Learning is Change

What I'm Using: BuzzSumo for finding amazing links shared around your PLN.

I have found searching on BuzzSumo to be highly useful for finding the latest information being shared around your social networks. Since there is no such thing as “catching up” on your reading, the best I can do is learning with others. I am finding that this kind of research lets me learn with others much more easily than just searching on Twitter in many cases.

BuzzSumo

Find Amazing Content The Top Content search makes it easy for you to find the most shared content across multiple social networks: Discover what people are sharing the most in your niche Analyze what topics, headlines, and content formats work Find interesting content to curate Discover guest post and interview opportunities Analyze your competitors top content by entering a domain

I think this conversation is so important. We can’t let our communities become #linktoilets.

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I think this conversation is so important. We can’t let our communities become #linktoilets.

We have a responsibility to start conversation and not promote an agenda. What do you all think?

Originally shared by Ben Rimes

I postulated the other week that most Google+ Communities are nothing more than a #linktoilet  where members go to promote themselves and don’t really engage in conversation.

I know this isn’t entirely true, and I’ve got nothing against self-promotion and amassing huge link resources, but what if we used this space to actually generate conversation, discussion, and deeper understandings of education and educational theory? Would that be too much for MACUL’s traditional audience, or just what the organization needs?

Discuss, please.

What I'm Learning: Creating Pivot Tables in Google Sheets

This is a really great presentation and video that finally got me to understand the ways in which you would create and use pivot tables. Thanks, Alice Keeler.

How to Create a Pivot Table to Summarize Student Information | Teacher Tech

Pivot tables are an incredibly powerful tool for summarizing information.  When looking at data oftentimes there are repeats in the information.  Multiple times a students name is listed.  Multiple times an assignment title is listed.  Multiple times a disciplinary action was taken.  To make sense of a spreadsheet with many rows of information a pivot table can make sense of the chaos.

What I'm Using: Oppia – Online Learning that is about Exploration

I’m really intrigued by the deeper learning that can happen when the learning process is iterative, as it is in these explorations. This open source project was initiated by Google, so there may be more development afoot. I’m particularly keen on the idea of adaptive questions and co-creating these explorations. Anyone have a topic they want to “explore”?

Oppia – Home

Bite-sized learning journeys, by anyone and for everyone It’s hard to learn to play the piano just by watching a video of a great pianist. Interactive learning is much more effective! oppia.org helps you make embeddable interactive educational “explorations” that let people learn by doing.

What I'm Learning: Failed Sharing is a Thing.

I really love this post about how sharing comes with responsibility. The responsibility is to credit a creator or provide a context for what you have shared. My biggest connection to this work is the idea that “the people” are just as important as “the things” we share. Without the people, those things wouldn’t exist. Without the people, our learning won’t evolve. Without the people, we are stuck without a community.

Let’s make sure we share the people when we share the things.

Saving the World from Failed Sharing? | The Tempered Radical

In a digital world where content can be shared and replicated quickly and easily, we have to do a better job identifying our original work IF getting credit is something that matters to us.  My mistake as a creator was failing to place any kind of identifying information on the image and then sharing it out through Twitter — a place where the originators of ideas are quickly lost in an ever-changing stream of 140 character messages.

What I'm Learning: 2 Minute PD

This is one of my favorite blog posts of the last few months. It really digs into why the current state of PD is so poor, but also moves beyond it. It suggest that we might all do better to create 2 minute PD videos that we share and use collaboratively and collectively. Nice work, Melissa Pelochino.

d.school: the whiteboard | Designing what’s next in teachers’ professional development

Here, as I see it, are the main issues facing professional development for teachers: There is an over-saturation of information. We are not teaching teachers in ways that we want them to teach kids. Learning is not differentiated in any way. Rather than sticking with what works and building on it, PD tends to go in the direction of the latest fad.

I found two things pretty wonderful about this post on the future of #PD:

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I found two things pretty wonderful about this post on the future of #PD:

The main issues she identifies that are facing Professional Development:  

1. There is an over-saturation of information.

2. We are not teaching teachers in ways that we want them to teach kids.

3. #Learning is not differentiated in any way.

4. Rather than sticking with what works and building on it, PD tends to go in the direction of the latest fad.

The second thing I found wonderful about this post is the 2 minute PD. 

What would you do a 2 minute PD about? What would it look like?

I would challenge all of you to create a 2 minute PD as a part of this. I know I will!

http://dschool.stanford.edu/fellowships/2014/03/27/designing-whats-next-in-teachers-professional-development/

Very nice!

 

Very nice!

Originally shared by Google

Now you can get to your favorite Google products even faster by customizing how they appear in your Google bar. Just drag and drop to rearrange the apps and bring your favorite products to the top.

You can also easily add Google products that aren’t part of the Google bar, like Google Keep and Google Scholar. Learn more: http://goo.gl/hw2cri

We’re rolling this out over the next couple weeks, so please hold tight if you aren’t seeing it yet.

How Clear Is Your Role?

This podcast episode is dedicated to the idea that we don’t have clarity around the differences between educational technology, blended learning, personalize learning, instructional technology, IT, professional development, online professional development and any other role that works with technology and adult or student learning.

While I don’t solve that confusion within this podcast, I do talk about the ways in which icing it working.

How Clear Is Your Role?

Could be really good improvements for tracking machines in your building.

 

Could be really good improvements for tracking machines in your building.

Originally shared by Melissa Benson

New Features: View Recent Activity & Recent Users for Chromebooks

Just saw this now… It shows..   Which looks like this…     How to get there? Device management/Devices/ [Click on a device] Recent Activity To turn on the recent users you have to go into your Device settings and turn it on.   My questions…if a device…