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Podcasts – A podcast is basically internet radio show and there are thousands of them online on just about any topic you can imagine. You can listen to them on your computer or you can download them to an MP3 player so they are portable.
Here are two quality Australian Educational Technology podcasts you might like to check out as a starting point:
1. The Ed Tech Crew by Daryl Branson and Tony Richard’s &
2. ‘The Virtual Staffroom’ by Chris Betcher (Episode 12 – ‘Use it Till it Breaks’ is a nice place to start).
Just visit their sites and press the ‘Play’ button.
If podcasts are something you’d like to explore then ask the people in your PLN what they would recommend you listen to.
TED: Ideas Worth Spreading – Now here is a truly inspiring site that delivers fantastic videos straight to your computer!!! It is a repository of video talks by some of the world’s ‘greatest thinkers and doers’.
Whenever TV spirals into the desolate wasteland of ‘reality TV’ I seek solace in TED. To listen to Sir Ken Robinson ask the question, ‘Do Schools Kill Creativity?’ is an absolute joy – I’ve watched the video three times now and walk away with something extra each time.
The TED website is jam packed with inspirational people speaking passionately on their field of expertise be it Science, Design, Technology, Entertainment, Art, etc. You will laugh, cry, have cause to reflect and generally be entertained by people who genuinely love what they do.
If you are overwhelmed by the amount of videos on offer here, ask the people in your PLN which videos they have enjoyed and would recommend.
Itunes – Apart from being an excellent free program for managing your music, Itunes is also a podcatcher. You can set it up to automatically download your favourite podcasts, vodcasts and even some TV shows. If you check out the Itunes store you’ll find a wide variety of content to suit your needs.
Recently I’ve taken to putting all this content onto my Ipod so I can listen to it while driving and watch the videos when I have a quiet moment to myself.
Teacher Tube – is essentially Youtube for teachers and students. It is a community of educators who share instructional videos and a place to upload student videos. You can look for resources on almost any subject and when you feel confident enough you can become productive member of the community and upload your own videos.
Blogs – For the purposes of this article let’s just say that blogs are online spaces where people can self publish and others can add comments about the articles posted. Educational blogs (Edublogs) are great places to read about almost anything education related. You will gain quite a few ideas from edubloggers that you can implement in your schools.
In order to make things a little easier for the punters, I’ve made it possible to access the five of the most recent blog posts from forty of the top educational bloggers from my Pageflakes account. This will give you a bit of an idea about what is out there. But if you only read one blog post, you have to have a look at ‘Preventing the Next da Vinci’.
I would also encourage teachers to start their own blogs and get your students blogging as well. It is very easy to self publish these days and blogging is a very powerful motivational tool to aid writing. Your PLN will direct you towards ALL you need to know in relation to starting and maintaining personal and classroom blogs.
Second Life (SL) is a 3D virtual world that more and more educators are turning to as a source of professional development. You can attend virtual workshops on a whole range of topics. These workshops are voice enabled and often are supported with presentation software ‘in world’. At the same time as viewing a presentation you can interact with other attendees by typing messages to them.
To find out about upcoming SL educational events I use the Discovery Educators Network (DEN) blog. But usually I just enter the world and head to Edu Island or ISTE Headquarters to see who is hanging out there. You will meet heaps of educators from all over the world and have some excellent conversations.
In order to get started in SL you will need to download the software, install it and sign up for an account. For me I just jumped straight in and started exploring but a really useful resource is to visit the Jokaydia website. You’ll find heaps of useful tips and tricks as well as useful ideas for using SL for educational purposes.
UstreamTV is a website that enables anyone to broadcast their own ‘TV show’ directly to the Internet. Many educators have embraced this tool to broadcast their presentations live. Recently I’ve participated in UstreamTV events from NECC08 (which is one of the most influential educational technology conferences in the USA). I've also attended talks by Gary Stager, David Warlick, Will Richardson and Sheryl NussbaumBeach. One of the benefits of this technology is that you can participate in the ‘back channel’ which is a text discussion between the participants that occurs in the same browser window as the speaker’s presentation. Many of these presentations are archived so if you are not keen to wake up in the middle of the night to attend you can watch it at your own leisure.
FlashMeeting – Is a free online site that allows people to hold meetings online via video-conference. All you need is a cheap webcam, headphones and microphone. A couple of weeks ago I attended a meeting where twenty-five educators from Australia, the US, New Zealand and the UK met to hear about and discuss Project Based Learning.
Firstly, how cool is it that we can attend workshops with educators from all over the world n a Tuesday night at 7:30pm without leaving the comfort of our homes? Then almost as a bonus you are able to discuss the pros and cons of their ideas with them live. This is truly an amazing tool for educators.
Social Networking Websites – Whilst there are many sites out there that put you in touch with people with similar interests to you e.g. Facebook & Myspace, the one that suits my needs at the moment is Ning. A Ning is a free tool that let’s you join a group of people with similar interests to you. If you can’t find a network that you want to be part of from the 275 000 that already exist, you can create your own. At the moment my favourite Ning is the Oz/Nz Educators' group as they meet once a week using Flashmeeting. Each week there is a guest speaker who talks on an area of expertise. Best of all it is completely free to participate in.