PLN Expansion INSTTECH 1020-01
Personal Learning Network (PLN)
On the first day of my Education Technology class, the teacher instructed us to all get out a piece of paper and create a diagram that illustrates how we learn. We were told to brainstorm and think about all of the different types of media, technology, and other tools we used to learn, share information, and make connections with the outside world. After brainstorming for a little while, this is what I came up with.
Pre-Map of my PLN
Made on January 17th, 2018
As you can see, the ways I learned were the stereotypical ways most people learn and explore new information. I learned mostly from my parents, teachers, and google. While I was able to share and or experience the outside world though twitter, Facebook, and podcasts. While the tools I listed on my PLN here have endless roads to information, as I went through the semester, I was able to expand my PLN to find so many more useful resources I either didn't know existed or neglected them because I didn't think I had a use for them. Below, I will list a few different resources I found throughout the semester during my Educational Technology class. The following resources all have the possibility of sculpting my future as a future educator.
1. Twitter
Twitter is a great tool for personal use to see what the latest news is with your friends, favorite celebrities, and a variety of other things. However, Twitter can also be used in the professional setting. In January of 2018, I set up my professional Twitter account that I plan to use as a teacher in the future. My professional Twitter handle can be found by following this hyperlink which should take you directly to my page: @mrmckinleymeyer
Hashtags
The first thing I learned that you can do is search by using hashtags. This is an amazing tool allows me to connect with other history teachers with the hashtag of #historyteacher #history #teaching #SocialStudiesTeacher etc. All of these plus more allow me as the teacher to connect with other teachers world wide. Not only is this a tool for teachers to use, students in the classroom can use this to connect with other students, research, and learn about new topics. Hashtags are being used as a quick reference tag for people that are looking for a specific tag to find. Here is a simple example of how using a Hashtag can be used in the future as an educator.
Following People
In additional tool that Twitter can be used for is the following feature on Twitter. As an educator, you can follow a wide variety of people and organizations to see what the latest news is. This can allow teachers to connect with each other from all around the globe. Within just hours of being active on Twitter with my professional account, I already a journalist and a history teacher from Bristol, UK following me. With this, I am able to see what other educators are doing in their classroom and also stay up to date with the latest news and gossip through Tweets.
While my professional Twitter account is small now with hardly any followers, my goal is to expand this exponentially throughout my professional career. I plan on doing this by following other history teacher accounts and being active on Twitter. Now until I am actually able to implement the use of Twitter in the classroom as a teacher, I plan to build my digital footprint on twitter. I want to do this by tweeting at least three times per day.
Voice Thread
Google Apps
Google Apps is an application that I think every single teacher should learn how to use. Google + offers a wide variety of applications that students can use during school. Most schools that go 1 to 1 will use Google + with their students because it offers almost everything a student could want. I learned about this throughout high school and then again, more in depth, in this class. I learned how to use many features google has to offer during this class. All of these features can be beneficial in many ways for a teacher in a classroom. Below, I will demonstrate a few different applications students can use through Google + and Google + apps to make their lives better
Docs, Sheets, Slides.
Google docs, sheets, and slides are three separate applications that students can use in their education. These three applications that Google offers are perhaps the three MOST useful apps to perfect in order to develop 21st century skills. Google Docs is similar to Word Processing. This is a blank document that students can use to write papers, type notes, do assignments, etc. Google docs is an online application that requires and email account and that is basically it. It is free and easy to use. Google Sheets is similar to Excel. This can be used for students to make a spreadsheet. By perfecting Google Sheets, there are endless possibilities you can do. Google Sheets can be used to create a graph for a presentation, compile statistical data, and even organize poll results from an online survey. Google Slides, is equivalent to Power Point Presentation. It allows students to create a slide show online through Google software. Google slides can be used to create a group presentation of a specific topic in the classroom. All together, these three free applications can be used to strengthen those important 21st century technology skills in the classroom.
