Building Learning Communities (BLC11)- Day 2!

Another great day of sharing and learning at BLC11! One thing (that I love) about going to a conference geared more towards general educators than SLPs or even special education teachers is that you constantly are reframing everything you are hearing so that it applies to our specific population. I try to do that as much as possible in these tweets and am hoping that you are finding them helpful.  The day started off with an absolutely INSPIRING keynote by Marco Torres, who actually wasn't supposed to deliver a keynote at all and was a last-minute sub! I hope to link to his full keynote when it is available- I strongly recommend giving it a look.  If you like TED talks, it is in that vein and at that level of amazingness.  One more day! Looking forward to it, but sheesh, I am tired.

As always, I know that tweets are telegraphic, so if you don't know what the heck I am talking about and want more info about a tweet or two, please leave a comment.

Two interpretations of our tech-infused lives

I think that the advent of social networking has been a huge enhancement to my life, at least.  But don't you sometimes have difficulty stepping away from it?  I know I do.  These two videos, presented separately on Neatorama, have two different takes on the impact of social networking on our lives.

"Smigley: Noise"

"A Life on Facebook"

Which do you think is closer to the truth?  Do you think we'll be on Facebook 'til we "Logout?" What do these videos say to you about communication?

The first video, as a wordless story, has potential as a narrative development activity for older students, and more are available at simigley.tv (but screen for language).  The second one, in case you missed it, has the F-bomb (quietly and quickly typed) in it, so it's probably not a good resource to use with students. 

Portable PD, Part Two

Last week I posted about Flipboard, an iPad app that lets you take your favorite "feeds" (Twitter, Facebook, etc) on the go with you.  I mentioned that it is not my preferred way to view my Google Reader blogs, because I like to look at them individually and not all mashed up!  My favorite way to view Reader is actually at reader.google.com, but if I am on the train or reclining somewhere, I do like Reeder for both iPhone and iPad.  Reeder lets you review everything that has been posted recently in a particular blog and syncs the items you read back to Google Reader, so that when you return to the web interface you will know what you looked at!  Additionally, you can star items that you know you want to bookmark or think about in more depth later (something you can also do with Flipboard).  Reeder sets you back a few bucks ($2.99/$4.99 for iPhone and iPad, respectively, and it's worth getting both if you have both) but is definitely a good item to have on your iDevice.

I love the way Reeder's interface lets you tap, scroll, and pull to move to the next post

Portable PD, Part One

One of the most acclaimed iPad apps of the year is also one that can let you take your Personal Learning Network with you anywhere you go.  I'm speaking of FlipBoard, which lets you add a variety of "feeds" (for example, Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, or any blog) and access it as an interactive magazine.  Yes, you literally can lie back and turn the pages and tap any entry to see more (i.e. when someone links to a video or article).

Image from techgenie.org

You can also interact with your feeds; you can add Twitter (or any Twitter list) to Flipboard, for example, and reply to others tweets, add to your favorite tweets, or retweet, right from the app.  It's a really fun way to access your PLN!

My Twitter feed, viewed in Flipboard

Adding "Sections" to Flipboard

A word about Google Reader in Flipboard: I have made it clear that I am a Reader addict, but I actually don't prefer viewing my blogs in Flipboard.  For one, it mixes them all the blogs up in order of who posted when (meaning it's one, unified chronological feed), and I like to make sure that I leave no item actually unread, or skimmed, and synched back to my Reader web page.  It's just how I am.  But more on that in Portable PD, Part Two, coming next week.

Oh, and did I mention that Flipboard is completely FREE?

PLNs and Keeping our Brains Moving

I finished my SLP master's in 1999.  I don't know about you, but I sometimes worry that all the content I learned at that time is being eradicated by less important clutter in my brain, such as reality TV show plots, others' Facebook status updates, etc.  One very positive movement in educational circles aims to promote more useful brain-stuffing- I am speaking about the development of Personal Learning Networks or PLNs.  If you are reading this post, you sort of already have one. Hi! A PLN refers to the set of interactive resources we follow and participate in, whether they be blogs, Twitter feeds, and even your Facebook news feed, depending on what you put in it.  I'd like to discuss PLNs more at a later time, but let me recommend one fun and interesting blog here, You Are Not So Smart.  This rather humorously titled blog discusses popular social psychology, and often hits on topics related to communication.  You might be especially interested in recent posts on fake smiles and narrative memory.

Bookmahk Smaht!

A pause to touch on productivity and planning. I have gained soooo much from transitioning to social bookmarking tools, as opposed to adding bookmarks within your browser. Social bookmarking, most notably through Diigo or Delicious, allows you to do the following:

• Use a toolbar "bookmarklet" to seamlessly add and annotate a link, then return to the site of interest.
• "Tag" sites with multiple category names (e.g. "interactive," "science," "textstructure," "grade4"), rather than the single category folder you can set up on your browser.
• View your bookmarks in your web-based account from any browser or computer.
• Find more sites by searching within your network or by tag (e.g. look for sites tagged by users as "interactive" and "plants" to find a site for 2nd graders studying plants)

So try one of these social bookmarking sites and embrace your organized and categorical self, as all SLPs should. Don't fear the "social" aspect, it's not going to steal your time away. It's simply some limited networking that benefits you by viewing what others are bookmarking. Social bookmarking could be considered a consultation activity; you can identify and share sites with teachers or TAs that would be beneficial for your students to review outside of your sessions.

Here are two demos of the most popular bookmarking sites. I started with delicious, so there I stay, primarily. Diigo has some more functionality in allowing you to highlight and annotate sites, receive email blasts if you belong to an interest group, and easily set up lists for sharing.