Mark your calendars for June 9th at 8pm Eastern! PLP will host a Twitter chat on the Common Core! During this one hour chat discussion topics will include:

• How are the common core standards assessed at your school?
  
• How prepared do you feel to implement the Common Core? What kind of support has your school or district provided?
• What are some challenges you have faced as you have begun to integrate the Common Core?
• Do you feel you can successfully incorporate 21st Century Skills into the Common Core? Why or Why not?
• What are some benefits you see in using the Common Core?

We hope you’ll join us for this exciting event where you can share your knowledge and learn from others. We’ll be using the #PLPNetwork hashtag for this live event. Registering just takes a few second and you will get a handy reminder email on the day of the chat.

Click here to register for the chat

Want to learn more about the Common Core?

Join us for a new five week eCourse on the Common Core that starts July 1st. In this course, you’ll learn:

• What are some benefits you see in using the Common Core?
  
• What is the Common Core standards initiative?
• How standards will be assessed
• How-to use collaborative tools to meet Common Core standards
• How to balance the demands of teaching with the Common Core with other curriculum
• Create Common Core lessons and activities that incorporate 21st Century skills and tools
• Click here to learn more

Twitter Novice?

We’ve got you covered. Check out these free resources from PLP Network to help get you ready:

• Twitter 101: Tips and Tricks
• Twitter for Teachers Handbook
• How to get the most out of participating in a twitter chat

In fact, summertime is often when we look to get some quality professional development done. However, with budgets (both in school districts and at home) tight this year, money is a front concern. Fortunately, there are a lot of inexpensive and even free options for doing professional development. Here are some great activities I have used in the past to increase my skills and boost my connected educator quotient.

Start a Blog

I started my blog IndianaJen.com one summer as a place where I could think about ideas in history, explore lesson plans, and reach out to my professional community. It had been on my to-do list for a long time but I just didn’t have the time or energy to build one. In the summer months, I was able to sit down and really think about the direction I wanted to go as an educator and then write it up in short posts. My blog enabled me to broaden my PLN and really develop and build off of those ideas I had swimming around my head. Here are three free blogging options: WordPress; EduBlogs; Blogger.

Explore a Tool or Idea Using YouTube.

If you have a project, tool, or idea you really want to explore, YouTube is a great repository of information. For example, do you want to learn more about Evernote but haven’t had the time to sit down and play with it? Browse the Evernote YouTube Channel for quick how to’s and instructional videos. Want to see what the new Google Maps can do and get some great ideas to explore in your classroom? They also have a YouTube Chanel. What makes these resources so great is that they’re visual, at a basic level, and brief. If you can devote just 10-15 minutes, you’ll be surprised at what you can learn!

Focus on Building your PLN!

You know you need a PLN (Professional/Personal Learning Network). You just haven’t had the time to really focus on building one. Maybe your school blocks Facebook or Twitter so you haven’t been able to grow out your professional network while on campus. Summer is a great time to join some hashtag groups and begin to cultivate virtual colleagues. If you haven’t started a twitter account, do it now. Here is a short video about the basics of Twitter. Twitter also has a great getting started guide. And if you’re ready for an longer tutorial (12 min), try this one by classroom teacher Josh Stumpenhorst, whose presentation strategy is memorable.

In addition to Twitter, you can use Facebook, a Ning and other tools to make PLN connections. Just make sure that you are connecting with people you want to learn from. Who should you follow? Start looking for people you already know: fellow educators, authors you like, leaders at your own institution or within a professional association. Learn about hashtags. You’ll be able to build from there.

Take a Webinar

I love webinars. They don’t require you to travel, they are generally short (some webinars are a one-day event; others are offered as a series over multiple days or even months). Webinars are often interactive, and they are often very inexpensive or even free. You can select your webinar based on your schedule and flexibility.

ASCD, one of the world’s largest education PD organizations, has free webinars with authors and other experts all summer (and archives of past events). Education Week and Education Week Teacher also offer free webinars about education policy, leadership and teaching practice, which are also archived.