Google Drive
Google Drive is a fabulous tool to help students stay organized. It is also the perfect tool for teachers to share documents with students. Google Drive is the online thumb drive for all students. I can not count the number of times I thought I forgot to save a document or thought that document that I created 5 years ago was long gone until I looked through my Google Drive and there it was, saved online to my Google Drive. Google Drive allows teachers to share Google documents such as Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides through an online database. Students then can go online using the gmail account and access these documents with just a click of a button.
Google Classroom
Google Classroom is a wonderful piece of technology for teachers that are looking to push their technical skills to the next level. It allows the teacher to create a digital, almost social media, based classroom in which students are able to join in on the fun. Here, the teacher can post content related to the class. Teachers are able to post assignments, videos, pictures, posts, you name it. It is a fun social media like application that teachers can use in their classroom to help the students stay organized with the use of Google technology. Here is a video that I found shot by Technology for Teachers and Students on YouTube. Here, he gives a tutorial on how to use Google Classroom.
Google Sites
The last Google application that I want to talk about is Google Sites. This was a fantastic new tool that I found out how to use during my WebQuest section of this class. This application taught me how to create my own website through Google. This is not only a great idea for a project in the classroom, but it is also a great idea for students, teachers, and administrators to use in our education system. By creating your own personal website, you can learn many progressive skills for the future. In my experience, a group of future educators and I created a website for class that was designed for students. This website instructed students on a group project in which they would formulate their own political campaign. It was designed to reflect the 1968 Presidential Campaign in the United States. This is just one example of what you can do with Google Sites. You can also encourage students to create their own website that they can use their own creativity to do whatever they want to do with it.
This is what a group of future educators and I created. https://sites.google.com/uni.edu/vietnamaganda-web-quest
Blogs
Creating a Blog
During this class, we were encouraged to create a blog and try it out. Blogs are a great way to share information that you care about with the internet. As a teacher, you can start a blog to talk about important topics in the classroom, good resources for the students to use, and even share resources with the rest of the world. Creating a blog is fun and easy. By creating my own blog on Blogger, I learned that it is a super effective way to share information with others. Here is a link to my personal blog. http://mckinleymeyer.blogspot.com/
This is an example of me creating this current blog. Creating a blog has taught me how to work with 21st century skills. It has also taught how I can make my own personal site that allows me to share what I want to share.
Following Blogs
Before this class, I always heard people talking about following blogs, but I saw no use since I had a Twitter account. However, a Twitter can only do a portion of what a blog can do. Following someone's blog can give you access to all kinds of resources and information that you didn't know existed. While expanding my PLN I chose to research different blogs and found a few useful ones that I enjoy looking through during my free time.
Educational Blogs
I follow a few educational blogs to keep in touch with what is new in the education system. The first one I came across was Lisa Nielsen's "The Innovative Educator" Blog. This blog is super interesting to follow as it offers new insight on different topics related to the field of education. In addition to this blog, I also find the Educational Technology and Design blog for this class VERY interesting. It highlights the important topics and offers additional resources to follow for every week's topic. The use of following educational blogs is amazing! |
| http://uniedtechdesign.blogspot.com/ |
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| https://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/ |
History Blogs
In addition to educational blogs, I also explored some history blogs to see what history buffs are talking about. My favorite one that I found was "Stuff You Missed in History Class" this is a website blog that display pictures and has a podcast linked to them to listen to. Tracy Wilson and Holly Frey take you through possible topics that you may not have been taught in history class. It is very interesting to listen to if you have a few minutes to spare during your day. History blogs can be used for educators to receive foreign information that can be reference in a lecture that you may not have known by just reading the newspaper. Overall these extra blogs educators can view are additional resources that can add knowledge to the teacher.
