OMG – so much to do, where to now?

I am really enjoying the articles, websites and blogs that I have been reading but there is no way I can read and give all my attentions to all that I read.  I am not a great reader anyway but this is really difficult and frustrating because I am keen to read as much as possible, but short of giving up hockey, cooking, speaking to my partner and everything else I am not going to read everything.

A perfect example is Richard Byrne, he tweets some amazingly interesting stuff that is on his blog, he tweets so much and so often that I will never be able to read all of his tweets let alone read all that is on his blog.  I am truly struggling, nearly everything I read has some relevance, somethings I know are just information, some are things I want to do but many more are the things I need to investigate further to see how they best fit the things I am currently doing.

I certainly need to prioritise: the whole school projects, using Google as a VLE, BYOD and general infrastructure information; the things I want to do with my teaching and the things that I can share with the other staff at the school so that they will be more comfortable using the technology in the school; and the things of interest, not absolutely essential but could be.

It is the middle group that is pressing, I had a conversation with a parent yesterday because his child had produced her work at home but was upset when she went to present in class the pictures had not come with her.  We had a long discussion where he wanted me to tell him what platform we were advocating and to ensure him that the same problem will not happen again.  After some time we got to the point in the discussion where I explained that this is the way of the world and we, as parents and educators, need to teach our kids how to be digital citizens of the world.  This not only means that we teach them responsible and appropriate use of the technology, but also an awareness of different platforms and how to produce work that is accessible on different platforms and that this was not going to be easy especially as many teachers do not have the capacity to do this themselves. At the end of the conversation I felt that I had changed this parent’s view of technology and some of the things that are important when we are teaching using and expecting students to use technology in our classrooms.

And again I see a number of tweets come into my inbox and ask myself what do I read and what is going to help the students and teachers of my school to deliver their lessons and become digital citizens of the world.

Twitter in 5 minutes

After a couple of my colleagues running  a Professional Learning spot on IT at our staff meeting I thought it might be useful to find some more information about Twitter, how to get on and how to use it.
I have only been in the Twitterverse for a short time, just hanging out reading and watching, but not game enough to post, until today.
I am always fairly nervous about new things and I am pretty keen to research before I invest time and/or money.  I found this article, http://www.edutopia.org/blog/film-festival-twitter-education yesterday.  This is the best description of the use of twitter I have found.  It explains what Twitter is how it is used and what the benefits are and how I might be able to use it in the educational setting.

I don't think I am ready to start Tweeting with my class - Yet.

Welcome to my blog

Welcome to my blog.  Probably like most people I never thought I would really be a blogger, but I think I have a reason now. 

Six weeks ago I started a new job as the Executive teacher in charge of ICT’s in a new school (I had been at my previous school for 15 years, the last 2 as Executive/ head teacher of Science).  While I do have a diploma in IT, this role is more about leading the school with ICT’s into the future.  It’s very exciting and challenging, when I did my study it was all PC’s and the exciting part was looking at linux as an alternate operating system decided that this was just not going to cut it. To take a school, the staff, the parents and the students into the next generation of education Ii would need some currency.  My initial thought was “get another degree”, study a Masters in ICT Education or something similar, sounds like a good solid plan, but the more I looked into it the less likely that seemed like the solution.  I spoke to a number of people and they said it’s all happening online, my worst nightmare – I didn't want to put myself out there in the Twitterverse and listen to all the non relevant stuff.  But I have, and it’s not too bad, pick who you want to follow, disregard the rest.  I decided to make Facebook for my personal stuff and twitter my workthing, I have also started using Linkedin but I am still not sure if I “get it”.  The other place I was pointed to is “Zite”, an app that puts together articles in the areas that you select.

So how come I’ve decided to be a blogger?  On Friday I was talking to some people about education and professional learning and I suddenly articulated something that I had thought about before but never really been able to spell it out:

                “Professional Learning is only as good as your reflection and ability to share it”.

So since deciding that I wasn’t going to “study” at a university I have read an enormous amount, and that is all good, but how do I put it together and how do I get it straight in my head.  I need to reflect on what I read, I need to think about how it affects the things I do and want to do in my school and I need to share those Ideas, that’s where this blog comes in.  A space to reflect and share the things I have read and the professional conversations I am going to have.