Tuesday+Symposium


 * TUESDAY SYMPOSIUM**

One of the sessions I attended Tuesday was “Creating a Personal Learning Network” by Lacey Hoogland. This presentation focused on what a PLN (Personal Learning Network) is and how to begin developing one. The speaker, Lacey Hoogland, discussed the various media used by //The Networked Teacher:// Twitter, Podcasts, Wikis, Blogs, Video Conferencing, Social Bookmarking, Social Network Sites, photo sharing, popular media, colleagues, family/local community, print and digital resources, conferences, etc. Professional publications are moving towards a paperless form, so PLNs provide a way to access information. PLNs also provide ways to collaborate, gather new ideas world-wide, and solve problems with current information when it is convenient to the user. (I accessed Google Reader and bookmarked some helpful sites like Edutopia and Free Technology for Teachers. Some recommended sites for social networking (getting connected) that were discussed included Diigo.com, It’s Linkable, and Delicious. Also members of the audience talked about their experience with TweetDeck, which they preferred over Twitter. (This was an extremely helpful session for this rather unconnected teacher!)

I did not find the AM and PM keynote addresses particularly helpful Tuesday, although Stuart Murphy did make some significant points about visual learning. Murphy's area of expertise is mathematics, and he has authored children's books which have strong visual images to teach math concepts. The majority of this presentation focused on visual learning and mathematics. Throughout Murphy's presentation, I made personal notes that his key points also pertained to language arts teachers. Towards the end of the keynote, the speaker briefly noted his efforts with STEM (Science, Technology, Education, Math Coalition) and the fact that he believes it should be changed to STEAM (to include the arts). As an English teacher, I can only say BRAVO!