Professional Learning Network (PLN)

Image Source: Helen Wang

What is a PLN?
PLN stands for Personal Learning Network which is a network in which teachers learn, have common interests and share ideas with other professionals. The great aspect about a PLN is that teachers can select the networks they want to join and communicate with other educators who are not necessarily nearby. It is a great way to hear about important topics happening around the world.

As educators, we live busy lives and work beyond the regular clocking ours. Joining a PLN gives educators the chance to learn ideas and share knowledge at a time that is convenient for them. To continue on my learning journey of a PLN, I logged in more frequently and participated more on my Twitter account.

My Experience with Twitter
A couple of years ago, the technology coach gave a presentation to the school on Twitter. Our school principal wanted us to create an account so that we could share the learning happening in the building. Not having so much experience with Twitter, I had several followers who I had not idea where following me. For sure my tech coach and I had a good laugh when she helped me clear some of these unknown followers.

Participating in Twitter Chat
Chatting with strangers was really something out of my comfort zone. Considering that this was part of a learning experience and a new journey, I decided to give it a try. At first, I was not sure which chat to join. So, I went ahead and used the list from Education Chats. This is a great resource that provides the most current chats. Considering that I have worked with dual language students for quite some time, I went ahead and tried the #DualLangChat. Little did I know that this was a chat held only on the first Sunday of the month, which meant that I had to wait for quite some time. Instead of waiting, I decided to try another chat. The chat I joined was called #titletalk, and focused around reading and literacy. There was one question posted by the literacy coach, which you can see in the following post:

Considering that there was not much interaction with the previous chat, I went ahead and joined another chat. This chat was titled #TG2Chat, which was about "empowering learners." Learner empowerment is when students go one step further than engagement. It is when students take self-directive in the process of their learning. Since I had been recently learning about active learning, I thought this would be a great topic of discussion. The following shows my Twitter Chat:

It never crossed my mind that I could be talking to authors of very popular books. This was like a dream come true! After meeting and following some new professionals, I was excited to join the second part of this chat. The second part will be about personalized learning. With the 21st Century skills in mind, I think this will be a phenomenal topic of discussion.

If you  are not sure about joining a PLN, please consider the following reasons why you would benefit from being part of a PLN:

Image Source: Teach Thought Staff

Thank you for visiting and learning about my Twitter experience. Please follow me at @miscristinadiaz.

Image Source: Twitter.com

Resources:

Twitter Account at https://twitter.com/?logout=1574655516116

What is a Personal Learning Network? by TeachThought Staff at https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/what-is-a-personal-learning-network/

Digital Tools

Logo Source: Prezi Logo Vector

Looking for a more innovating presentation platform? Then, perhaps you might want to consider Prezi. Prezi is another presentation platform like Microsoft Power Point or Google Slides. Unlike the other presentation platforms, Prezi does not include bullet points or the typical slides. Instead, you can add images or information that will guide you from one section to another without necessarily going in order or slide by slide.

When I first came across Prezi, it was when one of my professors used it during a presentation. I was just amazed and fascinated by the transitions from one thing to the other. It just seemed like a fancy  presentation that you would typically not come across, unless you were like a business person. For that reason, I wanted to learn and explore more about this presentation platform.

To learn more about Prezi, please view my narrated video:

Video

Who is Prezi for?
Prezi is for educators who want to highlight specific content information for their students. It can become a helpful tool for story telling or simply to grab student's attention by zooming into an image or part of text.

Pros & Cons:
Some of the Pros in using Prezi are:

• It is more like a virtual presentation, rather than the traditional slide presentation
• As a teacher, one can  add images, videos or links to other topics to make it more interactive
• It is free for both teachers and students
• There are already several templates to choose from. Some already created and one can build from them.
• Teachers are able to show students the big picture and then small details

Some of the Cons in using Prezi are:

• Can perhaps make you visually dizzy with all the movement
• There are not that many fonts to choose from
• At first, creating a presentation can seem difficult

Hope you learned about Prezi and can use in one of your future presentations.