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| https://www.missedinhistory.com |
Pinterest is a great tool for teachers to explore new ideas to implement in their classroom. I came across this resource during a lab class that we had one week. We were urged to create a pinterst account and start pinning things for the future. This was great advice. Not only is this useful to brainstorm new ideas but as educators you can save the ideas and use them at a later date. Pinterst is a great resource for me to use in the future when I am thinking of new ways to teach something, new ideas to implement in the classroom, and creative tips and classroom designs that look fantastic. I learned that this tool is not only used for teenage girls and middle-aged mothers, but it is a tool for everyone to use and share information on. Below are just two of my favorite examples of what I found when researching Pinterst.
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| https://www.pinterest.com/pin/253257179027398891/ |
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| https://www.pinterest.com/pin/527976756301404392/ |
These are two examples of pins that I found on Pinterest. Both of them take you to different websites that give you additional information on how to teach history in a new and exciting way. As a movie buff myself, I found the compilation of movies a user on pinterst posted to be an amazing source for educators all around the world. After teaching about a topic, what better to do than watch a movie on the topic to better understand and paint a vivid picture that will help them remember it.
Khan Academy
While I was in high school, I would search online on how to do certain math problems. I came across Khan Academy and really liked it because it showed step by step how to do problems. Flash forward to this year, my sophormore year in college, and Khan Academy is mentioned in one of my lectures in class. I then get back on Khan Academy to see if it is more than just math. What I found was amazing. Khan academy has people walk you through major subject areas in school in almost every single class that you have. Here is everything that you can explore on their webpage.
This is a tremendous list of all the different subject areas that Khan Academy offers! As an educator this can be used with endless possibilities. If a student doesn't understand a topic or needs more time to go through something, they can log onto Khan Academy and watch and listen at their own pace. Future educators can also use this for students that miss a class period due to sickness or other reasons. The teacher can inform the student about Khan Academy and the student can catch up on the lesson without falling too far behind. As a future history teacher, I was amazed with everything they have on my topic. The have U.S. History, World History, Government, and Politics. Within all of these categories that have hundreds of videos that break down the complicated topics into simplified versions. Not only can this be used for students but it is also very useful for the educators themselves. The educators can view the Khan Academy video and learn new things themselves. Not only does the Khan Academy offer videos to assist the student but they also provide useful review questions after each lesson to ensure the learner gets the important points from the video.
Here is a screenshot from Khan Academy on the subject of Bill of Rights. It is possible for a future educator to recommend Khan Academy to a student who missed class on the day that the teacher talked about the first 10 amendments. After the video, there is a practice that asks 4 questions. In order to make sure the student understands the subject, the teacher could assign the after video activity. In order to make sure the student did the quiz, the teacher could give the student credit if they screenshotted their results on the quiz.
WeVideo
WeVideo is an application that I came across during this class. We were to create a video from the student's point of view on our thematic unit. WeVideo is an online video processor that is free to use. This is a great tool to recommend for students if they are creating a video project. The project taught me how to use video editing software effectively. I think this is a useful skill to have because you never know when you might use it in the future. For future educators, this is a great tool to use if you want your students to create a video project. This allows the students to edit the video, put images from online, add music or sound affects and much much more! Students can show their creativity with this application. This application also allows you to upload the video to YouTube for the entire world to see. WeVideo gave me an amazing opportunity to create a fun YouTube video that I can use as an example in the classroom. WeVideo give students and teachers endless opportunities for group projects, video lessons, and anything else video editing software can do.
Here are two links that lead you to a video that I created for this class with WeVideo software.
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This is what the WeVideo editing software looks like.
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All Sides
All Sides is a website that provides an outlet to the many different news cites on the web. What All Sides does is it rates the political bias of the news source based on five categories ranging from left or liberal news to right or conservative news. The way it works is it posts a news headline that can be seen anywhere on the news. It then gives a snippet of what a left new source is saying, what a centered news source is saying, and then what a right new source is saying. It then gives you a link to follow the new source based on it's bias. The website also has a database on ratings for any new source you want to see what type of political bias they may have. I found this out of curiosity one day when having a conversation with my parents. I wanted to find a news source that was directly in the center and had no bias whats so ever. Turns out this website gave me just the thing. As a future teacher, this can very beneficial. Just thinking off of the top of my head, I could use this in a project comparing far right and far left new sources and see how they differ in the news they present. Further, I can instruct my students to follow a more centered news source so media bias does not mess up their findings if they are using news articles in their research.
