Kentucky Connected Educator Day 28

Mike Paul

Pre-Service Teacher

Bardstown, KY

IN WHAT WAYS ARE YOU A CONNECTED EDUCATOR?

In my case, being connected is a way of life. I'm a confessed tech-obsessed 36-year old male, so I have this natural inclination to try out every new shiny object that comes along in the land of technology. I created my first website back in 1997, started blogging and podcasting in early 2006, was an early adopter of services like Twitter, Facebook, Dropbox, FriendFeed, Pandora, Google Reader, Gmail… the list goes on and on. I've signed up for so many things that I don't remember them all, often just to get my username before someone else picks it up.

My day consists of starting every morning with a quick perusal of my feeds through Feedly (RIP Google Reader) to see what's happening in my favorite topics. I tweet some items and save a few to read later with Pocket. I also get a lot of my inspiration for blog posts (check out the awesomeness at http://PikeMallTech.com) by tracking different feeds. It's sort of like a fire hose of information coming my way, but I've always got a multitude of topics I can read and share. It's how I navigate the “digital flood” we all face every day.

HOW DOES BEING CONNECTED IMPACT YOUR PRACTICE?

Although I'm nearly finished with my degree, I've only been in an education program for a little over a year. Being connected helped me realize what was possible as I head for my own classroom. I really didn't know the resources available to today's educator and just how much technology and the Internet has changed, and continues to change, the education landscape.

The tipping point for me was when I attended the 2013 KySTE conference back in March. I suddenly found myself surrounded with a flock of connected educators and I suddenly felt at home. There were several times over the course of those three days that I found myself sitting in a session with tears in my eyes (OK, maybe I was openly bawling) as I saw what teachers were doing NOW with their students and what was possible. My entire outlook on the profession has changed since then and I truly believe that every teacher that wants to step up and dedicate themselves can truly change the world.

HOW DOES BEING CONNECTED IMPACT YOU AS A PROFESSIONAL?

In my experience, I don't know how being connected couldn't impact you as a professional. The resources that you can find if you just spend about 30 minutes scrolling through the #edchat or #edtech hashtags alone will give you enough new ideas for an entire school year.

Plus, with social media, you have full control over the people that you choose to learn from and work with. Even as a pre-service teacher, I understand that in your school there will be people that don't share your vision or work ethic and that you have a difficult time working with in a group. With your connected PLN, you gravitate towards the educators that share the same interests as you and you all grow together. It's very difficult to recreate that in a school setting, simply because you're limited by numbers. With about 628,276,152.4 teachers on Twitter alone (yes, I made that number up, but I know there's a bunch of us), the chances of you finding a large group of educators to collaborate with increase exponentially.

WHAT ADVICE OR RESOURCES WOULD YOU RECOMMEND TO COLLEAGUES INTERESTED IN BECOMING CONNECTED?

Here's my recommended process:

• Get a Twitter account (find me at http://twitter.com/mikepaul ).
• Start following any of the numerous Twitter chats on an education topic or a state-centered chat (#KyEdChat is a great place to start, here's a video showing you how to join us).
• Dive in. You have thoughts and opinions; we'd all like to hear them.
  
  

We may not agree, but that's cool. That's how we all grow. It will definitely be uncomfortable for you at first, especially if you're a technophobe. And you may find that Twitter isn't your bag; it's not for everyone. But, you can get a taste of the connected life. Maybe Pinterest is more your speed. Or maybe you just want to read about all the great things that are going on in education before you jump full speed ahead into making your own thoughts known. That's cool, too. There's a way for everyone to connect and make the connection meaningful to them.

My biggest piece of advice is to keep an open mind. Yes, there are concerns behind this great, big, digital world of ours. Yes, we all need to be good digital citizens and we should model that for our students. But the benefits of connection far outweigh any of the dangers and we can deal with the dangers as they come. Just jump in, get involved, and be open to experience new things.

Who knows? Maybe next year we'll be reading your article during Connected Educator month!

Bio:

I teach, I geek, I dad, I write, I math, I husband. Not always in that order. Ravenclaw. Font snob. Husband to Amanda, Dad to BooBoo. Currently a pre-service teacher with the WKU SKyTeach program.  Coming to a middle school math classroom near you, fall of 2015.