#12dayslearning Day 6 -- Give a Shout Out to a virtual connection that has become a real life connection

Thanks to @edurolearning

Day 6 -- Give a Shout Out to a Virtual Connection that has become a Real Life Connection

Geoff Derry (@gderry) -- I've been interacting with the guy on Twitter for years, but finally got to meet him last year at #21CLHK10. I'm really looking forward to seeing him again, because he is just a super cool guy who is doing some great stuff with AR and VR.

Social Media at Cheongna Dalton School

Social Media at CDS

To the new faculty, we have a culture of crowdsourcing social media at CDS. With that in mind, here is a list of some of the places you can engage in our community. Our policy is that teachers and students should not friend or each other on any social media platform. Facebook pages do not require you to friend any student. It is a shared social space. If you have questions or concerns about social media use at CDS, please feel free to ask. Enjoy!

1. CDS Staff Facebook
2. CDS HS Facebook
3. CDS MS Facebook
4. CDS FP Facebook
5. Live Streaming Youtube
6. My Channel with many videos about CDS
7. EdTech Blog
8. Humans of CDS
9. On Instagram we use the hash tag #cdsphoenix (you can also check out the hash tag #cheongna to see people's photos of life here).
10. On Twitter we use the hash tag #cdsphoenix, Ben, Karissa, and I post quite a bit.

#PubPD is coming to Asia!

Carlos Galvez (@clos_gm) is starting an incredible professional development opportunity for Asia and it is starting at 18:00-19:00 on Tuesday, November 21, 2017. The idea is simple -- go to a pub, order an adult beverage of your choice, and get on Twitter. That's it! Amazing educators from around Asia will be joining the chat with the hash tag: #pubpd. For those of us in Korea, there are currently two pubs that I'm aware of involved in the action -- Cocky Pub in Yatap and Hans Craft Brew in Cheongna. Come out and join! If you can't make it out of your house, at least have a drink and follow the chat on Twitter. #PubPD was originally the brainchild of @maplesyrupedu from Canada. Like... Those Canadians are pretty cool, eh? Totally not a bunch of knobs or hosers like those folks from the US.

Firefly Video to Promote Twitter

Updated: Twitter Feed on Your Blogger

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I wrote a post about how to place a Twitter Feed on your Blogger. OK, it wasn't that long ago -- it was 2013 and it wasn't in a galaxy far, far away, because it happened here on planet earth, but it seemed like a nice way to introduce my updated version of putting a Twitter feed on your Blogger. The original post has 43K+ views and 294 comments to date. It has been by far the most important blog post I have ever written traffic-wise. And then it happened, two weeks ago, someone made a rather snarky comment on the post.

I'm not sure why Patricia Heil thinks that I should continue updating a blog post from over three years ago, but she does and after I though about it, I decided she was correct. It is time for an update to the original post. So for all you users of Twitter and Blogger, here is the updated version of How to put a Twitter Feed on your Blogger. Enjoy!

Your journey is going to start by logging in to your Twitter account and going to Setting.

In Settings go to Widgets and Create New.

You will type in the URL of the account you want to follow with your feed.

I prefer the Embedded Timeline, but you can choose the other one.

Twitter in Educator Professional Development

First, a short historical perspective on this survey. Back in 2011, while part of the EdTech Team that developed the Fish Bowl, I wrote a blog post on the same topic. Unfortunately, Posterous shut down and that particular blog post was lost in an internet blackhole. I do, however, roughly remember the data gathered, but not exactly. What I do clearly recall from 2011 is that I received about the same number of responses (30), but the percentage of educators who felt that Twitter was a part of their professional development (70% in 2011) and the percentage of educators who felt that Twitter was a useful tool for professional development (50% in 2011) have both jumped in 2016. Second, there is an obvious bias that should be mentioned up front. Bias: I sent this survey on Twitter, which automatically means people who use Twitter are going to respond more than anyone esle. I did also post it on Facebook to an educational group I'm part of (Apple Educators), on LinkedIn, and on Google+, so other nets were cast into the vast ocean of the internet, but Twitter users were clearly more likely to respond.

With those items out of the way, here are the results of the survey.
Question one: I use Twitter as part of my professional development. Of the 30 respondents, 93.4% chose Agree or Strongly Agree.

Question two: I find Twitter useful as a professional development tool. Of the 30 respondents, 93.3% chose Agree or Strongly Agree. Although this question is similar to the first one, there is a subtle difference between the two questions. Question one asks if it is used by the person in professional development and the second question asks if the person finds it useful. This points to the users not doing it because they are being told to use Twitter, but because they personally find it useful. This once again help us to understand that Twitter is a grassroots form of professional development that educators use and enjoy, as opposed to a mandated form of professional development.

Question three: The third question didn't exist on my original survey back in 2011, but I thought it would be good to begin to understand exactly what educators do with Twitter that makes them feel that Twitter helps and/or empowers them with their professional development. The results showed that most (96.7%) share links to content. 80% engage in discussions and following hashtags on topics of interest. 70% use Twitter as a tool to curate content and 43.3% answer surveys (thanks to those people). 13.3% engage in "other" activities. Next survey, I will begin to catalog what "other" activities educators do on Twitter.

Instagram for Collecting Observation Artifacts

Students enjoying water colors in art class.

