It is with great excitement that I can officially say PDwithoutborders.org is now live.

Dominic Dynes, Nicholas Provenzano, and myself have created Pdwithoutborders to share ideas, tips, techniques on how to integrate and use technology within the classroom. 

We have gathered and curated some of the greatest educational minds around the world to share short videos on the amazing things they are using/doing in the classroom. 

We hope you enjoy the videos. If you have any ideas for future videos please contact us. 

I cannot put into words how important it is to have strong Personal Learning Network (PLN). Having the ability to reach out to others around the world at a moments notice for ideas, suggestions and resources, is simply amazing.  Over the past few days I have realized I am very fortunate to have such a strong and diverse PLN from all corners of the world. I am always amazed at the willingness of others to share with someone they have never met face to face and barely know. I suppose I shouldn't be, as I am always happy to help and reciprocate the favour. 

To me, building a strong PLN is essential if you want to stay relevant and up to date in today's education system. Technology has enabled us to create these amazing connections with educators around the world. Through the use of social media platforms, such as Twitter and Google+, we are able to meet and build these relationships.  Below are a couple of tips on how to get started on buliding your PLN on Twitter and Google+

Twitter- A great place to start building your PLN. There are so many educators using Twitter to share and inspire each other. How do you get started? First, you need to create a Twitter account. Think about your Twitter name/handle as this will identify you to the world. You can always change this later, but having a catchy creative name (or your own) can help others find and remember who you are. Once you have an account created, you need to find people to follow. My advice is start out small with a few people you know post great things (See previous Twitter post). Through following these people you see from who and where they get their information. You will be shocked at how quick the number of people you follow grows. Another way to build your PLN is through the use of #hashtags. There are many educational #hashtags on twitter to follow #edchat and #edtech are two great ones. You will find very specific ones as well:

• #ATchat (Assistive Technology)
  
• #gafechat (Google Apps for Education) 
  
• #1stchat (First grade) 
  
• #kinderchat (Kindergarten)
  

Google+ or G+ - is another great platform for building your PLN. If you have a Google account, then you already have a G+ account and you just need to go use it. G+ in my opinion is great because you are not limited to 140 characters for posting. I also find the quality of post on G+ to be stronger and for me (someone who is primarily using Google products) the information tends to be more streamed. Similar to Twitter's #hashtags G+ has Communities you can join. These communities are diverse yet specific to your grade or interest. One of the greatest communities you can join on G+ is the GEG in your region. For educators in Ontario, we have a GEG Ontario I recommend this as a great starting place.

Good luck creating and building your PLN, it is something you will not regret. 

image obtained from childhoodspeech.com

A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to attend and present at the York Region District School Boards Edtech Camp.  The camp was a full day PD for their staff on using and integrating technology within the classroom. Sessions were tailored to all ability levels on various tools including, iOS tools and devices, to Google Apps for Education. Participants who attended willingly spent a full Saturday exploring and learning how technology can be used in the classroom to enhance their current practice. 

I must say I was very impressed with how smooth the day ran. I suppose I shouldn't be knowing Jim Jamieson and Scott Monahan did a lot of the leg work behind the event. They had some top notch presenters including Google Certified Teachers; Holly Clark, Tanya Avrith, Sandra Chow and Afzal Shaikh. The vibe from the day I can't really explain... there was just this buzz in the air with so many (over 300) educators wanting to be there and learn. 

It would be great to see more boards adapt a model such as YRDSB to make learning and PD more meaningful to their teachers. The day ran four different time slots with various sessions offered at the same time. This was the beauty, it ran like an Edcamp in the sense that all participants choose what sessions they wanted to attend and learn more about.  There was also two great keynotes. Holly Clark started the day off trying to push everyone's thinking forward and make them realize that status quo is just not good enough. It was very clear her message being we need to adapt to our students needs and changing times. Tanya Avrith ended the day with a great send off, speaking to the importance of our students understanding what digital citizenship is, and the impact their digital foot print can have on them years from now. 

Congratulations to all who attended and I hope to see more of these Edtech Camps popping up around the province and country.

Over the past few weeks I have had conversations with numerous teachers and administration, and a common question keeps coming to life, "How do we elevate the quality of our students work?" 

To me this is a great question and one every teacher should be asking and striving towards. As educators we are constantly trying to get the most out of our students and lets be honest we are never going to get 100% effort 100% of the time. But I do feel we can get more out of our students and ourselves by doing one simple thing... PUBLISH

It is a simple concept, the more people who are viewing and reading ones work, the more care and effort we are going to put forth. When students create work for a single teacher it tends to be GOOD ENOUGH, when they create it for the world to see it will be GREAT! 

The publishing process does not need to be hard or complex, it could be as simple as putting it on Twitter, a blog, or website. I will guarantee once the individual knows their product will be published for the world to see the quality of work will be GREAT!