Sharing the Addiction

Introduction

I was approached recently by Karen Schweitzer as she wanted to be a guest blogger on this blog. She picked a topic that she thought teachers would find useful – information on social networking sites that we can use as educators. Thanks to Karen for approaching me about posting and sharing her knowledge below.

20 Social Networking Sites for Teachers – by Karen Schweitzer

It has never been easier for teachers to network online. The web hosts thousands of online communities and forums for teachers, administrators, librarians, and other educators. Here are 20 social networking sites that are particularly popular among teachers.

TeachAde – TeachAde is the first social networking site created specifically for teachers. The site combines social networking with teacher resources to create a useful online tool for educators.

The Apple – This site is a free social networking community for current and future teachers. Special features include message boards, lesson plans, videos, and up-to-date news.

Classroom 2.0 - This online community for educators has become a place for teachers to come together and share information about web 2.0 tools and other education technology. Classroom 2.0 also offers live webinars and online events.

NextGen Teachers – Teachers can network with one another and discuss new ways of educating and learning on this social networking site.

The English Companion – The English Companion is an online community for English teachers who want to meet new people, network, and share ideas.

We the Teachers – This education search engine and online community can be used to find other teachers and network. We the Teachers is also a good place to share lesson plans and resources.

TeacherLingo – TeacherLingo is an online blogging platform for educators. Teachers can start their own blogs or network with other teachers through forums and comment sections.

Google Teacher Community – This Google Discussion Group keeps teachers in the loop on Google’s K-12 education initiatives. It also serves as a forum for teachers to ask questions, share ideas, and discuss hot topics in education.

Applebatch – Abblebatch is a K-12 teacher community. Teachers can find jobs, build their network, and share education resources.

TeachersRecess – TeachersRecess is a free social network with many useful resources. Teachers can communicate online, share lesson plans, get news, publish a personal blog, and buy or sell teaching tools.

PBS Teachers Connect – PBS Teachers Connect is a place for site members to meet up and share ideas. The site also provides a wide range of teaching resources for the classroom.

ProTeacher Community - This online community was created for K-8 teachers who want to communicate and network with each other. ProTeacher offers blogs, forums, and chat capability.

ClassScene – Designed specifically for schools, ClassScene is an online repository/community for photos, videos, and more. The site can also be used to generate revenue and collaborate with the school community.

Education World – Education World is an enormous site with thousands of resources for educators. Teachers can use it to ask questions and network.

Tapped In – Since 1997, Tapped In has served as an online meeting place for K-12 teachers, administrators, and librarians. Thousands of educators gather on this site to share stories, ideas, lesson plans, and resources.

Teacher Focus – Teacher Focus is an online community/forum for teachers. The site also offers lesson plans, news, and other education-related resources.

Edublogs – Edublogs is more of a blogging platform than a social networking site. Nevertheless, it is a great way to connect and interact with other teachers.

Diigo – This section of Diigo hosts nearly 5,000 bookmarks for educators. Teachers can go here to discover and share education-related articles.

Twitter – Twitter wasn’t designed specifically for educators, but it is a good place to network with teachers, students, and parents.

Delicious - The largest and most popular social bookmarking site on the web, Delicious is an excellent place to find and share online bookmarks with other teachers.

Guest post from Karen Schweitzer, the About.com Guide to Business School. Karen also writes about accredited online colleges for OnlineColleges.net.

The Power of Technology

This post is not really to do with education but I wanted to share with you the power that technology can have once you are using it personally. I am a Facebook user and love the way that it keeps me in touch with friends and people I had lost touch with until I got in contact with them again through Facebook. The power of this social network became apparent to me when one of my best friend’s father was killed in a car accident last week. New Zealanders may have seen this on the news – his name was Graham Condon and he was a councillor in Christchurch and a paraplegic and was killed when riding on his modified bike when a 15 year old girl crossed the centre line. I had often called Graham my ’second dad’ and he hosted my hen’s party earlier this year so I was pretty upset and went down for four days to be part of the funeral.

Before I headed down, I felt that I wanted to do something for Graham and this is where technology became a way of expressing how I felt. I set up a group on Facebook called Tributes to Graham and then went through all of the news articles about Graham and made a video about him celebrating his life’s achievements. People started joining the group and started writing stories about Graham. My friend Craig started reading these and was really touched and a little comforted at how many people wanted to let him know that his dad was important to them. He also really appreciated the video. I was able to post of photos from the day of the funeral so that people on the other side of the world who would have wanted to be there were able to share in the day. Facebook really showed me the power of these types of networks during this time.

I think that social networks have a long future ahead of them! What are your thoughts about social networks?

Meeting Reflections

I have just been to Hastings this week for a two day meeting with other key staff in clusters. I enjoy these meetings as it is a great time to be around like minded people with a real passion for the use of ICT in education. There is so much expertise in the room at these meetings and it is wonderful to be able to swap ideas and information.

For instance, Sara is a facilitator for another cluster and she gave me a handy tip about a piece of software called Umajin that is great for layering images and video (some with the use of blue screening). This is so easy to use and much more affordable than Photoshop and easier than GIMP. They offer discounts for bulk buying and that includes buying through clusters of schools.

Tessa highlighted her great collection of resources on her area in Centre 4 – the managing change section is excellent.

Other than that, I have found a few new things on my own. I have now managed to sign up for Imbee (a safe social network for teachers, parents and children) as they now support New Zealand. I think it looks like a very interesting platform and may use some people in my cluster as ‘children’ guinea pigs (or anyone else that indicates being interested). It would be great if I could get a test group of children involved in a project around this tool. Watch this space…
I am also enjoying looking through the blog and wiki of Wes Fryer. He has a lot of interesting things to say and has fantastic collections of resources including a page on Digital Storytelling.

I also like the layout of Soople which shows you all of the advanced Google search options in a really user friendly format.

Well, that’s about enough from me for the moment To bed!