How Does Technology Help Schools and Cociety Tap Human Resources of Talent, Goodwill and Productivity?

Technology has opened the doors to an immediate global exchange of educational research and instructional practice.  By the use of digitial tools made available to society, information from top scholars, top level professionals, and experts in the educational field can be readily available to everyone.  Subscribing to blogs, using twitter, and so on, written by established educational scholars and leaders gives people like me, a District Administrator in rural Wisconsin on a limited financial budget and with limited time, access to some of the great minds in education.  By using the tools of social media, I can then comprehend information that I would in no way shape or form have access to or even know if it existed. 

The same goes with professional and non-certified staff.  Teachers can have access to a large amount of instructional and curricular information.  Food Service can share and obtain information on sanitation, worker efficiency and recipes kids like.  Transportation can obtain information on school bus maintenance to dealing with student behavior on the buses.  Paraprofessionals can obtain educational inforamtion and guidance. 

Using the digital tools available in social media through technology give people more information, and a broader scope of their position and role within a school.  By having immediate access to other people and their thoughts, if utilize through practice, will lead to a better functioning school.  As adults we must understand that learning never ends.  Using the information through social media and applying it to our school district will lead to better productivity and a better result, which is the academic, physical, psychological and social education of our children.

   

Digitally Oriented Personal Learning Communities

Social networking creates a collaborative effort among a group of people to share information.  This is what creates a personal learning community.  Having people with the same interests, and/or the willingness to be a lifelong learner, the digital tools are now in place where people can interact electronically in the same room, or across the globe. 

In education, a personal learning community has numerous benefits when it comes to the use of social media.  Teachers can share with other teachers in the same content area the latest researched based curriculum and instruction information.  Schools can connect with parents on school and classroom based activities.  Administrators can share best practice information with each other to better lead their schools.

The list is never ending.  Using twitter, back channel, and blogs can create the personal learning community that allows for a flow of information that is beneficial to those involved in education.  

Personal Learning Networks

A personal learning network can be defined as having a group of people who one shares and exchanges information with.  In today's world and for the context of this course, information is shared on-line.  In order to share this information, there are certain tools a person must have to make a personal learning network possible.  These tools all start with the understanding how to use google reader.  Instead of doing a specific search for a document, google reader allows this information to be sent to you on a continual and consistent basis.  Once information is sent, tools such as blogs, twitter and diigo allow for a network of information to be sent back and forth among people involved in your network.

In education, there is one huge advantage in being part of a personal learning network.  In my position as the District Administrator of a smaller rural school district, I wear many hats.  Being able to take time away from work to be inserviced on everything from instructional technology, to the common core standards, to RTI, and keeping up on school finance, takes too much time.  Having a personal learning network allows this information to come to me to be viewed when I have the time.  This allows for more work efficiency and allows better district level leadership becasue I can consistenly receive the information needed to lead the school district.