wikis | Margaret A. Powers

Tag Archives: wikis

Some Tech Goals for 2012

Posted on January 9, 2012 | 3 comments

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!

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Posted in Thoughts

Tagged #edtech, #ict4d, 2012, Blog, Codeacademy, Coding, Early childhood education, globaled, Goals, Google, Google Reader, JavaScript, learning, New Year, Pinterest, PLN, Ruby, social media, technology, Thoughts, Tools, wikis

My Edublog Award Picks for 2011!

Posted on November 29, 2011 | 2 comments

The Edublog Awards are back! And this year (#eddies11), I have a chance to join in the nominations since I now have this great new blog! When I realized I could add my own nominations, the first thing I did was check out the The Edublog Awards Blog to learn more about the process and history. As they state on their About page, “The Edublog Awards is a community based incentive started in 2004 in response to community concerns relating to how schools, districts and educational institutions were blocking access of learner and teacher blog sites for educational purposes. The purpose of the Edublog awards is to promote and demonstrate the educational values of these social media.”

I appreciated how clear their instructions were as well as the discussion they invite on their homepage, including a reference to the fact that some people are actually opposed to the Edublog Awards. Personally, I’m thankful for the opportunity to recognize the people and communities I’m constantly learning from and with and to share with others the resources that I’ve come across by participating in various online networks. I’m excited to see other nominations and add them to my own resource lists and continue the sharing that is so much a part of having a PLN. I would encourage you to post your own nominations (there’s not much time left – the deadline is Friday, Dec. 2nd!) so that we can all learn from the educators and colleagues who you learn from and begin to dialogue with them too.

My own nominations speak to my three main passions, early childhood education, global education, and educational technology. You’ll see a few nominations related to #kinderchat, or as they say, “The Little Chat that Could,” which continues to inspire me with new ideas and resources. If you have time, go check out some of the amazing projects they’re working on both locally and globally using some great tech tools and an amazing demonstration of virtual collaboration. I have also nominated some blogs focusing on technology in education and explorations with #edtech, something that I think should be a focus for all educators as we continue moving into a more technological age. There are tons of neat new tools out there but we should also be careful to examine the pedagogical implications of jumping onboard with any tool without fully exploring it first and determining how and why it should/could fit into a training, class lesson, or other educational setting. Finally, I made two #globaled focused nominated because I believe in connecting educators across the globe and both the Global Classroom Wiki and the Global Education Conference are working to do exactly that!