I am participating in the national plan to promote Connected Educators’ Month (CEM) for this year. I was very honored to even be asked to participate on this committee, because I am committed to collaborative learning for all educators. I believe that social media and technology afford our profession the best opportunity to date in order to connect educators for collaboration and exchanging ideas to develop and maintain relevance as professional educators. Technology offers our best tools to enable, promote, and practice life long learning, the very thing that educators hold up as the “Holy Grail” for their students. As I have pointed out in many posts, Life Long Learning should also be the personal goal of all educators, and ideally everyone else in our country as well, even if that reality may be unrealistic.
The leaders of this planning committee have their hands full, trying to orchestrate an effective plan with input coming from more than 30 individuals. Each of the committee members has his, or her own vision of what Connected Educators’ Month should look like. Each of the members has strong opinions, each has a strong personality, and each is a leader in his or her area of expertise. Trying to include everyone’s position in one plan will be a herculean task, but it is certainly doable through collaboration.
My position on the committee is simple. I want to connect the unconnected educator. There are far more unconnected than connected educators. We as a profession are not taking advantage of our best opportunity to date to collaborate and advance our education system for the benefit of our kids and our country. We are not participating in great enough numbers to discuss, collaborate and improve our system. Educators have left themselves out of that discussion allowing the void to be filled by business people and shortsighted politicians.
My fear is that we will place an emphasis on adding content for connected educators and miss out on actually connecting educators. It is my belief that by connecting more educators, we will be adding content by the added participation of more collaborating educators. Adding content for those already connected has a limited impact on the unconnected educators. Using social media to advertise connecting more educators does not target the unconnected. They are not on social media to be affected by the advertisement.
If we are to connect more educators, we need to ask those connected to do more. We need them to model their connections. We need them not only to share their sources with the unconnected, but also to cite how Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or a particular Ning site provided the source. We need administrators to recognize, establish and support the positive effects of connected collaboration. Our professional organizations can give up a few iPad sessions to make room for connected educator sessions. Any conference requiring nametags can certainly have a field for the educator’s Twitter name. Twitter names should also appear on any printed media where educator contact information appears. We need to prioritize the need and the ability for educators to connect. The path to collaboration and connected educators needs to be made easier and seemingly natural. We need to go where the unconnected educators can be found and that is not on connected venues. If we believe in collaboration of connected education for life long learning than we need to promote connections for our educators, who in turn will educate and hopefully connect our students.
Connecting the unconnected! Right on! Resistance is futile.
Very excited to see this blog–connecting more educators is a much-needed and important initiative. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help! Thank you for your time and work in this area.
Rachel Magee
Twitter: @rrm402
Hi Tom. Nice post. I agree that we need to focus on connecting more educators, but I like to be sure that we all have a common understanding of what a “Connected Educator” is. Being a “Connected Educator” means connecting with People and Information, not with technology. #edtech just one (albeit powerful) means. The role of a Connected Educator is to model being a Connected Learner and to help others develop the same skills. In the ‘Classic’ image of a Connected Teacher http://goo.gl/HhUhMy, let’s not forget about Family/Local Community, Curriculum, and Colleagues!
I agree you need both. What has helped where I am with connecting educators both locally and on twitter is the informational loop; cycle of taking local ideas/info, utilizing a platform that connects local educators with educators across the country and beyond; bringing back additional ideas from those connections to the local level for discussion to expand and enhance work at that level etc., etc.
Twitter & other forms of SM and technology are powerful tools that allow this type of broadened collaboration to take place. I and others have benefitted so much!
Maybe for the next conference I go to I’ll make a t-shirt that says “Ask me about Open Online Experience” http://ooe13.org
or twitter
or CEM13
etc…..
Connecting the unconnected is certainly a priority for me this school year. Probably a good idea to mobilize the students as I did in our book project last year. Connected Learners. If the students start asking as well it might happen sooner?
Adding to the conversation, as the reply validates, connections can stretch further than expected.
The international connection may reveal solutions beyond those proposed within more national and local connections.
Lastly the few international conversations / connections I maintain are refreshing in their uniqueness.
Tom, How about the connected list that you posted recently following back on twitter? That might be a good start.
Pat Parris
Here it is, almost 100 of my best Educators to follow on Twitter. If you hit the follow button for all of these educators, your Twitterstream will overflow with quality education sources 24/7. https://twitter.com/tomwhitby/my-twitter-stalwarts/members.
I just connected your excellent and much needed post to My Connected Educators page: http://www.cybraryman.com/connectededucator.html
In November at GaETC I am giving a presentation entitled Connected Educators Rule the World. I have been thinking a lot about this topic lately in preparation and realized that since I began teaching in the “Dark Ages” I have always been a connected educator. Of course, today it is much quicker and easier to reach a global network thanks to the digital advances we have made.
I see the need for more administrators to model the benefits of being an online connected educator. Hopefully this will filter down to their staffs.
I am so happy that I have connected with you and the other members of my PLN as y’all have definitely enriched my life and keep me young.
