EdCamp Online: A Personal Learning Opportunity

My third graders and I often talk about the joy of personal learning. We defined personal learning  as an opportunity to learn because you are personally interested in a subject. My third graders told me that they sometimes learn independently by watching a video or reading directions. Many third graders said that they learn on their own through trial and error. 

Today I participated in some personal learning of my own! I joined a group of connected educators for something called EdCamp Online.

At the beginning of the online session, the 100+ participants met in a lobby. Here is the definition of a real lobby:

We did not meet in the lobby of a public building. This is a screenshot of the online, or virtual lobby. On the right, are the attendees. (An attendee is a fancy word that means a person who attends a gathering.) The attendees waited in the lobby for the online rooms to open up. On the left is a live Google HangOut. Mr. Theriault, an organizer, is giving the attendees some directions. 

While listening to the directions, I took a quick screenshot of the attendees. Since the class has been tweeting out photos of arrays, I thought that would be a good photo to get!

I could only get part of the array of 100. How would you describe this array? Will all the rows have three people?

The next step in the EdCamp Online session was to decide what everyone would talk about. Attendees submitted ideas and once enough people +1 (or showed interest) in an idea, the organizers opened up a Google Hangout room. 

Here is an idea that I suggested to the group. I was interested in talking about Educational Blogging. What information can you gather from this screenshot? At what time was the Google HangOut room created and opened? 

Next, attendees were given a chance to join a session of their choosing. I clicked the "join" button for the Educational Blogging session. Each white box is a space in the online session. How many people could join a session? 

Here is a screenshot of the Educational Blogging session. There are ten educators in the room. You can see Mrs. Davis, from Texas, is speaking.  Mrs. Reed, Mr. Theriault, and I are at the right. At the bottom are the other people in the session. 

Screenshot by Mrs. Reed 

Harvey, my African gray parrot, enjoyed the EdCampOnline so much that he whistled and talked throughout the one hour session!

I enjoyed learning with the passionate educators who gave up a Saturday morning to learn together. 

In our session, we talked about helping teachers see the potential in blogging. Rethink old paper-pencil projects and create ways to make the projects more collaborative and interactive. Our hope is that teachers encourage students to find their voice, connect and collaborate with others, and become contributing members of an online community. 

Together, the educators brainstormed some ideas about starting to blog with large numbers of students. Mr. Theriault recommended starting slowly. He allows his high school bloggers to do group blogs at the beginning. 

Letting students earn their own blogs is another possibility. In our class, students who regularly participate on the class blog or 365 blog and demonstrate good work habits can earn their own blog. Parents become the administrators of the blog so they can continue the blog after the student moves to the next grade. 

I shared the success I've had with Virtual Volunteers. Virtual Volunteers are parents who will help support the blog by commenting back to others. 

 The benefits of blogging are tremendous!

What do you think of this new kind of online learning?

What kind of session would you have suggested?

How could we use the EdCamp model in our classroom for Fun Friday? 

CUE Keynote: Connected Educator Month

Last weekend, I was the keynote speaker at the San Luis Obispo CUE conference! CUE stands for Computer Using Educators.

Since October is Connected Educator Month, the subject of my keynote was connecting. Connecting my classroom to learning opportunities via technology is a priority for me, and I am always looking for new ways to connect and learn.

Photo by John Miller

The first connections I made were through blogging. In my keynote, I chronicled how one connection with Australian blogger, Kathleen Morris, lead to numerous global projects for my students. Read about some of our global projects here. Kathleen and I met face-to-face after two years of collaboration when we presented  Flattening the Classroom Walls through Blogging at ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). Here is my Educational Blogging wiki with resources and ideas for starting a classroom blog.

Connecting our students has never been more important. Here is a link to a great post called Digital Writing and Common Core by Joe Wood. Publishing, interacting, and collaborating digitally are Anchor Standards for writing. Below is a document put together by Joe Wood. He highlights some anchor standards over four grade levels (Kindergarten, 4th, 8th, and 12th). Check out what will be happening in kindergarten!

click to enlarge

Graphic by Joe Wood

I also encouraged educators to connect and learn with one another through Twitter.

Here is a presentation about using Twitter to build your PLN!
 (Personal Learning Network) 

According to Rodd Lucier, there are seven degrees of connectedness. Here are his Seven Degrees of Connectedness in an infographic put together by Silvia Tolisano.

Click to enlarge. 

Teachers, what are some ways that you've connected your classroom? Can you offer some advice to other teachers?

Parents, how has your child benefited from connecting and publishing online? 

Students, what do you like about publishing and collaborating online?