Thing 17- Professional Learning Networks

Learnport seems to be a great resource for teachers to not only continue their education, but the netTrekker search appears to be a wonderful tool for teachers to find or enhance their content area with great ideas and technological tools to engage learners.  Learnport has a very userfriendly website, filled with tutorials, an easy to use search engine, a vast amount of courses, and a place to keep track of courses completed to help simplify the process of continuing teacher education and the process of getting recertified.  On NetTrekker, I am especially excited to further explore the English Learners section to gain more ideas and resources for helping my ELL students close the achievement gap.  However, I can see the need to help veteran teachers become comfortable with this new system of accredidation and maybe a quick walk through on how to use NetTrekker with some one on one assistance.

The purpose of Twitter and Facebook is help people stay connected and share with each other no matter where they are in the world.  It allows people to stay up to date with the happenings in each others lives without having to be in direct contact either in person, phone, or skyping. 
The pros of using these sites in the classroom are that they are engaging to students, it opens the line of communication for parents, students, and teachers 24 hours a day, it allows for an interesting way to dialogue about a concept or piece of literature, it could be used to allow students from different cultures and countries to dialogue on a concept, it allows students a chance to move at their own pace and helps students that struggle speaking in front of piers because they do not have to respond immediately in a classroom setting, it allows students who are absent because of illness or a family trip to stay informed and be able to interact with the class, and it allows advanced and struggling students a platform for asking the teacher or others for help or to find ways to enhance their education.  The cons of using these sites are it opens communication for parents, students, and teachers 24 hours a day, it can be a slippery slope if a student is to take a comment posted by the teacher on an assignment the wrong way and then possible respond back in an innappropriate way, it could lead to bullying if students responses become negative before the teacher can delete them, and not all students have access to the internet so it could alienate those that do not have the capability of getting on line outside of school.    I put down the ability to communicate 24 hours a day in both because it is a great thing to always have open lines of communication, but in my experiences, sometimes people will say things in type that they would never say in person or on the phone.  Therefore, some parents or students or even teachers may type something in the heat of the moment and once it's been saved, it is for all to see.  This may lead to messy situations.  Also, with younger students like my 3rd graders it may take a long time for them to create responses since their typing skills are very lacking. 

As far as outside the classroom, I think the pros are that families, freinds, and associates can always stay in touch and be a part of our ever changing lives via these tools even though they live on opposite sides of the world.  It also really helps to "shrink" the size of our planet and allow us unique oppurtunities to build relationships with people from other cultures and countries around the world.  The only cons I can think of are the ones that cause annoyance.  For example, when people tweet about their dog watching tv all the time, someone you meet but didn't really care for continues to contact you, or a relative keeps saying things that are out of control or inviting you to play "barnyard' games on the site. 

Wow, there are so many sites out their for teachers to improve as educators, especially using technology.  However, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with all outstanding sites that I'm learning about and then the plethora of ideas at each site.  How will I find the time?  Ever feel like a little fish in an ocean of information?

International Society for Technology in Education:  The purpose of ISTE is to make sure that technology is being used to improve learning and teaching to help students reach there full potential.  The standard membership is less than $10 a month.  The benefits of being a member are that you receive the magazine Learning & Leading with Technology to help keep you informed, you get 60% off webinars to learn new things about learning and teaching with technology, and access to NETS resources and ISTE's online communities that gives the teacher more resources and oppurtunities to communicate with like minded educators on using technology to improve learning.  The unique skills and abilities that I could contribute are all the ideas and input I can give from using the things I am learning from the 21st Century class with my elementary students and giving feedback on what works the best, didn't work, and where change could take place to improve the technological experience for elementary kids in a diverse school environment.