[…] This article highlights the power of technology to connect educators. I totally agree with its content and would like to see more educational providers, for example, giving staff the opportunity to link their Twitter feeds into their contact card on internal email. There are so many opportunities ready to be tapped into which would go some way to giving education a voice from the ground up. […]
Your post is timely. I just participated in a 2 day workshop with Sheryl Nessbaum-Beach and believe in the power of connecting with other educators. I’m someone who has come in and out of Twitter and wrote a blog post about it today. (http://www.raisingreadersandwriters.com/2013/07/i-finally-get-itslice-of-life.html). I agree with you that connecting the unconnected is a priority. I would also add giving support to those who are just starting the journey is very important.
Tom, this post reminds me of what has been running through my mind the past week or so as I ponder my next (thereby also making it my second) blog post…What I appreciate and un-appreciate about Twitter. I am a Twitter newbie (have been on for about a couple of months now) and truly appreciate all of the information and knowledge that I have been able to locate there. I can say that I didn’t truly understand what Twitter was all about and now that I have found it I feel like I have found a secret treasure! Over the past couple of months or so on the site I have learned more about education and technology than I have in the past few years combined during traditional PD. It is a powerful tool! However, when I look at the educators who get the top billing in the education twittersphere (many of whom I follow) , I see a lot of contact/connection amongst themselves, but very little in the way of branching out and connecting with those who are just starting out. I see people, including myself, post daily seeking help and connection, but their posts go unanswered. I try to fit into chats and connect via online resources, so I can to help build my PLN, because I know that I need to do my part to connect with others, not expect them to come to me. However, I think it’s hard to find your place amongst those who have been at this longer. Sometimes I feel like I just don’t have as much to share that is new or exciting–yet. But at the same time, I also feel I have a perspective that is different from those who have been connected longer. And this perspective is one that they might find useful when thinking of how to connect with everyone–not just their kind. I have found that most of my followers on Twitter are also fairly new/unconnected members of the twitter community which is great, but at the same time limiting. I think it would be very meaningful and perhaps help both parties really feel connected if the “pros” would make more of an effort to connect with those new to the process, not only lead by example, but reach out and connect in a more personal way. How can I create a meaningful PLN, if the only people willing to connect with me are people in the same place as me? And are you really connected if you are only connecting with others who are also connected…that leaves a lot of people who you are not connecting with…and hence your post.
Thanks for being such a thoughtful and well spoken educator. I love reading your posts–each time it arrives in my inbox I’m excited to read something that will make me think!
Once again Tom, your words are timely and inspiring. Tops on my list of professional goals is to see that all of the learners in my school get connected and engaged with a PLN. In addition to lifelong learning, I am gaining appreciation for the term “lifewide learning”, which has gained popularity in Asia and the U.K.. With connected technologies and social media turning learning opportunities inside-out, the time is right for learners to record, analyze, and share the myriad of personalized learning experiences that the world has to offer. Dr. Helen Barrett introduced me to this concept during her ePortfolio workshop at ISTE. Here is a link that explains lifewide learning in greater detail. http://goo.gl/E3keaj
Keep fighting the good fight Tom. Like others in this conversation, you can count on me for your support and assistance. Thanks for showing us the way.
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Good morning. Thanks for the motivation! As a twitter newbie, I’m addicted to the PD available (as you can see from my 5:20 AM (!) post here). I plan to model for my co-workers/parents/students so they can tap into the wealth of excellent resources via twitter.
Unfortunately, I agree wholeheartedly with Kristin about the isolation I’ve experienced pertaining to personal connections. Her post completely and accurately summarizes my experience so far. Any suggestions, Tom? I want to contribute and build a PLN. Maybe more time will help.
[…] I am participating in the national plan to promote Connected Educators’ Month (CEM) for this year. I was very honored to even be asked to participate on this committee, because I am committed to co… […]
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[…] I am participating in the national plan to promote Connected Educators’ Month (CEM) for this year. I was very honored to even be asked to participate on this committee, because I am committed to co… […]
[…] I am participating in the national plan to promote Connected Educators’ Month (CEM) for this year. I was very honored to even be asked to participate on this committee, because I am committed to co… […]
[…] I am participating in the national plan to promote Connected Educators’ Month (CEM) for this year. I was very honored to even be asked to participate on this committee, because I am committed to co… […]
[…] How Do We Connect Educators? (tomwhitby.wordpress.com) […]
[…] I am participating in the national plan to promote Connected Educators’ Month (CEM) for this year. I was very honored to even be asked to participate on this committee, because I am committed to co… […]
[…] I am participating in the national plan to promote Connected Educators’ Month (CEM) for this year. I was very honored to even be asked to participate on this committee, because I am committed to co… […]
[…] I am participating in the national plan to promote Connected Educators’ Month (CEM) for this year. I was very honored to even be asked to participate on this committee, because I am committed to co… […]
[…] I am participating in the national plan to promote Connected Educators’ Month (CEM) for this year. I was very honored to even be asked to participate on this committee, because I am committed to co… […]
[…] I am participating in the national plan to promote Connected Educators’ Month (CEM) for this year. I was very honored to even be asked to participate on this committee, because I am committed to co… […]
[…] I am participating in the national plan to promote Connected Educators’ Month (CEM) for this year. I was very honored to even be asked to participate on this committee, because I am committed to co… […]
[…] I am participating in the national plan to promote Connected Educators’ Month (CEM) for this year. I was very honored to even be asked to participate on this committee, because I am committed to co… […]