Intro to My Personal Learning Network

As I complete my education and receive my Master's in Education Technology, continuing my learning will be important. In the following posts I will identify colleagues in my local area who will assist me, identify subject matter experts, identify professional resources to contribute to my ongoing learning, and describe some topics in education technology that interest me.

Colleagues to assist me

Technology Subject experts

Professional Resources

Topics of interest in Education Technology

My "go to" Colleagues for Educational Technology

Having knowledgeable colleagues who have technology skills is both helpful and comforting. As I continue to educate myself regarding education technology I rely on the influence of several friends. They are knowledgeable, and they are very willing to share skills and information. Three of them are listed below. 

Shown above is Rachel Tamayo. She is a Technology Specialist for the Evergreen School District, and she is assigned to help our school and Teacher Librarians soon to be Technology Specialist too. Rachel is not a teacher--she is from the business world and has a bachelor's degree.

 Rachael's job is to service five schools in the school district, so we see her one afternoon each week. Rachel mainly fixes all our technology devices and trouble shoots our technology problems. At this present time we have been able to take certain classes from our technology dept. I have attended several class taught by Rachel. Our district even offered a certificate to those who took 15 classes in the right categories. One  could earn a 21st Century Technology certificate. This meant you were competent  using technology with your teaching. I have been able to earn this certificate and found the classes and training to be helpful to me and my students. Rachael is available to me via phone, and her knowledge and skill help me be better.

Sherry Ike is pictured above. Her job is the professional development specialist at my school (Orchards Elementary). Sherry trains our staff twice a month on new curriculum and understands all assessments and what needs to be taught to help the students be successful on state tests. Sherry will be a great resource because she works with all the teachers in all the grade levels. Sherry knows what will be helpful to each grade level. Sherry is a certificated teacher, but she also did a lot of technology training for a major  corporation. I have met a lot with Sherry over my project and she also attended my presentation, so she was able to ask me a lot of question and give me valuable input. Sherry has been a second mentor to me. She has a wealth of knowledge and is always willing to share it. 

Jennifer Donnelly is my mentor for my practicum course at Grand Canyon University. Jennifer works with me at Orchards Elementary School. Jennifer works with all the teachers in the building and knows what will be most effective for our students. She has worked at our school 12 years and knows the climate and teachers well. Jennifer offers a great knowledge and expertise in working with the different grade levels. Jennifer was on the Second grade team for many years, and she was a great wealth of knowledge on how to get the Second grade team excited about my project and how best to present it to those teachers. Jennifer understands how to fix many types of devices, and she is able to locate and research any App. or software program. Jennifer works with the administrators recommending the technology tools that would be best for our students especially struggling learners.

Education Technology Experts

All travelers travel the roads created by pioneers. As educators we base our efforts on proven concepts and theories created by pioneers in our profession. Some of the Education technology pioneers I will follow are listed below.

Bernie Dodge

Dr Dodge works at San Diego State University. He pioneered Web-quests, and he created QuestGarden (a webquest authoring website).  http://questgarden.com/


Here is a link to Dr Dodges Website at the university http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/bdodge/

Webquest.org is a blog that describes web-quests and the research that provided the foundation for them.
http://webquest.org/index.php



Diana G. Oblinger
Dr Oblinger is the president and CEO of Educause. She has worked in both the academic world and the business world. Prior to her work with Educause, "Dr. Oblinger was the Executive Director of Higher Education for Microsoft, and the IBM Director of the Institute for Academic Technology. She was also the Vice President for Information Resources and the Chief Information Officer for the University of North Carolina system" (List of Private Companies Worldwide, Letter - Businessweek. (n.d.). Businessweek.com. Retrieved June 10, 2014, from http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=30608742&privcapId=4629839&previousCapId=4629839&previousTitle=Educause)

Here is a link the the Educause website. http://www.educause.edu/
Educause is a nonprofit organization that promotes education through the use of information technology. They sponsor conferences and other activities to promote technology and education.

Kate Peila

Kate Peila is an elementary school teacher from Montana. She writes a blog by the name of purely paperless. The blog focuses on a variety of technologies for education--Kate focuses on electronic organizational tips.

Here is a link to her blog. http://www.purelypaperless.com/

Michael Karlin

Mr. Karlin is a biology and technology teacher. He began his teaching career in Kansas, but he has been teaching in Korea and South America for the last two  years. His blog Ed tech roundup describes several technologies to assist teachers.

Here is a link to his blog http://www.edtechroundup.org/

Education Technology Professional Resources

As I continue my self-education in technology education, I will follow and study  the following journals and blogs.

Journal of Research on Technology Education (JRTE)  https://www.iste.org/learn/publications/journals/jrte


American Association of School Librarians website (AALS)
http://www.ala.org/aasl/publications-journals



THE Journal http://thejournal.com/home.aspx


Free Technology for Teachers http://www.freetech4teachers.com/  


Teach the Cloud http://www.teachthecloud.com/


Emerging Ed Tech  http://www.emergingedtech.com/

Topics That Fascinate Me Regarding Education Technology

  As education changes to more modern methods, there are a few technologies I am excited to follow.

  

Computer based Assessments

I believe computer software and hardware will continue to develop to a point that elementary students can receive not only a summative assessment but a diagnosis of deficiencies with suggestions to remedy the deficiencies.

Google Earth

The capability of Google Earth to attract the attention of students is amazing to me. The ability to view nearly any geographic feature on earth is intriguing. This allows people to add perspective to distance and space. I look forward to the improvement of this technology to combine virtual tours of structures and their contents to the other features of Google Earth.

Virtual Learning

Simulation has been used for many years in aviation and medicine. Training pilots and medical personnel is safer and more cost effective than other methods. I look forward to affordable virtual learning systems that will allow middle school students to virtually alter molecules or large structures. I anticipate the day that teaching mathematical and science concepts with virtual learning  is common place in elementary schools.