Some Tech Goals for 2012

Last week, I wrote some reflections on 2011 and after looking back on the past year, I decided it would be good to also think about 2012 and some of the tech goals I hope to accomplish.

The first one is to keep up with this blog and to start adding more pictures to my posts! I think I got a good start with this goal in my last post. 🙂

I want to learn more about coding this year. I was excited to discover the free Javascript coding lessons at Codeacademy. I recently finished their “Getting Started with Programming” course and until they release new lessons, I plan to start exploring Ruby.

Another tool I’ve been exploring and want to begin using more frequently is Google Reader. Now that I’m posting here and reading so many new blogs, I realized I needed a way to easily organize them and stay up-to-date on new posts. I’m still trying to decide how I want to arrange my folders and I also hope to look into creating “bundles” and see how they might be valuable for sharing blog resources.

After recently receiving an invite, I just started to poke around on Pinterest and I would like to explore the site more. I want to think more deeply about how I can use the site in a meaningful and productive way to organize and share resources with other educators. I currently only have 18 pins on 6 boards but as I search around the site, I’m beginning to find some really great resources from other users. I think there are some really exciting possibilities for sharing with the site, especially since you can allow other users to add pins to your boards. I could see this turning a board like “Great #ECE Blogs” into a goldmine.

Wikis are also on my list of goals for 2012 because I plan to create at least one wiki for my master’s program this year for a weekend course I’m teaching in the spring on Technology as a Global Learning Tool. I have only used wikis intermittently over the past few years and I want to grow more comfortable with using and designing them so that the participants of the course can co-create one with me. I hope it will serve as an ongoing resource and community space for us to think about #globaled, #ICT4D, #development, #edtech and ways to use technology in meaningful ways in the U.S. and abroad.

One other fairly new tool/site that is on my list is Google+. I have played around on the site, creating my own page and a page for my master’s program but I haven’t seen a lot of interaction there and honestly have struggled to find time to be active there as well as all of the other networks I participate in and sites I run. I hope to continue exploring Google+ in 2012 and testing out some more of the resources the site offers, like Hangouts, as well as finding ways to use Pages for inbound marketing.

Finally, an ongoing goal of mine is to stay active in my existing social media networks and in close communication with my PLN so that together, we can continue learning and teaching about issues in (early childhood) education, resources for teachers, ideas for using social media and new technologies, and ways to connect people around the globe!