Nine useful lists for educators

Here is a pretty good list of lists of tech tools for teachers! Originally published at http://www.eschoolnews.com/2012/08/17/nine-useful-lists-for-educators/ 

Enjoy!

Ira

CEM Tweeters provide some of ed-tech’s best resource lists on getting connected and digital literacies

By Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor
Read more by Meris Stansbury

EducationWorld has a list of five must-follow users to help you get in the pinning groove. As part of Connected Educator Month (CEM), social media-savvy teachers and education professionals are using Twitter, blogs, and publications to get information out as quickly and easily as possible, and are using lists in many ways.

Browsing CEM’s Twitter, #CE12, the editors at eSchool News have highlighted some of the most popular lists Tweeted, as well as some that may be most helpful to our readers.

From educator-recommended apps designed for specific subsets of 21^st century literacies to 14 of the best ed-tech Tweeters, and from the best CEM speaker quotes to the 10 technology commandments for connected learners, these lists are classroom-tested and educator-approved.

Have a list you consult or know of a list that’s popular among peers? Be sure to provide your links and recommendations in the comment section!

[In no particular order]

1. The New York Times’
“Tips from 33 educators we admire”

To celebrate CEM, the NYT asked every educator who has written a guest post for their publication to detail “one important thing you’ve learned from someone in your personal learning network” and “what one person, group, or organization would you recommend every educator add to his or her PLN?” The list provides more than 100 people, organizations, sites, and other resources readers can learn from, as well as shared insights on how to learn from them.

2. Fractus Learning’s
“The top 5 podcasts for ed-tech fanatics”

Adam Heckler, a twenty-something who works in ed-tech where he advises K12 schools on how they can better integrate technology into their environment, says he has a long commute to work and likes to use those 45 to 50 minutes to listen to some innovative and helpful ed-tech podcasts. From ISTE to EdReach, topics range from flipped learning to ELA, and much more. Heckler also has many more quick-hitting lists and discussions that can be found here.

3. Educational Technology and Mobile Learning’s
“Top 14 educational technology tweeters to follow”

Knowing who to follow on Twitter can be invaluable for educators—a fact that Educational Technology and Mobile Learning also realizes. In this list, these ed-tech Tweeters are among the most prominent in the field and their tweets can save time and energy. One of the Tweeters listed, Tom Whitby–a professor of education, founder of #edchat, the education PLN Ning, and the Linkedin group ‘Technology-using Professors’–is one of the main Tweeters on CEM and has provided many of these lists as well.

4. OnlineUniversities.com’s “Ten tech commandments for connected learners” and edutopia’s “Five tips for new teachers to become connected educators”

This list is useful when it comes to knowing what it means to be a connected educator. OnlineUniversities.com’s Justin Marquis Ph.D. pulls his commandments from Fractus Learning’s “The 10 (EdTech) Commandments” that he says have a lot to do with helping educators be successful in a connected educational setting; however, “as the focus of online learning should be on the students themselves, some tweaking…turns them into a handy guide for the successful connected learner in the digital age.”

5. SmartBlog on Education’s
“5 ways to develop a connected student”

Though OnlineUniversities.com focuses on educators, SmartBlog on Education focuses more on the student side of connected learning, understanding that “today’s students can communicate, collaborate, cooperate, and connect with the world in meaningful ways…” The blog explains that it’s up to the educator to support students in doing this effectively.

6. SmartBlog on Education’s
“Rewards of teaching young children to blog”

Following their advice for a connected students, SmartBlog on Education also provides a list that highlights what Linda Yollis—an elementary school teacher for more than 25 years—calls “meaningful ways to engage and motivate” young students. Yollis began her blog, Mrs. Yollis’ Classroom Blog, in 2008 to share activities with parents, and over time it has become a centerpiece for the classroom: students help manage the blog and are learning the basics of how to comment, and that audience matters.