Some webinar presenters may ask you to pay a fee, but if the quality is good, it’s an investment you may want to make. Powerful Learning Practice has a series of webinars and courses this summer that can even be taken for credit, including Blogging 101, The Flipped Classroom, Common Core & Technology Integration,  Designing Quality Projects, and many more.

Summer is a great time for educators to hone their classroom skills, deepen their content knowledge, and grow as professionals. With computer access and an Internet connection, you can bring professional development to your own living room at little or no cost. I hope you will share some of the great professional learning opportunities you know about here.

I wanted to see if it was possible to find a project that could engage every student in my 9th grade class of English learners and learn if they all could work together as a team. Most of all, I wanted to see if they could produce an end product that would be authentic and involve collaboration with educators and students globally.

I believe they and I succeeded! The evidence: Our publication of the 200-plus page collaborative book Connected Learners: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Global Classroom. As our press release says, this interactive eBook is

a unique compendium of stories, advice and how-to articles designed to help high school teachers and their students around the globe shift from classrooms that are isolated and teacher-centered to digitally rich environments where learning is student-driven and constantly connected to the global internet.

There are many books on the topic “learning in the 21st century,” and I think I have read most of them. The authors are educators and educational experts I know and admire. Many write about what students want and how students learn. What occurred to me was that there are no books about this topic written by students.

Who are more important in students’ learning than the students themselves? Yet what I discovered was that teachers seldom ask their students important questions about pedagogy and learning. Most often teachers assume that they know what the students want — and that in most cases it’s what the teacher wants.

How our project developed

When I introduced the idea of writing a book in English class, most of my students thought I had completely lost my mind. They imagined it would be just too difficult and that no one would ever want to read it. However, as with most projects, you only need one or two supporters in your group and you are good to go!

What really helped this project was the fact that we could talk to educators and students in every part of the world through our classroom PLN. I know it was when we were skyping with Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano that the students really began to think that they might be able to write a book. The fact that she has 50,000 readers of her blog and 17,000 followers on Twitter made a huge impression on them. As one of my students wrote in the book: “I really started to believe in the project when we had a Skype-interview with Silvia Rosenthal. She really had faith in it –  thought it was a unique idea and promised to help us promote the book.”

We started the project in January and the 219-page book was completely finished on May 14. Two things really amazed me: the students were on task — and they performed. They were enthusiastic and they worked hard. Early in the process, I asked four students to be project leaders, and they never disappointed me. They stepped up, and they got the job done. I assume the trust I gave them by assigning them to leader roles gave the students the confidence and motivation they need to work harder.

We also appointed chapter editors. We would brainstorm on content and ideas and then the chapter editors had to make sure their topic was covered. Using Microsoft’s SkyDrive and OneNote as a platform for collaboration is great because you can see how text is added and read everyone’s contribution. This way it is easy to share ideas and keep up with what needs to be done.

My thoughts on engagement

Every educator wants to experience the moment of “flow” when all the goals are set and understood and work is moving along easily and naturally. When we read about engaging students in the classroom using technology and social media, authors often leave us with the impression that this work will flow gentle as a stream. When talking about motivation and learning in school, grit is most often left out of the conversation. Yet, according to Daniel Pink, the best predictor of success is grit, defined as perseverance and passion for long term goals.

Our published book proves that when you find the right project — one that really involves all the students — they can find the grit and do what it takes to reach the final objective.

And here’s an interesting fact: The most popular topic to write about in this book turned out to be motivation. It is ironic that motivation and innovation are topics we discuss on almost every level in education, from policy makers and educational experts to school leaders and teachers. We are simply missing the most important link here — we do not spend enough time discussing this with our students. My students’ reflections in this book show us that we should spend a lot more time discussing important topics like motivation, learning, pedagogy and technology with them. In this book, we provide many great examples and discussion topics to get us started.

Reflections from my students

Click to see my English class full size!

