An Educator At Rest, Tends To Stay At Rest

 Chapter 9 of Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach's "The Connected Educator," has a clear message: It is now time to apply all the tips, techniques, and technologies to achieve your goals as a connected educator, and then some. In the beginning of the chapter there is a quote from the Leonardo Da Vince "Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do." Okay so you've read the book from cover to cover.. Good job, but now the real work has just begun.

Leonardo was the original "Renaissance Man"and is a timeless legend for his innovations in art, engineering, and science. Plus he makes a good point. Now that you have learned about all the benefits of being a connected educator, go out and expand on them. Have you thought of new ways to invoke positive change at your school or institution that have not yet been brought to the light? Sure you can sit around and wait for things to change, but that doesn't accomplish anything. By reading "The Connected Educator" you have already taken bold new steps towards positive change in your career, but now it's time to keep walking forward. Remember, an educator at rest tends to stay at rest.

One way I will be moving forward is with a brand new website. I'm making the website with a website creator called Weebly. At first I was intimidated by the idea of creating a personal website from scratch, but it his ridiculous how simple a task Weebly has made it. Weebly allows any beginner to create a professional looking site for free (or you can purchase a custom domain name, or upgrade to a premium version).

The interface is simple, and it allows you to add and create elements to your website by just dragging and dropping to your website template. Still confused? Here's a site that will guide you through all the stages of creating your very own Weebly site. Till next time guys and stay tuned for the launching of my very own personal site shortly!

Diigo bookmarking

Hey guys I want to talk to you about an important bookmarking site called Diigo.com. I mentioned it earlier in a prior blog however I did not expand on what it does. Diigo allows people with an account (signing up is free and easy by the way) to highlight any part of a website, attach notes or anecdotes, and then share them with other users on Diigo. Or if you want to keep these notes or websites to yourself, you can choose not to share them however either way, they are all grouped together to your liking.

Whether you are sharing your notes with your connected learning community, or simply organizing them for research, there is no denying how useful this tool can be. To check out some useful material regarding connected educators, use the tag: clc-voc. Thanks guys till next time!

The Connected Educator : Chapter 5

This latest chapter I have read in the "Connected Educator" by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, focuses on all the different devices and tools to support connected learning. In the chapter it lists many websites to utilize connected learning. Among them are social bookmarking sites: Delicious, Diigo, Flickr, and Youtube; Blogging sites: Blogger, Wordpress, Tumblr; and Micro blogs like Twitter, and twitter interfaces Tweetdeck and Hootsuite.

Social Bookmarking helps web surfers better organize the important content from websites they frequent by grouping them. Not only can you use bookmarking sites for personal use, but you can also share these sites with networks of your connected peers.

Blogging sites are simply websites that are continually updated with journal-like entries or posts. In the words of Nussbaum-Beach, "Blogs are great sources of ideas, information, and experiences about learning, leading and teaching."

Micro Blogs, especially Twitter, are essentially blogs however it is directly connected to your learning network and shares information quickly and efficiently.