What’s on Your Stick?

StickWhen Liberty Public Schools Tech Instructional Coach Tracey Kracht asked for volunteers to contribute to our district blog, I admit I was excited and nervous at the same time.  I’m not new to blogging in education.  I maintained a leadership and operational blog for some time now called Ancora Imparo.  My audience was primarily my own high school staff, but it does provide an interesting archive of the journey our high school was taking.

When I began my digital learning journey, I will never forget my dear friend, mentor and building instructional coach Sean Nash (Nashworld) sharing insight on so many different tools that teachers could use to integrate technology into a classroom.  The term he initially used was “23 things on a stick” which is a great Google search to learn the history.  CLEAR-Stick-AtlasIt boils down to 23 foundational activities, tools, or processes that one should absolutely know in this century as a digital learner.  I can tell you honestly that I never hit 23.

On July 9th,  Ian Jukes (Fluency 21/Committed Sardine) authored a post of “9 Learning Tools Every 21st Century Teacher Should Be Able to Use” that provided a more focused and attainable goal for me as a learner.  It’s a great checklist for anyone building a first digital toolbox, and a great reminder for those who have been working on one for several years.  Check it out.  You will be glad you did.

Images from Google images:  “Stick” and “CLEAR Stick Atlas

Listen Up!

Connection

Continually building your Personal Learning Network (PLN) is important, and  learning from a podcast is one cool avenue (and tool) for teachers and learners.  A podcast (taken from the original location device – iPod added to broadcast) reminds me of listening to a radio show.  There are times when that just really fits into my life like when I’m out for my afternoon exercise or driving to work). I read somewhere that the best way to really get the most out of podcast learning is to subscribe to one through your RSS feed.  My two sons subscribe to an interesting (if not educationally controversial) podcast called “My Brother, My Brother, and Me.”  They are dedicated listeners, often times when they are together,  and I know from the continual laughter that they are the intended audience.  Honestly, that’s where I first learned about getting hooked on podcasts, although my podcast preference runs more along the lines of the “Freakonomics” radio podcast.

Recently, I sent IT Coach Tracey Kracht a link to this great podcast list of “50 Educational Podcasts for Teachers’ Professional Development.”  If you started down this list, you would be sure to find at least one you would absolutely have to subscribe to.  Happy listening!

Quotation image from:  Wisdom Quotes on 7.26.2013