Category: Professional Development

Professional Development Meme 2009

I’m a big fan of goal setting. It can provide a road map for the short or long-term and can be an effective motivational strategy. I have set a few professional development goals for this summer and have challenged a few of my friends/colleagues to do the same thing. In 2008 I realized that I could set this up as a blog meme and hopefully encourage some of my online friends to achieve a few items from their To Do Lists. There are a myriad of ways to approach this, but I’ve opted to take the short-term, easy-to-assess approach, but I’ll leave some wiggle room for you to customize it to meet your needs. The official information is below.

Directions

Summer can be a great time for professional development. It is an opportunity to learn more about a topic, read a particular work or the works of a particular author, beef up an existing unit of instruction, advance one’s technical skills, work on that advanced degree or certification, pick up a new hobby, and finish many of the other items on our ever-growing To Do Lists. Let’s make Summer 2009 a time when we actually get to accomplish a few of those things and enjoy the thrill of marking them off our lists.

The Rules

NOTE: You do NOT have to wait to be tagged to participate in this meme.

  1. Pick 1-3 professional development goals and commit to achieving them this summer.
  2. For the purposes of this activity the end of summer will be Labor Day (09/07/09).
  3. Post the above directions along with your 1-3 goals on your blog.
  4. Title your post Professional Development Meme 2009 and link back/trackback to https://www.clifmims.com/blog/archives/2447.
  5. Use the following tag/ keyword/ category on your post: pdmeme09.
  6. Tag 5-8 others to participate in the meme.
  7. Achieve your goals and "develop professionally."
  8. Commit to sharing your results on your blog during early or mid-September.

My Goals

  1. Continue to improve video skills and integrate my own instructional videos into courses.
  2. Finish all the items on my To Do List regarding my website.
  3. Submit at least 1 of the articles currently in progress for review.

I Tag…

Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0

Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0I’m teaching a special topics seminar this summer for graduate students (3 hours graduate credit). The topic will be Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0 Technologies. While we’ll consider common trends and issues and survey many of the popular tools and services related to Web 2.0, the heart of the course will be learning to effectively integrate Web 2.0 technologies and principles with teaching and learning. The focus will be on K-12 education but accommodations can be made for individuals from other fields (health, corporate, military, higher education, etc.).

I’m very excited about this class. I taught the course in Summer 2008 and we learned a lot and had a blast! You can view the ebook (authored by the graduate students) and other course materials that emerged from the 2008 Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0 class to get an idea of what this class will be like.

In keeping with the principles of Web 2.0 I encourage the participation of everyone with an interest or expertise in this topic. You may contribute to the discussion and fun by using the following tag/keyword: idt7078. Be on the lookout for ways (Ustream, Skype, Twitter, Plurk, etc.) to informally participate with us. I would certainly consider making it possible for those wishing to enroll in the course and participate from a distance, too.

Free Educational Technology Workshops

The Instructional Design and Technology program at the University of Memphis is pleased to be hosting the following free technology workshops. Please consider joining us and feel free to share this invitation with your colleagues, students, friends, family, etc. All workshops will be in 310 Ball Hall on the UM campus. Preregistration is strongly encouraged as seating is limited.

Tuesday – 3/24/09
5:30 – 8:00: Digital Video

Wednesday – 3/25/09
3:30 – 5:30: iLife ’09 and MobileMe
5:45 – 8:15: Enhanced Podcasting

Arkansas Association of Instructional Media Conference

The 38th Annual Arkansas Association of Instructional Media Conference will be April 19-21, 2009, at the John Q. Hammons Convention Center in Rogers, Arkansas. Consider submitting a proposal to present and make plans to attend this great opportunity for professional development. AAIM is an AECT State Affiliate.

Webcast: Writing to a Prompt with Kidspiration

(NOTE: I received this announcement via email from Inspiration.)

Kidspiration

Graphic organizers are an effective tool to support students as they learn how to write to a prompt. Join us on January 15th to see how your students can learn to write on demand using Kidspiration®. Lucy Belgum, our Education Development Manager for Language Arts, will host a complimentary 45-minute webcast demonstrating how to:

  • Use visual techniques to plan writing that is mindful of audience, purpose and form
  • Engage students in the process of writing paragraphs that contain supporting details
  • Target, plan and write to the components found within the various modes of writing using graphic organizers

Date: Thursday, January 15, 2008
Time: 12:00-12:45 p.m. Pacific Time, 3:00-3:45 p.m. Eastern Time

Register Today!

If you are unable to join us, don’t worry – the webcast will be archived and available to you shortly after the event concludes.

View our archived webcasts!

PD for the Holidays: Web 2.0 Tutorials for Teachers

We wrapped-up final exams last week and had graduation on Saturday. Now that things have slowed down a bit I’ve been able to spend more time on my own professional development (Translation: I’ve been more actively engaged with my personal learning network (PLN) the past few days.). While my primary goals during the holiday break are to spend lots of time with family and friends and accomplish many of the things on our house to do list I do also have a few professionally-related goals. Thinking that some of you might also intend to spend part of your vacation time honing your skills I am sharing the following valuable teacher resources.

Starter Sheets by Andrew Churches
This is a series of job aids to help teachers and students begin using Web 2.0 tools and to give teachers ideas about how they could be integrated with teaching and learning.

21st Century Technology Skills, 2nd Edition by Liz B. Davis
This book (Paperback available for $9.94 or downlaod PDF for FREE) of technology tutorials specifically for teachers is filled with screenshots that will help you begin using many of the most commonly used Google applications, set up a wiki at Wikispaces, bookmark with Diigo and Delicious, create a VoiceThread, and more.

Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0 by IDT 7078
These modules were jointly developed by the graduate students in my special topics seminar during Summer 2008. The Table of Contents helps you navigate through the topics (Theories, Models and Strategies, Internet Safety, Overview of the term and characteristics of Web 2.0) and tutorials for the many genres of Web 2.0 tools contained in this ebook/wiki (Audio, Blogs, Wikis, Images, Presentation Tools, Video, Productivity and Collaboration Tools, Social Bookmarking, Social Networks, and more). Each module presents an overview of and tutorials for the most commonly used tools by teachers, provides classroom examples and provides resources to help you and your students begin using the tools.

Free Technology Toolkit for UDL in All Classrooms by Karen Janowski
Karen has organized a set of free resources that should be on every classroom computer to promote learning for all students based upon principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). These tools are fun and engaging and provide improved access and accommodate for learner differences.

Here are a few Google Docs tutorials for teachers that I recently shared.