OETC 2015 and my Personal/Professional Learning Network

Sometimes, we can't rely on our Professional Development Committee to provide the training we want.  It's not their fault, there's just a lack of funding to send us to all the meetings and conferences we want to go to.  That's why I like to volunteer at conferences in exchange for free admission.  That's what I've done this week at the Ohio Educational Technology Conference.  OETC is the largest state sponsored educational technology conference and I'm proud to say it's in my home state.  I've attended this conference several times and it's outstanding!  OETC has a side conference, or "un-conference" as they like to call it, called OETCx.  This was an amazing day sharing tweets and experiences with people like myself (EdTech professionals) sharing their passion for learning and their students.  People like @ericcurts, @rmbyrne, @mdroush and more keep me energized about my love of technology and motivated to do more!

I've learned alot about useful websites and tools for the classroom as well.  Plickers is my new favorite! It's a great high-tech, low-tech assessment tool.  Print out enough cards for the students in the class, create your class on line, and have your students hold up their answer with their card and scan your whole class with your iPad/iPhone.  Easy for students and teachers to use - plus it will graph your data for you!

I've been tweeting a lot as part of my Personal/Professional Learning Network (PLN). This has been the best thing I have done for myself this year.  I've connected with educators and edtech folks from all over the world and participated in Twitter chats.  There are soooo many to choose from, an extensive list can be found here.  I choose to participate in #edchat, #edtechchat, #ohedchat, and #gafechat on a regular basis.  The topics on many of these challenge me to rethink about the way I feel about education and the changes going on.  It also gives me the opportunity to share what works for my school with others and to help them incorporate tools such as Google Apps for Education in their classroom.  Technology has made the world a global classroom.  We are no longer limited by our geographical boundaries.  I can chat with my counterparts in New Zealand, California, England, wherever from the warmth and comfort of my own home.  TweetDeck has been a huge help to me!  I can follow conversations easily and even see if anyone else likes what I have to say!  Always a good ego boost for someone new to the Twittersphere!  

Another tool that works well with Twitter is Storify.  Storify allows you to capture Twitter conversations by hashtag.  You can also include posts from Facebook and Google +.  There's a Chrome extension as well! Here's an example of a Storify from @StacyHaw from a keynote this week.  Just think, you could have a classroom discussion outside of the typical school day and make a Storify from it for students to review.  Lots of possibilities here!

Google+ is another piece of my PLN.  There are lots of communities or circles you can follow for all sorts of things.  My favorites are Connected Classrooms Workshop, Educators on Google+, GEG Ohio, GAFE Admins, and many, many more!  You can post questions, share articles, find classes around the world to collaborate with, and bounce ideas off of the heads of other educators.   This has been an invaluable piece of my PLN group.   Conversations are easier to follow on G+, in my opinion.  An added plus is that if you have a Google+ account, you can also host/broadcast Hangouts on Air as well (and then post those Hangouts on YouTube!). 

Last but not least is Pinterest.  Don't laugh, but Pinterest is a valuable part of my PLN.  I'm able to create boards for different topics of interest.  For example, I have boards such as Education, Chromebooks and Google Apps, iPads in Education, and EdTechieness.  These are great places for "pinning" ideas and resources to use later.  These can be websites, pictures, YouTube videos, and more!  There are a lot of times I don't have the time to review entire sites, but I can pin them to come back to later.   Of course, I also have my recipes, travel ideas, and other fun boards as well.  :)  It's nice that I can share a link to these boards to share ideas with others as well.  

I'd like to encourage you to try these resources or find even more to create your own Personal/Professional Learning Network.  You'll make lifelong connections with other education professionals from around the world.  Professional development is no longer just the responsibility of your school, it's the learner's responsibility as well.

You can follow me at @nsattler on Twitter, +NickieSattler on Google+, and here on Pinterest.