My PLN

A PLN or Professional Learning Network is the group of people that you go to in order to further your knowledge in the areas that you need for a chosen profession. Most often when discussed within the parameters of technology it refers to your online colleges that you can communicate with either directly, i.e. commenting on their blogs, or indirectly, i.e. listening to their podcasts.

To be honest I haven't listen or paid to much attention beyond what has been required of me by this class. It isn't that what they are saying isn't interesting, it is quite the opposite, but for me personally I cannot keep my interest. The reason for this is that although I am getting more and more familiar with the language used by the education profession, this is my first class directly related to it. With more time, experience, and knowledge of the subject my interest in it increases because I have more to relate what I am hearing or reading to.

Having a strong PLN is incredibly important for numerous reasons. Teachers can sometimes feel alone in a classroom, often have to rely on their creativity to reach to their students, understand new technology, have new ideas but needs to flesh them out, and other problems they cannot find the answer to locally. For all of these issues there is an online community that not only can solve or assist them but is eager too. You can determine your own level of involvement with a PLN, and just as much as a PLN helps you, a you can help others within your PLN. I plan on being active in a PLN, regardless of whither or not I end up in the teaching profession.

Evaluating Web Pages for Students

When teachers recommend a website for students to use they are putting a lot on the line. Any website, even some that seem harmless at first, may end up having offensive, explicit, or otherwise age inappropriate material. Before using a website in class you have to first keep in mind that everything on that website can be clicked on and followed, this includes even the advertisers. Prior to using the site you should navigate around the site clicking on EVERYTHING to see if any strange things pop up.

If you are using a site that has a search option it would be a good idea to see what things are returned if a student searches for material that you assign him/her to search for. It is sometimes surprising how an innocent search can return not so innocent results. It should also be kept in mind that some students may in fact want to find material that is explicit or pornographic, what can they find if they are looking?

More than just offensive material, we must also keep a look out for patently false information being passed along as fact. Anyone can post anything online and claim to be part of a foundation/organization/think tank/what have you. Look to see if there are any organizations that support them that are credible, or to find out who is the author and if he/she is credible.

Technology Integration

Technology Integration is going to be one of the most controversial topics of the next generation in teaching. As our society changes to embrace technological advances we have to incorporate all of them into our classrooms so as to effectively prepare the students.

I think the most poignant example of this is how we are going to have to teach writing skills. In our lives we will most likely never write a paper for class on paper, most likely it will be on some form of word processor. Our old style of writing rough drafts and then re-writing a final is no longer relevent anymore, but the same type of editing is required. Editing on a word processor is many times easier then by hand. Just during the typing of this post I've moved around sentenses, inserted a new paragraph, changed the wording to avoid repeating the same phrase and done all the other things that you do changing from a rough to final draft. We need to teach our kids how to do things that are important with the same tools that they will have at their disposal and not the ones from generations ago.

In addition cursive spellling will not come up, ever, in a ten year olds life. On the other hand that ten year old would greatly benefit from skipping cursive and using that time to learn how to touch type on a computer. Cursive was designed to be a form of writing that was faster and more acceptable for official documentation. That was before computers. I now type at around sixty words per min, much much faster than I can write. Plus typing has become the offical form of documentation, not cursive. This is another way in which we can intergrate technology into our classrooms.

How do I provide equal access to tech?

Making technology available for all students in your classroom is a difficult conflict that all teachers have to resolve. We all need to find our own answers. The most difficult thing that I would foresee is lack of actual computers in the classroom. Not every student will have his or her own computer available to them in the classroom. A reasonable expectation could be only 4 or 5 computers per class. This isn't even taking into account the condition, specifications and software available on the computers you do have.

With these limitations we have to be creative if we are going to give equal access to all students. Some of my ideas for ways to meet this goal would be.

• Assign homework research projects that must be done in either the school or the public library, this allows students a chance to use computers but also allows even students who don't have home access to the internet to be included.
  
• Use computer surveys as pre-tests to understand where the students understanding of a topic has started. This can be done over the course of a day with students taking turns on limited computers.
• Break the class into smaller groups and have them work at stations, each station has a different task. One station could involve using the computers.
• Use the computer in front of the class to connect to websites, podcasts, webcams or other presentations, it may not be hands on access but it is equal.
• Devote class time to allow students to utilize educational websites that show content but also allow them to develop study skills