Saipan International School uses McREL Power Walkthrough for teacher observations. It is a great tool that I really enjoy using, because the program focuses on the learning that is happening in the room. I noticed in a recent update that McREL added a camera icon to the walkthrough forms, so an observer can add a photo. I was happy to see that now it would be easy to click a photo of what was happening in the classroom at the moment I was there as a visual record. Photo artifacts are a great extra tool to use and it is nice to be able to show a photo of a teacher teaching or students learning when you talk with parents, students, and teachers about learning. I loved the idea, but felt that it needed to be taken one-step more -- social media! If you are an avid or casual follower of my blog, you knew I was going to go there, because I'm Mr. Social Media, right? But I think it is wonderful to be able to share what is happening in classrooms with the community. Parents should see their children actively engaged in classes and enjoying their school life; plus, it is a great advertisement for our school. What I have been doing this year during walkthroughs is to take a photo or two of what is happening and then sharing the photo with Instagram. Instagram is great because I can do some simple editing of the photo and then send it out to Instagram, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter, so I hit all my major social media outlets in one quick share. It spreads the word about the great things are teachers are doing with their students to the entire community. Especially when I throw on a few hashtags to the post like #saipan #cnmi #sisgeckos and then a hashtag for whatever the subject is like #art in the case of the first photo in this post or #english for the second photo. The teachers are enjoying it as well, because many of them don't have photos of them in the actual act of teaching to put in a portfolio or to share with their families. Everybody wins!

Ms. Bevas providing feedback and guidance.

Summer 2013 Bucket List Update

Before the summer holiday began, several folks in my PLN wrote Summer Bucket Lists of things to accomplish during summer. My original list is at this post and was admittedly quite ambitious, but I didn't to too badly. This is, of course, the follow-up to report on the progress (or lack of progress) on my Summer 2013 Bucket List. 

1. Furnish the house in Bozkoy. This goal was basically completed. I mean we still have some furniture we would like to purchase, but we have a functional house where we can live and enjoy. The first big purchase will be a bed for the guest room, because my father is already stating that he will not come to visit until his guest room is completed and apparently having a bed is on his mental list of items that are necessary.
2. Begin the landscaping around the house. This goal was also accomplished with some very long and painful days for me. When we arrived in Turkey, the yard looked like a construction site. I moved 3-4 cubic meters of rock to one central area of the yard and planted several plants, a jasmine bush, and three fruit tress (apricot, pear, and peach). These trees were chosen because they will be producing fruit during the months of June and July when we are most likely to be there. I love oranges, but they don't produce fruit until November and we will never be there then. :-)
3. Finish reading Schooling by Design. Missed out on this one completely. In fact, I picked the book up once and read about ten pages during the whole summer. :-P
4. Reflect on Out of Our Minds. I finished the book and have been thinking about the implications for how schools deal with teaching and learning. I will be posting more about this in the coming months, but it has impacted the way I will be teaching Creative Writing this semester.
5. Study my Turkish more diligently. I have to say that this goal was worked on a bunch. I had several discussions with multiple local Turks, when Aysem was either busy or not around, and I held my own pretty well. The one I felt the most positive about was when I provided a tour of our house to a couple who are building a stone house in another village. Aysem was away and I handled the tour completely on my own. 
6. Music and Movie production. As Schooling by Design, this was a bridge too far. I only made one short stop-motion video about a disappearing rock pile. I created one song in GarageBand on my iPad, but that was all. Not a good summer of music/movie creativity. Too many hours spent on the yard work.
7. International Ethical Educational Leadership website. I continued my planning for the website and managed to plan out some major next steps that will help to make the site a success when it finally is launched. 

In other matters, please note that International Educators Chat is happening Wednesday evenings (6:00PM) Beijing time in Twitter with the hash tag #intedchat. This chat focuses on the issues and concerns facing international teachers and schools and is hosted by the amazing Brett Petrillo (@brettpetrillo). 

Social Media in Education at KIS

On May 28, 2013, I presented this Keynote at the Digital Educational Show Asia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This presentation supports my case study on how Korea International School uses social media to enhance student learning and motivation. If you would like more information about these material for your school, please feel free to contact me.

Twitter Feed on Blogger

There is an updated version of this post!

Once you follow the steps in this blog post, you will have a Twitter feed in your side navigation bar.

Do you want to add a Twitter feed on your Blogger? If the answer is yes, then this is the blog post for you. There are several steps in the process, but the reward is having a Twitter feed in your Blogger sidebar. I have added several screen shots to walk you through the process. Good luck!

Your journey begins at Twitter. You will need to log in to your Twitter account and then go to the following URL http://twitter.com/settings/widgets.

Select the type of widget that you want to create. You can make a feed that follows one person, a list of people, or hash tag. Hit create widget and you will receive the embed code you need for your Blogger.

Your embed code will magically appear in the window. Copy it! Now you are ready for Blogger!

In Blogger, go to Layout. You will now click on the Add a Gadget button in the side navigation bar.

The list of Gadgets will pop up and you will scroll down to the HTML/Java Script. Pick this option.

Give your Gadget a title and paste the embed code into the window. Hit the save button and you have a Twitter feed on you Blogger site. Congratulations!

Thanks @Twitter -- NOT! Officially Moving to Blogger in March.

Moving the Blog from Posterous to Blogger

Now that the guys at Twitter have decided to pull the plug on Posterous, I thought it was wise to announce something about where my blog will be moving in the very near future. As some of you know, I have been cross posting to my Blogger since last year when the Twitter purchased Posterous. I wanted to be like Rob Newberry (@robnewberry) and believe that everything was going to work out and that Twitter would see the amazing abilities and potential of Posterous... As we now know, that didn't happen for whatever reason. I'm over being upset and angry about it and ready to simply move on with my life. I enjoy Twitter far too much to continue being crabby over the Posterous situation, but the incredible short-sightedness of Twitter is simply ridiculous with regard to Posterous. Enough said. I will continue posting at Posterous up until March and then everything will move to Blogger. Bye, bye Posterous! It was a great run.