Digitising the department: July 2011

Wednesday, 20 July 2011

Some quality resources for teachers...

The purpose of this blog is to collect a range of resources which I find on twitter. For those of us who are newer to ~~teachnology~~ ed-tech and less confident with the internet in general, I want to get all of that information and create a blog which can act as a library for ideas and other blogs. It can be overwhelming sifting through the information available, so I hope to make it a little easier for some to follow. I always try to credit the people who created the work - apologies if I fail to do this. Let me know and I will rectify it.

These blogs and other articles are a few favourites I have saved up recently from the fantastic people on twitter, including @briankotts @CreativeEdu @mtonus @ianaddison @edteck and @wjputt

These people are all well worth a follow - as well as this the hashtags #edchat #ukedchat and #edtech are vital.

A powerful piece about a learner's needs, from their perspective. (thanks to @CreativeEdu)

I love Hip Hop and its culture and I love this video. www.hiphopgenius.org is the site that supports this although it is a work in progress (thanks to @sirkenrobinson via @briankotts).

Thanks to @russeltarr for various uses for wordle.

Attaining excellence, thanks to @wjputt.

Lots of e-learning info, regularly updated, thanks to @scoopit via @mtonus.

Project based learning myths debunked thanks to @edteck.

For those who work in EAL / ESL heavy schools, thanks to @tombarrett.

And finally... a superb summer reading list for 10 - 14 year olds from @literacyadviser.

Enjoy!

Purpose

This blog has a serious purpose. I've been inspired by the work of other educators, from around the world, and their use of digital technology to enhance the learning experiences of the children they teach.

Recently, I've started to use some aspects of this in my own work, with varying degrees of success. I want to move this to the next level.

Also, I have been lucky enough to recently become a Team Leader - new fangled speak for Head of Department. My vision is to digitise the department. I see a department using technology confidently, whether it be twitter, class blogs, digital story telling, or simply YouTube.

I want your contributions. I want to collate and share other educator's ideas and good practice, and use this to develop the pedagogical scope of my team, and support others in doing this.

I am not a technophile; I hated IT at school, and didn't send an email or type an essay until my final year at university. I'm a late adopter of twitter. However, I see the potential and engagement achieved by those who use technology bravely and innovatively. I want to do that, and, hopefully, help others to do that, starting with my team. Beyond that, who knows...