Simple K12 Teacher Learning Community

At FETC 2011 I attended a session on Professional Development conducted by Lisa Greathouse from Simple K12.  At that session, we learned about the Simple K12 Teacher Learning Community (TLC).  In the past 2 years, the TLC has come a long way.  Initially it was a paid subscription, but attendees of Lisa's session received a special code to give us a free year.  I remember letting the code sit for a month thinking this is just something else that costs money and I'll never be able to afford on my own.  Being naturally curious, I could no longer resist the temptation to enter the code and the rest is history.

Quickly I fell in love with TLC.   From the varied webinars they offered to the rich teacher-created resources to the ability to connect with other educators, there was quite a bit of information to absorb.  TLC made my job easier and made me look like a genius in my district.

I've used the TLC so much in the past 2 years that I was selected as a Power User (my testimonial should be available on TLC soon), I'm now a Simple K12 TLC Ambassador, and, at the KySTE Conference in March, I'll be a Simple K12 TLC Event Ambassador.

In the past few months, the Teacher Learning Community has gone from a paid only subscription to a free subscription with a paid upgrade.  Webinars, whether live or on-demand, resources, and colleague connections are still available.

The most powerful part of the Teacher Learning Community is that the webinars and resources are teacher generated.  They are shared resources, and by sharing your resources in the TLC, you can earn your way to a paid membership upgrade.

This is not a sales pitch.  I don't work for Simple K12 (yet), nor do I receive any type of compensation from them.  This is just an honest pitch from a hard-working Technology Integration Specialist that has found a gem of a resource that is now free to everyone.

If you'd like to join the community, follow the link below.

Simple K12 TLC

Symbaloo as a Classroom Resource

Symbaloo is a free, web-based tool that I wish I had when I was still teaching in an elementary computer lab. There were many times I'd want the students to access specific web pages, but it seemed to take forever to get students to type in the web address. I tried putting the web address link on my teacher web page, but that was always messy as well.

Symbaloo solves both of those issues. Symbaloo is a free service that allows the user to create web links, called webmixes, that have pictures associated with them. Having a tool like this a few years ago would have made my job easier in the classroom, but in my role now as a staff technology trainer for the district I can use the webmixes to quickly get teachers to the correct web pages. This maximizes my efficiency when facilitating professional development sessions.

As soon as I get my webmixes where I want them, I'll be sure to share them with everyone.

The Educator’s Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons | The Edublogger

The Educator’s Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons | The Edublogger:

This guide came across Twitter today courtesy of Steven Anderson.  There has always been confusion when it comes to Copyright and Fair Use when it comes to education.  This guide from Edublogger provides a very good explanation of copyright and fair use, and how to apply it to education.  They also provide resources on copyright and fair use, as well as where you can find public domain content.  I've dabbled in Creative Commons licensing over the past couple of years, but just in the last couple of months have started attaching Creative Commons licensing to my documents.

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Free Technology for Teachers: Create Digital Magazines With Glossi

Free Technology for Teachers: Create Digital Magazines With Glossi:

I learned about Glossi prior to Winter Break.  Glossi allows you to create your own Digital Magazine for free (at least for now).  In order to practice what I preach, I'm going to be designing my own Glossi, entitled EdOnTech, and will be recruiting teachers in my district to write articles for the magazine.  The goal is to publish the magazine once a month, highlighting exceptional technology use in our district, state, or globally.  If you aren't in the Kenton County School District, but would like to contribute, I'd be happy to hear from you!

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Welcome!

Welcome to the first official post, and the launching of EdOnTech, a blog about using technology in 21st Century Classrooms.  My goal for this blog is to create a conversation about how teachers are integrating technology in their classrooms and how we can improve the implementation.  I will also be highlighting some of my favorite free web tools.  Join the conversation today!