An introduction to using online communities for personal professional learning

1. Living and Learning Online
An introduction to using online communities for
professional learning
Claire Amos
Email: claireamosnz@gmail.com
Twitter: @claireamosnz

2. Why Twitter?
O It is a
personalised
newsfeed
O It comes to you!
O It’s bite-sized
O It is a quick way to
get a sense of
what current
issues and ideas
are out there.

3. Two ways of learning:
following and hash tags
O Following people or companies that share
your interests is an effective way to learn
about what you are interested in.
O Consider following NZ and international
educators and NZ and International
Education Sector groups
O Alternatively you can search for hash tags
– it is common practice for people to tag
their tweets with related keywords eg.
#edtech or #BYOD

4. NZ Educators
O Fiona Grant @FionaGrant O Stephanie @traintheteacher
O KarenMelhuishSpencer O DK @justadandak
@virtuallykaren O Mark Osborne @mosborne01
O Jacqui Sharp @sharpjacqui O Jo Fothergill
O Dorothy Burt @dorothyjburt @dragonsinger57
O Rochelle Jensen @rjensen O carolynstuart @carolynstuart
O Derek Wenmoth @dwenmoth O Chris Bradbeer
O Allanah King ADE @Allanahk @ChrisBradbeer
O Suzie Vesper @suzievesper O Pam Hook @arti_choke
O Barbara Reid @barbs1 O Stephen Lethbridge
O Sam Cunnane @samcunnane @stephen_tpk
O Jo Fothergill @KiwiJoe90
O Toni Twiss @tonitones
O mark treadwell
O Rachel Boyd @rachelboyd @marktreadwell1
O Noeline Wright @enrite O Allan Alach @allanalach
O tessagray @tessagray O Joyce Seitzinger
O dakinane @dakinane @catspyjamasnz
O Tara TJ @taratj

5. NZ Ed Sector
O Hooked on Thinking O Emerging Leaders NZ
@hooked_on_think @eduleadersnz
O CORE Education @CoreEducation O National Library NZ @NLNZ
O Ulearn @ULearnNZ O Libraries & Learning @L2_S2S
O NZCER Press @NZCERPress O NEAL Education @NEALnz31
O Learning Network NZ @learningnz O CORE Ed Research
O Shifting Thinking @shiftingthinkng @COREedResearch
O INTERFACE Magazine O eTV New Zealand @etvnz
@Interfacemag O Educational Leaders
O Digital New Zealand @DigitalNZ @edleadersnz
O NetSafe NZ @netsafeNZ O Creative Commons NZ
O Te Kete Ipurangi @tkinewzealand @CC_Aotearoa
O NetHui @NetHuiNZ
O Teachers@ PPTA @PPTAWeb
O New Zealand Museums
O MinEducationNZ
@MinEducationNZ @nzmuseums
O NZHistory @NZHistory
O EDtalks NZ @edtalks
O NZ Book Council @nzbookcouncil
O Enabling e-Learning
@enablelearning O Any Questions NZ
@anyquestionsnz

6. International Educators /
Bloggers
O Gary Stager, Ph.D. O Scott McLeod @mcleod
@garystager O Sylvia Martinez
O Ewan McIntosh @smartinez
@ewanmcintosh O Phil Shapiro @philshapiro
O Sir Ken Robinson O stevewheeler
@SirKenRobinson @stevewheeler
O Steven W. Anderson O Simon Breakspear
@web20classroom @SimonBreakspear
O Richard Byrne @rmbyrne O Kevin Honeycutt
O stephen heppell @kevinhoneycutt
@stephenheppell O Christian Long
O Vicki Davis @ChristianLong
@coolcatteacher O Lee Crockett @leecrockett
O Steve Wheeler O Seth Godin
@timbuckteeth @ThisIsSethsBlog

7. International Educational
Sector
O k12online @k12online
O eLearning Learning @elearningPosts
O Education Week @educationweek
O Web News 2.0 @WebNews20
O TEDTalks Updates @tedtalks
O ReadWriteWeb @RWW
O Classroom 2.0 @classroom20
O TED-ED @TED_ED
O 21st Century Teacher @21stCenturyTch
O iTunes U @iTunesU

8. Hash tags to follow
Educational Technology
#edtech
#elearning
#mlearning
#web20
#flipclass
#edchat
#BYOD

9. Virtual Learning Network
VLN Community: A network of school clusters
and educational institutions collaborating to
provide online access to a broad range of
curriculum learning opportunities for students.

10. Enabling e-learning
Enabling e-Learning: The Ministry of Education’s
online ‘hub’ for ICT-related education resources
and programmes in New Zealand.

11. Other VLN groups
There are over 470 groups on the VLN – any educator can join and
create a group. Some groups are closed and private, but many are
public.
Some of the most popular groups are listed below:
O iPad/iPod User Group
O e-Learning: Teaching Explore how and why we use ICTs as part of
effective teaching and learning.
O e-Learning: Leadership Exploring leadership for change, vision,
policy and strategy that integrates ICTs into learning.
O ePortfolios
O Managed Learning Environments (MLE's) Online learning
environments
O Software for Learning
O ICT PD Online In addition to ICT PD Online in Centre 4, this
network hub will provide a space for clusters on the ICT PD
programme to connect together.

12. RSS Feeds and
subscribing to blogs by email
O There are two ways you can subscribe to
a blog for free so you automatically
receive new posts. This way you don’t
have to keep on coming back here to
check for new content.
O One way is by receiving each new post by
email or the other is by signing up for an
RSS Feed…

13. What is an RSS Feed?
RSS Rich Site Summary
RSS feeds can be read using software called an
"RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator
The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed
feeds regularly for new work, downloads any
updates that it finds, and provides a user
interface to monitor and read the feeds. RSS
allows users to avoid manually inspecting all of
the websites they are interested in, and instead
subscribe to websites such that all new content
is pushed onto their browsers when it becomes
available.

14. RSS feed vs. subscribing by
email?
O Blog subscription sends an email to the
reader, while RSS updated that persons
feed reader, like Google Reader. Blog
subscription would be useful if you (the
reader) did not use an RSS reader, but
still wanted to keep up with the blog.
vs.

15. Blogs to follow:
O Free Technology for Teachers
O TED: Ideas worth spreading
O Dangerously Irrelevant
O 21st Century Fluency Project
O The Committed Sardine
O Derek's Blog
O Link to 2011 Edublog Award Winners

16. Get going!
Go to: www.claireamos.com/workshop-info
for workshop slides, guides and hyperlinks.