• “I am sure this project has given every one of us a wider range of experiences. Not only have we learned how to write fuller articles (in English) on areas that were of interest to us. We have also gained a much wider vocabulary and knowledge in many different areas. We have taken part in meetings and conversations with people from different parts of the world. In addition, we have learned how to work independently, and at the same time stay focused and motivated throughout the entire process. That can actually be really hard.”

• “Some students are more enthusiastic than others. Our project was no exception, however we managed to motivate each other and lift each other up. As a project leader, I experienced eagerness among my fellow students. If they had some time left, they were quick to ask for something to do. I find this quality very valuable.”

• “In English class, we work with the curriculum goals. I think it is an excellent way to work. Why? Because when you are able to choose to work with something you are interested in, topics that catch your attention, the motivation goes up. I can remember several instances when I actually forgot I was doing school work, because the task I was given was so appealing that I almost could have done it outside school.”

• “This book shows what is possible to achieve by working together. And it shows that learning can be done, not only by cooperating with your fellow students, but also the teacher. “Connected Learners”, will hopefully help teachers use more digital tools, and guide them towards a better school day for both them and the students. My view of how the classroom should be has certainly changed during this project, and I hope this book will inspire more teachers to change the classroom, together with the students.”

Learn more about our book

We’re happy for the support from Powerful Learning Practice and the PL Press, which is offering Connected Learners: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Global Classroom for sale at the Powerful Learning Press online bookstore for $5.99. All the profits will go into a travel fund for my students so that we can meet in person some of the other global learners we work with online.

If you like our book, you can leave a review at the PLPress book page and/or share your comments here. And I’d be happy to answer any questions if you think you’d like to engage your own students in a book project!

Get your copy now

Written by a team of 27 students at Sandvika High School (Oslo, Norway), Connected Learners: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Global Classroom is a unique compendium of stories, advice and how-to articles designed to help high school teachers and their students around the globe shift from classrooms that are isolated and teacher-centered to digitally rich environments where learning is student-driven and constantly connected to the global internet.

The 220-page collaborative book “takes the reader through all the steps to create a digital classroom,” according to a spokesman for the team of Grade 9 students, “ranging from setting up Twitter and blog accounts, to finding educators and students online for global learning activities, to how to optimize the use of search engines and teach the key elements of digital literacy.”

The book represents the culmination of a student learning project supported by English teacher and international blogger Ann Michaelsen, recognized by Microsoft Partners in Learning as a “Global Hero in Education” in 2012. “This book offers a unique insight into what students and teachers need to know in the 21st century classroom,” says Michaelsen. “I’m extremely proud of what my English learners have accomplished and shared in this remarkable example of project learning.”

From the Introduction:

This year our English class is an active, web-based, networked educational environment and we want to teach YOU how to master the skills of webucation. We will teach you how to make a blog and integrate it into your learning; we will discuss the positive effects of a digital classroom and inspire you to use digital tools.

 

Teachers sometimes struggle to find good use of digital tools for learning. At Sandvika High, 27 students have dedicated their first year of high school to test out different ways to combine pedagogy with technology in the classroom.  In the process, we have written this book to share our knowledge and findings with you. Many teachers assume that students are tech savvy and experts in technology. The truth is that students mostly master only the areas they are interested in.

 

Our goal is to push you off a cliff into the swirling waters of digital education. After pushing you over the edge we will show you how to avoid the razor sharp rocks you might encounter in a digital world with unreliable websites and the constant danger of being distracted… So power up your computer and enjoy the ride.

The 10-chapter interactive digital book is designed to be useful for teachers and students in both high school and middle school. Entirely written, edited and designed by the students themselves, it is available from the Powerful Learning Press bookstore for $5.99.

“PLPress is helping with the promotion and distribution of this unique book as a public service,” said Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, CEO of Powerful Learning Practice LLC, “and in recognition of all the educators and students around the world who are leading the shift to connected learning.” All profits will go into a fund for the Sandvika High students to support physical field trips to schools they collaborate with online.

