100+ Free Online Learning Sites | Online Education Courses Note: Free learning opportunities have skyrocketed in recent years. I actually wrote this post some years ago – before Khan Academy, MOOCs, and all sorts of other options came along. It’s past due for an update. I’ll be working on one soon, so if you have resources you would like to see added here – or updates/perspectives on the ones already listed – please be sure to comment or contact me. I’ve been a fan of open education for some time and recently have been intrigued by the revival of the “free” business model debate by Chris Anderson and Kevin Kelly, among others. So, conflating the two, I decided to undertake what turned into a “pulling a thread on a sweater” exercise and see how much free learning I could find on the Web relatively quickly. Now for the notes and observations: First, this is obviously nowhere near a comprehensive list. Next, I made an effort to categorize things in a relatively logical way below and even to start a key of sorts: The list follows. Topical Areas Dance
Engaging Without Restrictions Engaging Without Restrictions Restrictive approaches to social media in the classroom are hurting K-12 districts that expect their teachers to successfully guide students into the new media world, according to Steven Anderson. By Bridget McCrea11/28/12 Steven Anderson is shocked by some of the social media policies instituted by K-12 schools and districts nationwide. "It completely boggles my mind," said Anderson, director of instructional technology at Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools. From there, Anderson said it's up to the district to figure out how those mistakes are going to be addressed. Anderson will share more of his insights on the use of social media and technology for learning at the FETC conference in 2013, where he will offer two different sessions on the topic. As his district's director of instructional technology, Anderson helps guide a technology program for over 53,000 students in Winston-Salem, NC.
How To Share Files Through Facebook Groups File-sharing for facebook groups is here. For some folks anyway. According to Mashable , the file-sharing feature was rolled out to members starting yesterday, and will continue over the next several days. “We started to roll out file sharing for all groups,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement reported by zdnet.com . How to use it I’m going to be honest here–it’s simpler than an email attachment. Scoring guides, rubric, project instructions, syllabuses (syllabi?) Size limit is 25MB–plenty for most documents, presentations, and image files. Should you use it?
Mind42.com - Collaborative mind mapping in your browser 8 Social Media Strategies for Your Classroom - Getting Smart by Adam Renfro - PLN, social media in education Are you ready to bring social networking to your classroom? If you’re looking to make your classroom more relevant, connected, and meaningful to your students, it’s the best place to start. Study after study has confirmed the benefits of networking. Before we delve into strategies, though, let’s look at some reasons why we should connect with students in this manner. First, we have to acknowledge the ubiquity of social networking. Besides the ubiquity factor, so much of social networking is free. Engagement is another important reason to use social networking. Lastly, social networking lets you incorporate real-world experiences into your classroom. Now for some strategy. Keep in mind that this is a social networking strategy, so there’s going to be interactivity involved. Twitter – If you have a personal account, create a second one for connecting with your students. Facebook – If you’ve not already done so, create a Facebook Page to connect with students.
A Day in the Life of a Connected Educator – Using social media in 21st century classrooms One of our main goals at Powerful Learning Practice is to turn educators into 21st Century educators. That is, teach them how to use social media and other powerful Web 2.0 tools to transform their classrooms into learning environments that are ready for today’s iGeneration students. One of the most common questions we get is, “But where do we find the time to use all this new technology?” Scroll down and take a look or click for a larger version. Get connected Would you like to become a connected educator? Explore more about the life of a Connected Educator and 21st Century teacher & learner in The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Lani Ritter Hall. The concepts we’ve explored in this infographic are just one possibility for how a connected educator’s day could look. Tweet all about it Here are some handcrafted tweets you can use to share this graphic with your personal learning network via Twitter. Share this graphic
Today's Most Popular Study Guides Social Media for School Leaders When the World Wide Web made global computer-to-computer connections possible, the ability to link people together in true social networks was not far behind. The first popular “social circle” network, SixDegrees, went online in 1997. In 2002, Friendster appeared and is often referred to as the granddaddy of websites that were truly “social.” In 2004, MySpace was created and allowed users to post information about themselves including pictures and videos. Shortly thereafter, Twitter and Facebook rocketed to global popularity. The enormous popularity of social networking today leaves little doubt that while the form is sure to evolve, the desire for social connectivity is here to stay. My awareness of what it might mean to be “missing out” if you are not connected to any social media site hit home when I was asked by an exasperated educator: “Do you Twitter and why should I, as an educator, use this type of thing?” At the end of the conversation, I had a new Twitter user in my midst!
Mathway: Math Problem Solver Creating Social Media Guidelines...The Handout Over the past few weeks I have been working on a project for Edutopia and Facebook Education to develop a set of steps to follow when developing social media guidelines in your school or district. This all came about from my presentation at ASCD this year where I outlined how we created a document that promoted the use of social media by our teachers and our students but also gave tips on responsible use. (You can read what we created here.) The goal of the document is to provide a means for anyone from a school or district to create an environment that allows for the use of social media for learning and communication. I have embedded the document below for download. What steps have you taken to create social media guidelines in your school or district?
Wonder How To » How To Videos & How-To Articles Social Media Parenting: Raising the Digital Generation Who are your kids friending on Facebook? What are they really texting to their classmates? How much online time is too much? Too often, parents who are misinformed about the social web (willfully or otherwise) will shut their kids out of it completely, only to find they are logging in anyway. If you're not taking an active role in your child's online life, you may be missing important opportunities to ensure they are on the path toward "digital citizenship," and protected from inappropriate content and people. To help shrink the tech-culture divide between parents and their kids, we sought advice from the experts, who draw not only from their own research, but their family experiences as well. Take an Active Role, and Do Your Homework For kids, social media can no longer be dismissed as a time-waster or distraction. So how do you grant kids the freedom to explore while still keeping an eye on their safety? "Parents can't just decide to keep their kids at a distance from all of this.
Footnote.com - The place for original historical documents online A School's Guide to Social Media Etiquette | SchoolAdmin Blog The Admissions Director's School’s Guide to Social Media Etiquette With everyone entering the social media market and it being the status quo to host links to your Facebook and Twitter accounts on your website and in emails, it’s important to remember that there is an unwritten code of conduct. It’s actually been written a number of times in a number of ways however, a lot of what you’ll read about in searching for social media etiquette is aimed at the casual user (and abuser) of Twitter and Facebook as well as some businesses. But what about schools? Here are some best practices for how you as a school should conduct your social media business that will help boost your online presence.Keep Posting The most important thing for an Admissions Director to do is build an audience of people who are both interested in being part of the school as well as interested in hearing what’s going on with the school. 1. Keep Engaging Try and always respond to those who reach out to you on social media.