Digital Professional Development

As part of my efforts to learn more about digital citizenship and the role that technology can play in professional development, I attended Google's Education on Air conference on Saturday, December 3rd. I watched the keynote speakers and then selected a breakout session to "attend" virtually. I particularly enjoyed the student and teacher panel. It was cool to hear from teachers that are doing inspiring projects with technology, and the hear student thoughts on the teacher/student/technology relationship. Below are some of the ways that I participated.

In this view, the presentation plays in a small screen at the bottom right
as people make comments or ask questions in the live stream

I also used a split screen- the presentation on the left as I watched the Twitter stream on the right

The break-out session I attended was on project-based learning, an area that I am particularly interested in improving in my instruction. We received a link to a Google presentation and then had access to a live stream as Kyle Wagner talked us through his PBL strategies. He spent lots of time at the end of his presentation answering questions that people posted, and he gave us his email address so that we could ask for the rubrics he had been explaining.

I learned about this PD opportunity through Twitter, and while it was sort of overwhelming to try and keep up with all the information coming at me, it was also fun to be thrown into the deep end and try to swim. I can go back and watch other videos later, since everything got recorded. And, I gained a few new Twitter followers! I am continuing to investigate online opportunities to extend my digital knowledge so that I can be a role model for my students. Follow me!