Twitter Chat – May 21 at 7 pm EDT - New York City time

Ann Michaelsen and her students will lead a Twitter chat about Connected Learners, using the hashtag #plpnetwork. Learn more about the chat, the book and the students’ activities at the Connected Learners blog.

by Michael Valentine

For 150 years, from farms and rural communities across our vast state, boys have come to Hale School in Perth, Western Australia to meet city-based schoolmates and begin life as boarding students.

They come from country schools that might be large, small or perhaps have a population of less than 30 children. They come from regions where generations of the local townspeople have worked the land or mined the resources that lay beneath it. Some arrive after an hour’s drive by automobile, while others require a lengthy plane flight.

Their transition to a big city school and a boarder’s life has for generations been supported by Hale, and wonderful relationships between the school and rural communities have been forged. In 2013, we have taken a new step to ease the shift from rural educational settings to our vast, highly academic, technology-rich independent school. We have designed a programme, known as Hale@home where the boys enroll in our 1:1 Tablet programme and undertake a weekly synchronous connection with the Hale@home teaching team (the two of us!) while still living in their hometowns.

We are doing this in the year prior to the boys leaving home. The programme is currently engaging with 16 boys who will be boarding at Hale School for Year 8 (12-13 yr. olds) in 2014. It is proving to be an initiative that will change the face of a complex traditional transition experience, so familiar to boarding schools and boarding families across the world.

The Hale@home approach

The boys are still attending their local school but are connected and engaged with Hale School 24/7 through access to our portal and flipped resources. They can also e-mail or phone me for assistance any time. The Hale@home curriculum offers teaching and learning experiences designed to create opportunities for the boys to explore how technology can be used to personalise their learning and ultimately enhance their optimism about their prospects for academic life at Hale School next year. They are also working in our connected community with their future roommates, engendering a sense of “learning and preparing together” for their transition to the city.

Before the school year began, the Hale@home boys gathered at a two-day Induction Camp on the Hale School campus, where we introduced them to their “virtual classmates” and their computers. Then they headed back to their home towns for their last year in local schools.

The Adobe Connect 9 platform allows us to create a dynamic virtual classroom context where the boys become presenters and reveal their weekly findings and creations to the whole class online. The boys see and hear each other as they take turns to display their individual responses to the literacy and numeracy tasks, which are as unique as the landscapes outside each boy’s bedroom window on any day.

Our project-style curriculum invites the boys to present video, audio, artistic, graphical, written or verbal responses to tasks which have a weekly theme. Their individual progress with basic technical skills and verbal presentation has been significant in this first term of the programme. [Editor's note: school begins in January below the equator.]

A lack of full-developed skills in these areas has been a significant issue for previous generations of rural boys as they struggled to cope in the first months of a massive change in their personal lives. Academic priorities can be overwhelmed by personal issues among 12-year old boys so far from home. We can already see that their progress in technical and verbal skills is building their confidence.

A closer look at one lesson

The most recent work completed by the boys is a good example of the structure I employ to ensure each lesson is engaging and provides the boys with opportunities to demonstrate their unique interpretations and responses to literature. In their paper “Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning” (March 2009), Siemens and Tittenberger suggest teaching and learning activities fall into four categories; Dissemination, Discussion, Discovery and Demonstration. I use these four categories to plan a balanced learning experience.

The Dissemination category is regarded as potentially the most distracting and mundane. To avoid wasting valuable synchronous time online distributing key material and introducing new concepts I now “flip” this component. I create and record a 10-minute background presentation which the boys watch by logging into the portal sometime prior to our weekly lesson. We are then ready to move straight into the teaching and learning tasks and responses. Further responses to tasks are prepared independently by the boys during the week following the lesson and put on their OneNote files — ready to demonstrate to their peers in the next lesson.

Seb presents his video response. His family’s farm stretches out behind him.

“I Am David” is Anne Holm’s celebrated novel depicting a young boy’s escape from a World War Two prison camp and the subsequent adventures he experiences in his quest for freedom. As is the case for all of my English work, the unit involves reading and responding to only a short extract from the novel, in this instance it is Chapter 1.

