Pam Nielson’s Blog

As I have previously mentioned, I enjoy reading blogs. They can be informative, enlightening, and even humorous. And for the past several years, since I finished my master’s program, blogs have served as my own form of on-demand professional development. In the time that I’ve been reading blogs, however, that has been the extent of my participation–as a reader only. Sure, I occasionally posted a comment, but until I started this blog, I was not contributing much to the world of blogging. In an attempt to change that, and because I enjoy a good challenge, I have decided to try participating in Steve Dembo’s “30 Days to Being a Better Blogger” which starts November 1st. If this strikes your fancy and you’re up for the challenge, check it out here. Happy blogging!

I haven’t blogged in a week because I have been busy building my Professional Learning Network (PLN). What is that, you ask? It is a group of individuals with a common interest who share ideas and resources in order to promote their own learning. My PLN consists of other educators from across the country who I have met at conferences or who I have been introduced to by those educators I have met.

Most PLNs today exist online using social networking sites like Ning or Web 2.0 technologies like Twitter or wikis. The one that I am currently using is Plurk. It is similar to Twitter, because users are limited to 140 characters or less in their message, but it is so much easier to follow conversations.

I really like how supportive the people are that are in my PLN. You can post a question or ask for a suggestion on any topic and get a response pretty quickly. Now granted, not every plurk (or message) is always educational, but they are always informational and/or entertaining. 

If you haven’t created a PLN yet and this sounds like something you might be interested in, please sign up for Plurk and send me a friend request. I will be sure to add you as a friend and introduce you to the people in my PLN so you can start to build your own PLN! 

Do you ever go online for a specific purpose and end up doing something completely different? I just spent the past hour trying to create my own avatar. Why? Well, because it is fun! Here is my creation from meez.com. The site was extremely easy to use and allows you to customize every single thing you can think of: hair style, hair color, skin color, body type, nose shape, eye shape, eye color, lip color, clothing items (tops, bottoms, shoes), jewelry, and background. If you give it a try, put in my user name (missnielson) so I can get credit for the referral! 

I attended the ICE-COLD Mini-Conference today in Lisle, Illinois. It was a very nice day of learning, networking, and (of course) eating! Below are a few of my notes:

Session 1: Using Google Applications to Make Your Life Easier with Erika Roberts

Ideas for using Google Docs:

• parent communication log for a department or team
• group presentations or group work
• sharing lessons/units/quizzes/tests/projects/etc. with others in the department or team
• collaborating on yearbook or newspaper articles

Ideas for using Google Calendars:

• scheduling spaces in the school (meeting rooms, gyms, computer labs, etc.)
• sharing school events (sports games, assemblies, club meetings) with staff and parents

Session 2: Makin’ Movies with Joe Brennan

Key idea: Movies help students express their deepest understanding of core knowledge or concepts. 

Story ideas:

• public service announcement
• newscast (of historical events)
• interpretation of a novel or short story
• demonstrating a scientific principle

Formatting ideas:

• movie trailers
• commercials
• reality tv show

Session 3: What’s the PLaN? Plurk, Twitter, Ning, Wiki…What does it all mean? with Wendy Sigele

During this session I revisited my dormant Plurk and Twitter accounts. I think I will give Plurk another try after Wendy’s passionate presentation. For her, Plurk has become such a valuable tool in her Personal Learning Network.

Trying to keep up with all the trends in technology can be quite a challenge with all of our other daily responsibilities. How do you find time to read and comment on blogs, listen to podcasts, contribute to wikis, follow people on Twitter or Plurk, send email, upload photos to Flickr, and browse the newest creations on YouTube? I don’t know how some people do it! They keep up with it all, in addition to raising a family, having a social life, and being productive in their career. Apparently they have much better time management skills than me, because I find many of these new technologies to be “time stealers.”