Podcasts
I have been listening to podcasts since my sophomore year in high school. I came across a political podcast and got hooked right away. The podcast gave me information daily about events that were happening around the world. However, I was only using podcasts for politics and nothing else. I came across a few different podcasts by searching the iTunes education category. Podcasts are a great way to listen to new information on the go. I have personally added a few podcasts to my playlist to listen to on car rides back home, while studying, and even when walking to class. I have learned so much from this type of application. That 10-15 minutes you spend in between class or walking to class can be used to learn new things from people sharing new content all around the world. As an educator, podcasts can be used to learn new information, include in lesson plans, or even just play during quite time in class. Podcasts are a great tool to use everyday to expand your knowledge. A few of my favorites include #EdChat Radio, Ted Talks Daily, The History of WWII Podcast, The Ben Shapiro Show, and Pod Save America.
Poll Everywhere
Poll Everywhere is an amazing resource that educators can use in their classrooms. It is always useful to get the opinion of the classroom at just a click of a button. I discovered this resource during the many lectures we had in my Ed Tech class. This is a great tool to use when wanting to get immediate results. As a future educator, I can think of many way I could use this. As a government and history teacher, I look forward to using this in lectures when asking the class if they would vote for a president, vote for a bill or policy, or even scan the room for the classes opinion on a topic covered in the class discussion. More universally, this application can be used in a classroom to test if the class needs more help understanding a certain topic. After teaching something in history, for example, you can use Poll Everywhere to ask the class a specific question or even just ask them a yes or no question if they are ready to move on. If the results from Poll Everywhere say that you students don't understand something, you can spend more time covering it. I really look forward for the instantaneous results for student opinion on a topic in my future government class.
Symbaloo
Symbaloo is an application that make your life easier. It organizes all of our favorite bookmarked pages, favorite sites, most used sites, and other ways of simplifying your online experience into a homepage. Through this homepage, you can click on an icon and it will take your right to that cite. It is similar to having you bookmarks at the top of the page however, you can set it as your homepage and organize your favorite websites into categories of your choice. I came across this resource when looking at other people's PLN. So many other people had this listed so I thought I might give it a try. It makes accessing the web so much easier. The best thing about it is there is a Google search engine in the middle that you can use for fast results. This can be used for future educators for many things. It can be used to stay organized with all of the different classes that you teach. It is easy to lose websites that you found one day however, with Symbaloo, you don't have that problem. One way that I would use it in the future is I would create separate folders for my different classes. Inside these folders would be all of my online resources that I would use for the class. This could include Khan Academy, Google Classroom, Social Media, and many more. This is a great way for educators to stay organized with the hundreds of applications and website they use throughout the school year.
QR Codes
During the WebQuest section of my Education Technology class, we were taught how to use QR codes. At first, I thought they not as good as people thought they were but then I started thinking of all the different possibilities you could do with them. As a future educator, I think attaching QR codes to your powerpoints could be very beneficial. In a history classroom, attaching a QR code could allow the students to view additonal resources that you would not include in the actual Power Point of the class. For example, if I am teaching a lesson about the Civil Rights movement, an awesome idea for a QR code would be a link to pictures of Civil Rights Movements, songs, posters, etc. Another way future educators could use them is in their papers. Instead of making your students cite every single source they had, an alternative thing you could try would be having them create a QR code for the source they used. These are just a few ideas of the endless possibilities students and educators could us QR codes for.