The core question the boys had to respond to involved them being asked to explain why David had requested to take a bar of soap with him as he prepared to escape the camp. They had to prepare a one-minute video response. The boys responded strongly to the further request that they be seated behind barbed-wire as they presented their thoughts. Some boys sat behind their farm fences while others created their own barbed-wire and placed it in front of the computer’s camera lens. They were asked to provide three valid reasons which explained why David might have wanted to take the soap with him.

The presentation of their films to each other created enormous discussion as they explored each other’s reasoning (and ability to construct barbed-wire!). The other task for this unit of work was to explore a map of actual concentration camps and after identifying the location clues clearly evident in the text, extrapolate which camp David may have been held captive. The boys then used online maps and the directions David was given to follow once he was free, to trace his initial journey to board a ship in Thessalonica during his first few days of freedom.

An ambitious teaching & learning dynamic

In its short history, Hale@home has already been celebrated as an example of 21st century teaching and learning. And it is. However, we knew when we began that we were not standing at the edge of a new and unexplored world. We were moving forward certainly — our teaching and learning landscape was evolving to utilise the opportunities now presented to us by the digital age — but we also knew that Australia has a long and proud history of distance education and the Internet is full of online school programmes.

What we were so committed to achieving was building an environment where we could conduct the most memorable lessons, just like we strive to do every day in our Perth campus classrooms, with our audiences of 25 enthusiastic (albeit captive) boys.

Hale@home was a good idea, but as former Head of Hale’s Junior School and Middle School, I knew the challenge was going to be designing an online curriculum that would capture the attention of boys who have already spent the day attending classes at their local schools. Late in the afternoon they are seated alone in a room with a piece of technology, bereft of the usual verbal and physical cues, and they do not have the benefit of the shared educational momentum that a campus classroom full of bright lads and a fine teacher can generate.

The boys were asked: “What is the smallest thing around your place? Include three photo examples of really small objects and estimate their size.”

Our vision for Hale@home was ambitious: to create a teaching and learning dynamic that would be memorably interactive, characterized by authentic learning, and certain to provoke unique responses from young students who were isolated but shared a common sense of purpose. We have pursued this vision in what is really the perfect educational paradigm: the needs of the boys determine the outcomes we seek, and as teachers we provide the discourse and the tasks which inspire the innovative thinking, structured responses and the skill development of the boys.

Boys of this age, wherever they are, require teachers with passion — teachers who project a sense of colour or theatre into their lessons. They require teachers who recognise that creative solutions and unique responses are to be celebrated and that rich interconnections, when identified, represent authentic learning. They need teachers who know learning can be demonstrated, even amplified, so powerfully using a computer.

The conclusion after our first term? We are building our perfect school! A staff of two, working at a distance with 16 adolescent boys, and no prescribed curriculum other than one we construct to suit the needs of our students. What a revolution!

The Hale@home experience for me has been overwhelmingly positive and reaffirming. As a teacher of long standing, I see 21st century learning evolving using the breath-taking technology available to us; and yet as we move forward, we also bring with us the very best of the past.

Michael Valentine is the inaugural Head of Online Learning at Hale School in Perth Australia and previously the Head of both the Junior School and Middle School. A leader in innovative curriculum design incorporating literature, research and technology, Michael has presented keynote speeches, designed workshops and given addresses across Australia and abroad. It is his conviction that “we need to interconnect learning across discrete subject lines and richly vary the methods with which students demonstrate their learning.”

The 100 available seats in Blackboard Collaborate were quickly filled (and refilled each time someone dropped off or had to leave early). In the audience were teachers and other educators from across the grade spectrum. We heard from folks in Australia, the Far East, the Carribean, South America, Great Britain and Europe, as well as Canada and the United States. Connected learning knows no boundaries!

Download tips & tricks here

Digital portfolio resources

If you couldn’t get a seat or missed the session for any reason, no worries. See below for the archive,  a copy of the chat stream (full of valuable links) and a free handout with additional tips and resource suggestions.