I can’t do it all, and I have had to let some of these tech tools go “by the wayside.” For example, I have not regularly read the blogs in my Bloglines account since mid-May. I tried to create an account on Plurk last month and just couldn’t get into it. I still listen to podcasts, but I have definitely cut back on the number of feeds I subscribe to. I’m behind in uploading pictures to Flickr, but I want to start doing that more often after my recent hard drive scare. There just isn’t enough time in the day for everything, so I have to be selective in how I use it.

So what do you feel is a “time stealer” and/or what tech tool have you given up?

You know how they say the three most important things in real estate are location, location, location? Well, I say the three most important things in technology are backup, backup, backup! 

At the end of September, my almost two-year old Apple MacBook Pro started to have issues. I was trying to download some podcasts when I got a message that I had no more memory left. Uh oh. I immediately worried that something might happen and I hadn’t done a backup since February. I pulled out my external hard drive and went to work. Each time I tried to backup, however, I got an error message that said “Backup failed.” I tried late into the evening without any luck. I turned off my computer for the night and decided to give it a try after a good night’s sleep. The next morning my computer wouldn’t turn on. I got a gray screen with a flashing folder with a question mark on it. Not good. Apple did what they could, but they couldn’t save it. 

So now I’ve been trying to restore my “new” computer to the way it was before the crash. I thought for sure that all of my data since my last backup in February had been lost, but I was joyous to learn that my recent backup actually did work and I still have all of my 9200 photos! What I did lose, however, was all of my Quicken data because my previous backups of Quicken were on the internal hard drive. 

Moral of the story: Backup everything to an external hard drive that you don’t want to have to “recreate”–and backup often! And if you have an Apple computer, I urge you to invest in a .mac or .me membership because all of your bookmarks, contacts, calendars, and more are synchronized online.

As a way to keep myself current on educational technology and general news (and as a way to not watch so much television), I enjoy listening to podcasts. They’re interesting, educational, thought-provoking, and often funny. Here are the ones I currently subscribe to:

•  The Tech Teachers - A husband and wife who teach high school physics and Spanish team up to give you information about tech gadgets they use or have just learned about.
• Geek!Ed - A goofy group of Michigan educators who share their wit and enthusiasm for educational technology.
• Bit by Bit - Bob Sprankle, Maine educator, is the epitome of a podcasting professional. He used to teach elementary school where his students created excellent podcasts. He is now a technology teacher, sharing his wisdom and passion with all the students in his school.
• NPR: Wait wait…Don’t tell me! - This hilarious weekly radio show reviews the week’s news events in a game show format.
• The Nick Digilio Podcast from 720 WGN - This radio personality is on the air in Chicago every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. He reviews movies and discusses pop culture. He’s the kind of guy you are either going to love or hate.

I use to listen to podcasts from others in educational technology (Steve Dembo, David Warlick, Tim Wilson, Wes Fryer), but I found I just didn’t have the time to keep up with all of them.So what podcasts do you recommend? 

I have decided to resolve to create a blog post daily–even if no one ever reads this. I think keeping a blog can be a good tool for reflection.  Often we are too busy in our daily lives to reflect, and that is unfortunate. For it is when we stop to reflect that we can truly grow–emotionally, spiritually, professionally.

For example, how often do you really reflect on your teaching practices? For those educators who blog regularly, the answer is probably “often.” For those of us who don’t blog or are new to blogging, I’ll bet the answer is “rarely” or “as required after an observation.”  Starting a blog purely for the purposes of reflection–even if no one ever reads it–would be a great way to “force” some reflection time into one’s day. And even though this is only my second blog post, I have found it quite relaxing and satisfying to have carved out a little time for reflection and goal-setting. Cheers!

Hello DEN Community! This is my first (and last?) blog post. I tend to be real enthusiastic when I first start things, and then the “newness” wears off and so does my dedication. So will this be one of those things? I hope not, because I know how beneficial blogs can be in promoting collaboration and professional development. And I know how powerful the DEN Community can be. So having a blog within the DEN should be awesome, right?