Worldwide PLCs

I've decided that it is time to be regularly updating my blog, and not just with summer learning expeditions, but current ones as well.  This evening I spent some time with Steve Hargadon and others on Elluminate via LearnCentral.org, an incredible website that has the potential to create PLCs (professional learning communities) around the world in a virtual capacity.  LearnCentral hosts a sort of social network (i.e. Facebook) for educators, allowing them to connect on a professional level to discuss a topic that needs discussing...for example, middle school Social Studies.  Elluminate has hooked up with LearnCentral to allow members to host virtual sessions based on the topic of choice (it must be open to the public and recorded for archiving).  The potential for leveraging collective knowledge, expertise, and best practices in an easy-to-use forum is amazing.  Now, the mission is just to get the word out.  The idea has gotten me very excited; I've never before seen such a user-friendly, high-functioning piece of easily-accessed technology.

Comments

Mrs. Stanley said…
I am so glad to have found your blog. I, too, have become very excited by all the learning and collaboration available to teachers via PLN such as the Classroom2.0 NING and Seedlings NING among others.
I was also intrigued by the possibility of hosting a virtual session using Elluminate, but I don't even know how to start.
I think your blog posts are very thoughful, though-provoking, and inspiring, and I have passed on the link to one of our 8th grade social studies teachers at our middle school in Connecticut.
9:34 PM
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