Resources:
Cats & Dogs Prezi presentation at https://prezi.com/p/ipguorqdywqh/cats-vs-dogs-prezi/

Prezi Advantages and Disadvantages at https://instructionaltechtalk.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-prezi/

Prezi website at https://prezi.com/

Prezi presentation from Nicole Zumpano at https://prezi.com/vltahpm3b1hn/what-is-active-learning/?utm_campaign=share&token=21acedd662237401cb58486f35352d6fba7d05e6b30cf495979ca34cbf121958&utm_medium=copy

Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prezi

                                                                            

  
                                                                             

Ed Tech Research

Image Source: Pocket-Lint

In 2010, which was not to long ago,  Steve Jobs launched the first Apple iPad. Since 2010, iPads have taken up so many forms just to keep up to date with the new trends in technology. Tablets became a very popular item that many families owned. A couple of years ago, my husband decided to buy tablets for our children. Although I was not too excited with the idea, I thought that perhaps they could use them in an educational way. So, I went ahead and downloaded several educational apps for them. Then, one day as I sat next to one of my children, I saw how easily he used the voice recording tool to search for an item. Considering that I had not taught him how to use this tool, and that he told me that he had learned that in school, I decided to be more strict and cautious about the digital tools my children had access to. Something important to keep in  mind is that "digital life is here to stay, and supporting young people requires more than simply managing screen time and setting strong passwords, " (2019, Common Sense Media, page 8). It is our job as parents and educators to sit down with our children and have the discussion about internet safety.

As Common Sense Media presents it, "our kids are at the front line of a digital revolution. Devices, social networks, and media are changing childhood in radical ways." Common Sense Media is a non-profit organization that helps parents and educators learn more about safe technology and media for children. It is a great resource for finding age-appropriate apps, movies, books, TV shows and many more things.

After doing some more research on Common Sense Media, I was not surprised to find out about the increase in internet home connectivity. According to the following image, in 2000 3% of homes had broadband internet, which then increase to 50% in 2007. I would not be surprised if today it would be closer to 100%. This just shows how internet has taken over a big part of the home life.

Image Source: commonsense

Another interest fact that Common Sense presented, which really surprised me, was the number of Youtube views back in 2007. In 2007, there were 1 billion Youtube views per day, which I am very sure this number has increased by today. Nowadays, I find children accessing Youtube like if there was no other thing for them to watch. Luckily, Common Sense media provides parent and education support to bring more awareness on this matter.

My biggest takeaway from doing research on Common Sense Media, was on the importance of our role as parents and educators to bring technology safety awareness in our community. It is crucial that we teach our children to use technology responsibly. We need to help children, young ones and others in general to be digital citizens.

If you would like to learn more about digital citizenship, please visit the Common Sense Media website.


Resources:

Brita O'Boyle, (2019). "History of  the Apple iPad: The timeline of Apple's tablet from then to now," at https://www.pocket-lint.com/tablets/news/apple/146888-history-of-the-apple-ipad

How Tech is Changing Childhood at https://www.commonsense.org/our-impact/

Teaching Digital Citizens in Today's World: Research and Insights behind the Common Sense K-12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum. Research report on social media available at https://d1e2bohyu2u2w9.cloudfront.net/education/sites/default/files/tlr_component/common_sense_education_digital_citizenship_research_backgrounder.pdf

Active Learning

Active Learning

Image Source: Natalie Laderas-Kilkenny

The image above is a great example of how education has evolve over time. From the Colonial Era to most recently, there have been major  changes in education. Before, the expectation was that students remained seated, in rows, and listened to the teacher lecture a lesson. Then, students began sitting in tables, participated in small group discussion, but mostly had to listen for teacher direction and instruction. Now, with the 21st Century Skills (creativity, critical thinking, collaboration & communication)  in place, there has been a huge shift in education. In several places, one might not see students siting in rows, tables or at all. Students will engage more in individualized instruction and work on different skills that others are not necessarily working on. In these learning and innovated spaces we will probably see something similar to the following picture:

Image Source: @ViewSonic

In this image, we see the instructor delivering instruction via a Smartboard or Smart TV. As he guides students through the lesson, students are located in different parts of the room, which is something very different from the traditional setting. Students are actively engaged in the lesson and perhaps learning at their own pace or level. This is part of active learning, which we will learn in the next section.

What is Active Learning?

Active learning  involves teaching methods and strategies that engage students in the material in a meaningful way. Students will engage in small group or whole group activities that are centered around writing, listening, speaking, problem solving and reflecting. The following is a great example of some of the strategies that can be implemented to make active learning happen:

In this spectrum of active learning activities, we see the rigor from basic activities that perhaps do not involve so much time, to more rigorous and complex activities. Overall, we see students participating in active learning activities that provide opportunities for learning, applying , synthesizing and getting involved in discussion. 

My Experiences with Active Learning

Image Source: Via GIPHY

I currently work in a district that supports Kagan Structures. The Kagan structures include several of the active learning strategies previously mentioned. Some of these are: Think-pair-share, inside-outside circle, all write round robin and several other more. Kagan strategies are part of active learning, as these also follow structures that are different from the traditional instruction. When using Kagan structures, students actively participate and engage in learning. Students end up doing the hard work and the teacher essentially functions as a facilitator.