View the webinar archive

Get the chat transcript

Download Digital Portfolios: Tips & Tricks

Author Kathy Cassidy

And congratulations to Kathy for mesmerizing her audience for the full hour as she shared wonderful photos, links and student work samples from her Saskatchewan classroom. As the session came to a close, many attendees let us know that they were headed over to the PLP bookstore to buy their copy of Kathy’s eBook Connected From the Start: Global Learning in the Primary Grades. If you’d like your own copy of this highly interactive book, buy it today (only) and use the coupon code PORTFOLIO for a $2 discount off the $16.95 cover price.

Editor’s note: Previous image seen here was selected by English major.

We’re studying quadratics in my 8th grade class. Even the name can strike fear in the heart of the most competent adult. I didn’t want it to be that way for my math kids.

I wrote a good lesson plan and then I let students help me modify it. Essentially, they “taught” me how to teach them better through the interaction and feedback we gave to each other during the learning process.

Here’s some of what it looked like

I create a scaffolding technique, but students helped me add, delete and amend it until it works for the way they think. In essence, we built the scaffold together.

Even if you don’t teach math, this strategy is a good one. I’ve done things like it in science and social studies, but it’s been awhile. I guess I’d just forgotten about using it.

The trick is to create a means for scaffolding and then let students help fine-tune it. As a bonus (trust me here), while you’re figuring out the scaffolding, you’ll learn a lot about the topic that would never occur to you otherwise.

We started off slowly using the geometric area model. Our textbook tells us that Greek mathematicians used this method as long ago as 300 BC. I think that sort of impresses students — the idea that they are following in the footsteps of ancient Greeks. We were also able to pair this ancient technique with modern-day technology using Geometer’s Sketchpad and an Algebra-Tiles sketch that was available in the software library.

From there we started moving into a more symbolic version of finding the “x” solutions, figuring out what this means in real life and how to even use an old kindergarten Valentine making technique. It wasn’t easy but they hung in there.

Here’s what I learned

I divided my SmartBoard into two areas: one side represented the problem we were studying and the other side represented the thinking someone would need to do in order to solve the problem. This helped tremendously and as we worked problem after problem, students helped me refine my thinking list.

• Look for GCF
• Look for a letter that could be factored
• Find both factors (it’s a multiplication expression after all): usually we write something like this to remind us —-> a product=factor * factor
• Solve for zero—finding both “x”s
• Set those “x”s equal to the x-intercepts
• If you need to find a min or max, find the line of symmetry — we would say “this is like when you folded the paper in two and cut out your Valentine heart” (and we always did the hand motions!)
• Use the line to find the “y” of that max or min

So all of this is on one side and then they use the other side to solve the equation. It’s scaffolding, and it helps them ingrain the process in their brain.

I’m not sure they realized how much they helped me think about their thinking, but student feedback helped me zero-in on what they needed me to “think aloud” for them. Throughout the unit, you would see students able to stop and look at the process list and go on. They could perform this procedure independently.

To enrich the lesson, we did a one-day mini-lesson that showed them the quadratic formula. It ties what the ancient Greeks did to another pretty old mathematician….Francois Viete. He was the French mathematician who published this formula way back in the late 1500s.

Here’s the second thing I learned. My students couldn’t use this formula on problems unless they were in the standard form of the quadratic. Again, I could scaffold this by simply writing the standard form and then helping them use the process.

I can imagine them in high school thinking all of this was foolishness. And it will seem that way then. But right now, where they are developmentally in building up their quadratic muscles, it is perfect.

The school year is wrapping up soon. You may be thinking toward the summer, and other than soaking up the sun and getting some much needed vacation time, maybe you’re considering professional learning and how to advance your teaching practice for next year. At Powerful Learning Practice, we know professional development for teachers. Over 7,000 educators around the globe have changed their teaching practice through our approach. But we’re letting the secret out – you can do it yourself.