Ted Talks
Ted Talks are a great tool for educators to use. Throughout high school and some of my classes in college, teachers would use Ted Talks to share new ideas people have. Most of the time, the people talking on Ted Talks are teachers themselves. I find this very valuable because Ted Talks is a resource that allows teachers to share their presentations and new ideas to an audience of other teachers. Ted Talks can be used for future educators in many ways. They can be used to inspire teachers, inspire students, or even inspire the administration to gain new insight on an important topic brought up by the speaker. Ted Talks is amazing because the speaker is always very passionate about what they are covering in their talk. The Ted Talks website has videos on topics about all things including education, history, toys, technology, and whatever else you can think of. This is a fantastic tool for educators to use to inspire themselves or the students in the classroom.
C-SPAN Classroom
C-Span Classroom is an amazing tool for social studies teachers around the United States. I came across this resource while I was a cadet for a middle-school social studies teacher in high school. The teacher used this resource to show the students in his classroom videos about current events. When I got back on the website, they have something called Classroom Deliberations. This allows students to be engaged in current events that are happening in the public sphere today. Thinking as a future educator, this is a great resource to use to engage the students in discussions and helping them think critically. What C-SPAN Classroom Deliberation does is it provides primary evidence, videos, newspaper articles, and other sources on events that are covered in the news. These are then presented to the class in which they can then formulate their opinions about their stance on the issue. C-SPAN offers handouts and lesson plans for the teacher in order to instruct the deliberation going on in the classroom. This resource could be used for quality debates between classmates on real events going on in the world. While using this resource, students can engage not only in the classroom, but even in the real world!
Crash Course
Crash Course is one of my favorite ways to learn. The way it works is the hosts of the show break down important topics in a fun and interesting way. They use simplified language, effective graphics and visuals, and even primary source data. They have a variety of topics that are taught in school and even some that aren't like film history and study skills. My favorite is John Green's U.S. History Crash Course. The way he covers the topics are wonderful and easy to remember. My middle-school history teacher introduced me to this resource and ever since then, I have been using it to refresh my memory on events in U.S. History. Thinking as a future educator, Crash Course can be a great way to either introduce or review a topic. It is a relatively quick way to understand important topics related to your school subject. The best thing is, I found that the content the teach runs pretty close to the content that any textbook teaches as well.
iCivics
iCivics is a wonderful tool for social studies teachers around the United States. This resource provides lesson plans AND standards for students learning about social studies. I came across this resource during my Level 1 Field experience in the fall of 2017. This resource is easy and free to use. Thinking as a future educator, there are endless possibilities you can do with this resource. This resource can be used to create lesson plans, engage students, and come up with activities that you have never tried before. My favorite thing this resource has to offer for future students is for every single lesson they have they have a breakdown of standards similar to the Iowa Core. After a teacher reviews the Iowa Core standards for the lesson, they can also use iCivics to extend all of the different learning objectives for students.
If you look at the picture above, you can see how iCivics lays out a lesson plan about the Jim Crow era and Civil Rights. iCivics takes you through learning objectives that students should gain during the lesson. If the students can easily answer these questions, there is no doubt that they can easily pass the test over the unit!
Kanopy
Kanopy is a wonderful tool for teachers to use to provide videos or documentaries for the class. I was introduced to this resource in my Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners class here at UNI. Kanopy offers a wide variety of movies and documentaries that are supplementary to a student's education. I was surprised on how much content Kanopy had. They have topics on just about everything you would need to show in the classroom and more. Thinking as a future educator, this can be utilized in many ways. One idea that I had was after a unit or even if you know you are going to miss a day of class, you could find a documentary for students to watch on Kanopy and have them fill out questions linked to the video. Kanopy can be a good resource to paint a picture that students will remember on a topic that may seem hard to understand through a lecture. For a Hollywood view of even the view of the world's top historians, Kanopy is a resource that can be used to share content through video media.
Updated PLN
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| Post Map created on April 20th, 2018 |
As you can see my PLN has expanded a lot just over the course of this semester. With the information I learned during my Education Technology class, I have learned the importance of expanding my PLN and leaving a quality digital footprint. My plans for the future is to continue to expand my PLN and dive deep into the many resources I have listed above.
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