Through the use of SeeSaw, I would create portfolios for different subject areas. In these portfolios I would add stories, images, videos and student samples to give students the opportunity to access different information. Some of the projects involved working with a partner and having students record about their projects. Students really loved reading my comments or even comments from their parents. SeeSaw gave my students the opportunity to explore a variety of digital tools and enhance their learning.

Exploring Active Learning

This week, I looked at a blog called U.S. Regions, Thinglink and Websites. The blog was originally designed for an elementary school to show the work of a 3rd grade gifted teacher who taught social studies curriculum. In the blog, the teacher shared about the steps students took to research on the region being studied. Students first used a graphic organizer to help them with notes and the things that needed to be displayed in their Thinglink. After students did the research and developed their Thinglink, they had to create a 5 page website. Part of this 5 page website require for students to add all the previous projects they had completed. The use of technology, and specially the Thinglink platform, created a hands on opportunity for students to be actively engage in learning.

Until viewing this blog, I had no idea that such an amazing technology platform like Thinglink existed. The fact that students add their personal touch, have a fun purpose for doing research and showcase their learning in an innovated way makes me want to use this platform right away. If you are as interested as I am in learning and using  Thinglink in your classroom or for your teachers, please see the following video:

Video Resource: YouTube

Please checkout the Padlet I created to summarize my learning about the 3rd grade teacher's blog and active learning:

Padlet

Resources:

Center for Educational Inovation. "Active Learning." Website at https://cei.umn.edu/active-learning

Kagan Structures at https://www.kaganonline.com/about_us.php

Nicole Zumpano (2018). "What is Active Learning." Prezi at https://prezi.com/vltahpm3b1hn/what-is-active-learning/ utm_campaign=share&token=21acedd662237401cb58486f35352d6fba7d05

e6b30cf495979ca34cbf121958&utm_medium=copy

SeeSaw https://web.seesaw.me/

ThingLink Turotial and How to Use in Classroom Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yrcCE4RK1s

ViewSonic Education Blog (2018). "How to Implement Active Learning for Classrooms." Blog at

https://education.viewsonic.com/active-learning-classrooms/

What is a Padlet? at http://www.wvadulted.org/uploads/4/2/4/9/42499625/padlet_for_beginners.pdf

HyperDocs

Image Source: Laura Moore

Image Source: Lisa Highfill

What is a HyperDoc?

According to the co-creators, Lisa Highfill and Sarah Landis, HyperDocs are “Google Docs that contain innovative lessons for students.” This 21st Century worksheet, as Highfill refers to, is a hyperlinked document that allows for students to access lessons, instructions and many other innovative tasks.

Before doing my research, I was curious to find out what a HyperDoc was. I imagined that the part "Doc," probably derived from the word document, which in reality it did. So, I then had to figure out what the rest of the word meant. As I read through some of the research, I learned that a HyperDoc was beyond a digital worksheet. A HyperDoc allows for students to engage in collaborative,  interactive and trans-formative instruction. If you decide to use a Google Document template, for instance, you can customize that template by adding links, images, videos and instructions. Once you decide on the content and design of your Google Document, you will make a copy and share the link with your students. At their own pace and selection, students would be guided through the lesson by going through different tasks.

Image Source: Via GIPHY

Still not sure about using HyperDocs?

What if I told you that you could personalized student learning? Well, then try HyperDocs! HyperDocs give you the opportunity to be the lesson designer and get creative with your instruction. As the lesson designer, you determine the lesson components that you would like to address, as well as how much in depth you would like to cover instruction. As the lesson designer, you also get to select and differentiate among the many options that best meet the needs of your students.

To see my example of how to create a HyperDoc, please click on my presentation:

The following are some examples of HyperDocs:

Lower Elementary	Vowels & Consonants (Slides) Fiction vs. Nonfiction (Slides) Source: Stacy
Upper Elementary	5th Grade Order of Operations and Algebraic Thinking (Doc) Understanding Native American Legends (Doc) Source by: @Kellyihilton
Middle School	Transformation Hyperdoc (Slides) 8th Grade Pathways (Doc) 7th World History (Slides)
High School	Economics and Environmental Policy (Doc) That Poetry Journal (Doc)
Librarians	Hyperdoc Library

For different HyperDoc templates, Click Here.

Remember learning about the SAMR Model in one of my previous blogs?

Well, the following is a perfect example of how HyperDocs fit in to the SAMR Model.

@ HyperDocs created by HyperDocs, LLC

Are you ready to create your own HyperDoc?

You can view the following video to learn more about HyperDocs and also how to create your own HyperDoc.

Video Source: YouTube

Hope you learned about HyperDocs and had fun learning about this interactive, trans-formative and personalized digital tool!