We’ve discovered the 8-step process to do-it-yourself professional development and we want to hand you the keys in our new eCourse, Connected Learner Lite. It’s open for enrollment and filling up fast.

The new session is starting soon —June 10th. Register now

Budgets are tight and time is more valuable than ever. But today, professional learning and being on the cutting edge of technology as well as teaching is vital for educators like you and me. At PLP, we know PD. We know how to do it right, and how to use this 8-step process to build your personal learning network, be part of a community of likeminded educators, and bring your teaching practice into the 21st Century.

Now for the first time, we’re offering a guided, fast-track eCourse to do just that. It’s called Connected Learner Lite – 12 weeks of connected learning.

If you like the idea of DIY PD, but would like a helping hand to get started, this course is for you.

The Webinar Curriculum: Week by Week

You’ll get twelve 60-minute, synchronous, online webinars taking you from “What is 21st Century learning and why is it important?”  to “How do I create a 21st Century classroom or school?” In addition, you’ll work inside an online community of educators. This provides deep, engaged discussion, sharing what works, and examples for each step of the way.

Week 1  | Kickoff and Orientation | We lay out the journey and get to know one another

Week 2  | Setting the Stage: Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century | We build a common language, look at reports, articles and research

Week 3 | Connected Learning Communities: A 3-Pronged Approach |We unpack a professional learning model for today’s educator

Week 4 |  Network Literacy | We look at strategies for Creating Personal Learning Networks

Week 5 | Becoming a Connected Educator | We explore the latest Web 2.0 tools for teaching and learning

Week 6 | Inquiry Based Learning: Who, When, Where, Why and How | We lay the pedagogical foundation for Project/Problem Based Learning

Week 7 | Inquiry-based Learning | We talk about using TPACK for lesson planning and Connected Learning as Curriculum Tools

Week 8 | Action Research and Collective Intelligence | We look deeply into development of action research plans

Week 9 | PBL: Getting Your Students from Start to Finish | We will unpack strategies for project, problem, and passion-based learning

Week 10 | Authentic Assessment with Cutting-Edge Technology and Tools | We look at how to use assessment for learning and not just of learning

Week 11 | Keeping the Momentum: Scaling the Work | We talk about next steps and how to use what you have learned back in your local context

Week 12 | Learning Showcase | You’ll participate in a culminating event where you showcase your action plans and findings for others from around the world

In the video above, Sheryl, the instructor and PLP co-founder tells us about this course and why you should spend your summer learning time right by reserving your spot in this 12-week program for connected learning! Watch the video, then head over to the course page to read even more and get yourself signed up. Hurry! This course will fill up fast.

Graduate Credit Available

After the course begins, graduate credit may be obtained through North Dakota State University. Get complete details here.

Driving alone on a long trip always gives me added moments to reflect on the happenings of my day and projects that await me back in my office. As I got used to the thunk thunk rhythm of the car’s tires rolling over seams in the cement surface of the highway, my thoughts turned to a presentation on Virtual Integrity that I recently gave to middle schoolers.

In my talk, I mused over the fact that we, as a society, are bombarded with moral decisions every single day. As I drove along, I wondered about decisions, large and small, that need to be made. “Is it moral to keep the speed limit or to ‘stretch’ the law and speed? Is it moral for me to throw out the trash from my window and leave it for others to pick up?”

Given my interest in social media and my work around tech integration in our Diocese classrooms, it’s not surprising that I also wondered: “Is it moral to stretch the truth with regards to our identity in the cyberspace? When this happens, is it the same as lying in a face-to-face conversation?”

In a society that proclaims freedom for all, how and who does the deciding on what is right and what is wrong? How did our founding fathers grapple with this question as they tried to build the foundation for a new country so many years ago?

As I write this post for the Voices blog, I am cognizant of the fact that I am writing for an audience that may not, on a regular basis, muse over questions of morality — of what is right and wrong. That doesn’t mean that personal actions or thoughts that were considered moral were not on the minds of our Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson wrote: “Man has been subjected by his Creator to the moral law, of which his feelings, or conscience as it is sometimes called, are the evidence with which his Creator has furnished him….” Moral truth – also described as the natural law – was indeed part of their vision.

