some renovation to my blog to make it more visually pleasing to my visitors. 

Insightful interview with Jimmy Casas 

Author of What Connected Educators Do Differently 

Rich Miner Co-founder of Android is

Starting an Education Focused Project

Within Google

Android Open Source Project was a major player in shaping the modern smart phone. They challenged apples walled garden approach and invited developers to add their own flair and modify their OS. I'm curious to see what Miner plans on bringing to the education world, you can read more on 9 to 5. 

   

 Educational Website Review

Guest Blog

Hey everyone today I have special treat for you Maxwell Debbas wrote a piece about the great how-to site Lynda. Check it out below and be sure to follow the link at the end of the post to check out Max's awesome blog.





One of my favorite teachers is a little lady named Lynda.com

Lynda.com (www.lynda.com) -

Lynda.com helps challenge the process of 'how-to' videos.  While anybody can make a YouTube tutorial video, Lynda.com only allows experts in the industry to teach the video courses.  This makes for an incredibly professional experience, one where you feel like you are actually taking a class and not listening to some kid chew gum while he shows you how to create a blur in Photoshop with his Family Guy computer background.

Lynda has courses in nearly every aspect of business, creative, and technology subject.  Each of these are broken down into categories, sub-categories, and even by lesson sections.  By breaking each course down into shorter videos, the courses are easily digestible and simple to re-watch areas that may be confusing.  Lynda also has transcripts of each course!  If you learn better by reading instead of watching, you are all set.

Lynda can be used heavily in a flipped classroom environment.  It allows at-home learning through professional videos created by some of the most respected people in the field.

I have used Lynda to have my students complete a Photoshop course at home, which allowed me to focus on helping them answer questions or work on larger projects in class.

Lynda.com was purchased by Linkedin last year which didn’t change the site much at all, however Microsoft recently purchased Linkedin.  I do not expect many changes, but if there are any, I can only imagine Lynda.com to become a greater resource.

Tip: Many educational institutions and libraries have Lynda.com subscriptions which give you a free Lynda.com account!  Before you go drop the monthly fee, make sure you don’t already have free access.

peace.

-Max

Maxwellsmart.co

Poll Everywhere!

Poll Everywhere is an easy to use tool to create interactive lectures and quizzes 

Below is a video I made going over the basics of using Poll Everywhere

Great Ted Talk!

Great Ted Talk by Raj Dhingra on Technology and how it can influence student centered learning.

Codecademy 

Codecademy is a great site for picking up coding skills at your own pace!

Codecademy's mission is to make learning to code easy, fun, and accessible.

The lessons are easy to follow and keep you motivated by offering badges for completing a task.

Awhile back I completed a few courses and definitely felt like I learned valuable information.

The Codecademy community is also great, if I had questions someone was always able to point me in the right direction.

Give it a shot fellow teachers, you got nothing to loose!