Resources:

Economics and Environmental Policy (Doc)

Fiction vs. Nonfiction (Slides)

5th Grade Order of Operations and Algebraic Thinking (Doc)

7th World History (Slides)

8th Grade Pathways (Doc)

HyperDoc about Sound by Stacy at http://www.madewithloveteaching.com/2017/08/hyperdocs-for-primary-classroom.html

HyperDocs can have a  changing effect on your Pedagory by Lisa Highfill. Google Slide Presentation at https://doc.google.com/presentation/d/1RjyUI_z7asWMWpoP3LbQWwR8sKp37wo88fMyewKlv

t0/present?slide-id.p

HyperDoc Checklist- a self evaluation tool for revising your digital lessons. Document at 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18kCpbY5BriJyzzSDH1U2sGIpdwGBSfeBpUCatrq4EbI/edit

HyperDocs for Secondary by Laura Moore at https://www.sutori.com/story/hyperdocs-for-secondary--8dvHoH9kfQiEsTJFzk8s4NzB

HyperDoc Libraby by hmuns at https://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=2209620

Jennifer Gonzalez, 2017. "How HyperDocs Can Transform Your Teaching." Cult of Pedagogy Website at https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/hyperdocs/

Lisa Highfill, 2014. "HyperDocs- Changing Digital Pedagogy." Google Academy Website at https://sites.google.com/a/googleteacheracademy.com/2014-07-30/agenda/room3

Partner Talk.Writing HyperDoc at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u7qaZHBV0qN6vHNQP

Ow9PvjlAuotBosB21jWgjVdxtA/edit

Rachel Bennet, 2017. "What Is a HyperDoc? And How Do I Make One.? YouTube Video at 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZmkjQc2wuE

Transformation Hyperdoc (Slides)

That Poetry Journal (Doc)

Understanding Native American Legends (Doc)

Vowels & Consonants (Slides)

Mapping My Digital Space

Source Via: GIPHY

Visitor vs. Resident of the Internet

Did you know that when  using internet tools we develop a digital space? Within this digital space, we can be either a digital visitor or a digital resident.The terms digital visitor and digital resident were developed by the author David White, who wanted to describe how people interacted with digital spaces. In a video called "Visitors and Residents Mapping Activity," White explains that a digital visitor is someone accessing the internet for a specific task, such as a Google Search. When a person googles something, they are probably brought down to a list of links related to their search. The initial information goes away, not leaving a trace behind. Contrary to this, would be a digital resident who leave a trace behind of his or her work, as some like to refer to a "footprint." A digital resident would be a person posting on social media or joining an online discussion.

While a person can be either a digital resident or a digital visitor, they can also a combination of both. These digital spaces would be based on the online tools, resources, media and social networks that people use in their daily lives.

In order to determine whether one is a digital visitor, a digital resident or a combination of both, White provided a mapping activity that broke down the digital spaces into four quadrants. These quadrants were based on personal and professional areas, as well as interests, preferences and habits of digital spaces. Please refer to the example of  my digital space map in the following section.

Mapping my Digital Space

Image Source: Google Search

Mapping my Digital Space was such a fun an interesting task! At first, I had no idea of where to start. So, I went ahead and pulled my iPhone to see the apps I had downloaded. Voila!! I discovered that I had many apps and that not all fell under the same category. I thought about which apps I used more often, and whether I used them for personal or professional interests.

In my discovery, I realized that I had too many apps on the personal side, and not that many on the professional side. This observation began to worry me, but I then saw it more as a learning experience, rather than on something I was doing right or wrong. I also realized that since my profession requires doing research, analyzing and recording data, I had some tools that perhaps for some people might fall more on the visitor side. For instance, SchoolPace, which is a reading assessment and data tool offered by the American Reading Company (ARC). This is an internet tool I often  have to refer to by checking daily or weekly data, and then leaving notes for teachers.

My hope is to begin developing more tools on the professional quadrants and use this amazing activity to get to know my teachers, as well as students. Hope you also find it useful. Thank you!

References:

David White, 2011. "Visitors and Resdents." Digital-Learning-Culture at http://daveowhite.com/

vandr/

David White 2013. "Visitors and Residents Mapping Activity." Youtube Video at 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9IMObcyKbo&feature=youtu.be&t=11m55s

Robert Schuetz, 2016. "Mapping our Pangea: Visitors and Residents." Knocking the Arrow, at https://www.rtschuetz.net/2016/02/mapping-our-pangea.html

Robert Schuetz, 2016. "Visitors and Residents; Mapping our Digital Learning Places." IETC V and R Google Slide Presentation at https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1H7t_QxeWXhltcXahy5lETY-nHD-zOQdaW07tlK-_mK4/edit#slide=id.g18c752de78_3_26