7. Langwitches’
“21^st century skills & literacies for iPads”

Langwitches, an education Flickr group, posted a straight-forward chart of education apps for specific skills/literacies. Literacies include: Information Literacy, Media Literacy, Network Literacy, Global Literacy, Create/Critical Thinking, and Communicate/Collaborate. Each skill/literacy has nine apps listed.

8. EducationWorld’s
“Pinterest 101 for teachers:
5 power pinners you should follow”

Though Pinterest may still be considered a great place to post wonderful recipes for peach cobbler, it’s also becoming a place for innovative educators to post thought-leading ideas. “The key is to follow others who actively use Pinterest to collect great classroom- and education-related resources and ideas,” says EducationWorld. “Who you follow really matters because it directly influence the quality of content you see when you visit Pinterest…we’ve put together a list of five must-follow users to help you get in the pinning groove.”

9. Stephanie Sandifer’s “Favorite quotes” from CEM

Sandifer, who runs the blog ‘Change Agency’ to write about “education reinvention, evolution, and revolution,” blogs almost once a day about CEM, providing a wrap-up of the day’s key take-aways from sessions and forums (she also provides great lists on other CEM education topics). In this post, Sandifer lists some of what she considers the most inspiring, or accurate, quotes from CEM leaders and participants.

Connecting the Affiliated

My friend and colleague Arnie Samlan posted about a conversation he had with Beth Finger, who is working on a project called Jewish Without Walls. They suggest we "Forget about Jewish Affiliation, Think about Jewish Connectedness:"

"During our conversation this morning, we both challenged the relevance of "Jewish affiliation", which has been used in every Jewish demographic study as a measure of community success in modern America. The problem is, and has always been, that the operational definition of "affiliation" is often "pays dues to a synagogue". Even those who expand the definition someone, rarely get beyond handing money to an organization (JCC, Federation, Hillel) as the operational definition."

He explores several problems with using affiliation as a metric, including leaving our serious Jews who are "not religious," those for whom membership is of little if any value, and that it does not include significant numbers of Jews who relate to their Jewishness independently, including growing numbers who use social media to express their Jewishness.

He (with a nod to Beth Finger) suggests changing the metric to  "Jewish Connectedness." He would like Jewish sociologists to take into account the many ways of relating meaningfully to being Jewish. He wants to find a way to include serious Jewish paths that may not lead through a synagogue, federation or JCC. He includes summer camping and independent minyanim as well as those "who are doing Jewish in non-institutional spaces or in secular spaces, Jews connecting online in meaningful ways folks and who participate in Beth's Jewish Without Walls, in havurot and in other groupings that are not (yet) dues-based groups."

I think Arnie has the beginnings of an interesting framing of the conversation that we have all been having for a while. And while those who would overturn existing institutional frameworks might see this as invitation Occupy Organized Judaism, I see it as a refreshing way to begin talk about the apples and oranges in the same conversation. After all, Apple Jews and Orange Jews are still all Jews!

I would press the idea a bit further:

How can we in the synagogue world change the way we operate to increase the CI - Connectedness Index - for each member family and individual? While we in this world often do a lot to attract affiliation, we don't always (or even often) do a good enough job of connecting them to other adults in our congregations. We get them when they feel they need us (religious school, nursery school, Bar/Bat Mitzvah) but we don't always connect the adults in the family. So when the kids are ready to move on, the adults do as well.

Using the CI as a way to measure and improve what we do is as important as using it to find a meaningful category for non-Congregational connecting. I still like the word "affiliate" though. It makes me feel like we can use it to affirm that we obeying Hillel's dictum not to separate ourselves from the community.

Like Arnie, I am not the statistician to figure out how to count these things in the larger picture. I do know that in our synagogue and religious school, we have begun to focus on connecting parents. Our room parents now focus on getting parents together rather than doing the shopping or helping with the seder. (See article on page 6 Torah at the Center). I challenge you to share more ways of connecting the people who ARE affiliated! Because we need to raise the CI of all of our people!