Notes from CUE 2013, Thursday 14 March

First session: Torrey Trust on building and using Personal Learning Networks (PLNs)

Torrey, as many of you know, is Jerry Trust's daughter, and was a graduate of LCC and a student of mine.  She is now a PhD student at UCSB in educational technology, studying the social dynamics of how teachers learn.  (Short version, according to her: nobody knows.)  Torrey presented about the different types of resources available to construct PLNs, about the types of roles that people take on in social networks, ideas for moving teachers from lurkers to participants, and about recommendations for different tools to use.  She recommended starting with Google Reader as an RSS aggregator, and I agreed completely, except for the ugly fact that just yesterday Google announced that they are going to pull the plug on Reader on July 1.  Torrey looked distraught when she heard that news.  So was I, frankly.

My big question when thinking about this topic was, "How do we get reluctant teachers to start?"  Most of the time, when I've convinced teachers to jump in, they see the value of learning from a PLN.  The big hurdle is convincing them that it is valuable enough to even start.  One idea I have is that we should stop calling it "social" media.  The label "social media" implies fluff and timewasting, and most teachers do not want to be "social" with their students, and rightly so.  But what I think many teachers don't understand is the professional connections that can be made through Twitter, Edmodo, or other community tools.

Torrey's website is edpln.wikispaces.com .

Second session: Technology needs for the Common Core

This group of three teachers from a virtual school in Temecula had a fantastic presentation addressing the implementation of the Common Core State Standards and the implications of that for teaching 21st-century skills with technology.  Their bottom line take-away message was that the CCSS, if implemented well, will automatically address 21st-century skills, and will require that we infuse educational technology into instruction in order to be effective.  Their prezi hit all the right notes, and afterwards I asked if I could borrow it as an outline to bring back to our district.  I suspect that very soon I (or someone else) will have to give this very presentation to our district teachers, as we prepare ourselves for transitioning to CCSS.

Their discussion site is techcommoncorecue13.blogspot.com .

Third session: Rushton Hurley on inspiring staff

I had never heard of Rushton Hurley before today, but that is clearly my loss.  This guy was dynamic, entertaining, thoughtful, passionate, and insightful.  Every few minutes I thought to myself, "I need to remember that to bring it back to our teachers."  After several of those thoughts, I revised it, and instead thought, "I need to bring him back to talk to our teachers."  I can't do this inspiring talk justice, but I will mention that he had five lessons to remember when trying to implement change among reluctant or resistant teachers.

Hurley works at Next Vista for Learning, an educational consulting firm.  Their website is www.nextvista.org .

Keynote:  Catlin Tucker

Catlin Tucker is a high school English teacher who has made herself a leader in the educational technology field simply by being dissatisfied with the way she was previously teaching.  She described her own story of being a traditional English teacher, and failing to engage students in thoughtful discussions.  Her presentation detailed her journey through the "stages of grieving" until she finally decided to try engaging students through technology.  Her keynote was entertaining and motivating, and I suspect that her personal story would resonate with many teachers I know personally.  If and when the video is posted on the CUE website, I will put a link to it here.  UPDATE:  Here is the link to the keynote video on YouTube.