Our Learning Circle is for supporting one another in our common goal to meaningfully integrate technology in our classrooms by sharing ideas, lessons, challenges, and successes, especially for making best use of our Interactive Whiteboards.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

March=Blooming & Branching Out... Elluminate, Diigo, RSS, and time to play!!!

Dear Learning Circle friends... Thanks to all who made it out to our March meeting on Monday. Your enthusiasm and willingness to experiment, engage, and explore are admirable!


We were so lucky to tap into Jan's PLN and experience an Elluminate session with Lesley and Brian, two enthusiastic educators with unmeasureable enthusiasm and expertise in technology.

The purpose of this virtual rendevous was threefold: to demonstrate the power of PLNs, to highlight the importance of connection with other educators outside of our schools and district, and to shed some light on how to manage the "stuff" of technology integration. Technology can be overwhelming at the best of times and Lesley and Brian introduced us to some tools and techniques to help us better manage our forays into technology integration.

First, Brian gave us an enthusaistic "tour" of Elluminate, which is a real time virtual classroom. Then, Lesley shed some light on the Diigo tools and some of the advantages of social bookmarking. Finally, Brian explained RSS feeds and the use of Google Reader to help manage blog subscriptions. If you missed out on the meeting, or would like to revisit the presentation by these tech experts, please visit the archived Elluminate Session.

After our Elluminate-ing experience, we broke off into comfort level grouping to share SmartBoard lessons, tips, and tools. Some of us also explored our Diigo group further and there was much discussion about the use of RSS feeds, too. Working in small groups allowed time to explore challenges, successes, and questions regarding effective tech integration.

We ran out of time to come together at the end of our meeting for doorpirze draws, so I put our names in a hat on Tuesday and am happy to announce the winners: Julia (wins the technology carry case) and Jan (wins the cordless mouse).

The feedback received so far from Monday's meeting has been very positive. If you have any further comments about our March gathering, please feel free to email Michelle or comment here.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you very much for a very "illuminating" session last night!!! One of the most enjoyable and educational "after-school" Pro D. sessions I've had in years! Given the Pro D paradigm, perhaps a similar session can arrange as a follow-up before the end of the year. Just a thought.

    Again . . . thank you!!!

    Regards,
    ~ Ian

    ReplyDelete