Robert Bork, author of The Tempting of America, states:

[Natural law] refers to principles about ultimate right and wrong that transcend particular nations and cultures and are true for all people at all times. Most of us feel intuitively that natural law exists, though we differ, both as to its source and its content. For some, it is ordained by God; for others, it arises from the nature of human beings, even if we are evolutionary accidents; or it may simply express the requirements for anything recognizable as a society. Whatever its source, natural law’s content is discovered by reason.

So where am I going with all of this? Part of the Natural Law that Bork explained above deals with truth. When a person lives by truth and expresses truth in his/her actions or acts according to the values, beliefs and principles they claim to hold, that person possesses integrity (as defined by Wikipedia).

A digital footprint makes two impressions

Integrity is a key virtue, I believe, for today’s culture. One blogger I recently read (an internet marketer, in fact) listed five reasons why Integrity is Important. The headings come from the blog; the explanations are mine.

People only want to do business [work with] people they trust. In today’s world, each of us who has a digital footprint makes two “impressions”: one in the real world and one in the virtual world. The words and attitudes that we use in both arenas must match. When we achieve this, we become someone whom others can truly rely upon.

Future success depends on doing what is right now. Each and every decision that we make creates a reputation that either affirms or disintegrates personal integrity. Research proves that most contented individuals among us are people who not only respect the virtue of integrity but live an integrity-filled life. This means that whichever “world” (virtual or real) you find yourself interacting with others in, your words ring true and are full of respect.

People follow leaders they believe will get them where they want to go. What our society needs is daring leaders. Men and woman who will do the right thing even when it is difficult. This is where courage is the rubber that meets the road. We need gutsy leaders to model what integrity truly means for all of society.

One bad apple can spoil the bunch. Being a person of integrity does not mean that one is perfect. On the contrary, a person of integrity admits when a mistake is done and tries not to cover it up but make it right. There is a huge difference between the two.

Take a stance in what you believe or others will influence you and decide for you. Deciding not to do or say something is a decision. Define what you believe in, what you value, and what you respect. Reflection is key, I believe, to essential self knowledge — to creating a personal “report card” on your growth as a person of integrity.

Personal integrity is not about what “I” think is right or wrong. It is a stance, a perspective of life, a mode of living that is true for everyone in all cultures in all ages. What is right is right. What is truth is truth.  It is natural law. Online, offline, all the time.

Hundreds of educators have purchased Kathy Cassidy’s new interactive book Connected from the Start since its release April 10th. A dozen of those readers have posted 5-star reviews at our book site. We are so excited that the book has been met with such enthusiasm!

To keep that momentum going, and to celebrate the Kathy’s book, we are hosting a free webinar and virtual Book Launch Party on Thursday, May 16th  at 7pm EDT. Join author Kathy Cassidy along with PLPress leaders Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and John Norton for a free webinar about Digital Portfolios.

Buy the book now and save $2 at checkout with coupon WEBINAR. Expires May 16, 2013.

Digital Portfolios:  For Primary and Beyond!

Digital portfolios allow students to showcase their learning for a wide audience, demonstrate their growth, and gather feedback from family, friends and educators beyond their classrooms. There are safe and effective ways to do this. We’ll look at age-appropriate tools and apps that elementary kids can use to create their first digital footprints and show the world what they can do.

There will be time for questions and answers, as well as fun giveaways and prizes. After the webinar, we’ll send you an archived copy plus a free takeaway tip sheet for incorporating digital portfolios into your classroom.

It’s sure to be informative, fun, and exciting!

Spread the word

Tell all your friends to join us. Spread the word with these Tweetables:

Join me for a free webinar about digital portfolios for students with @plpnetwork & @kathycassidy! Details: http://bit.ly/pFolios

May 16, join me in celebrating @kathycassidy’s book plus get free tips on digital portfolios from @plpnetwork. http://bit.ly/pFolios