DJ+and+Brian

=How could the districts most effectively provide professional development to teachers about incorporating social media tools into their teaching? =  DJ - Teal  First things first. Districts would first have to decide which social media tools they would like their teachers to utilize. 

There are too many programs and websites to learn.

Then, they would have to provide more than one in-service day of training for their teachers. Follow-up sessions would be needed in order to make sure teachers were utilizing the social media tools. Extra help sessions would be useful as well. Bradley Morgan's PowerPoint (taken from SlideShare.com) explains a bit more. 

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Brian - red

 There are many online support resources, including the Classroom20 group at Ning, a site great for educational social networking. Check out the network [|here]. ||
 * media type="custom" key="4143199" || There are literally thousands of Web2.0 applications and sites/resources using social media. It is impossible for districts to provide professional development on all of them. In the case of our district, we have recently provided "a la carte" in-service for faculty on technology. Some of the trainings centered around social media and Web2.0 applications. The sessions focused on topics recommended by our Classrooms for the Futures coach and several teachers recognized by administration for using these tools in the classroom. Administration is also encouraging "personal options" (projects in lieu of observations) where faculty are working together on classroom projects using social media tools. ||
 * It is important for schools to incorporate social media into professional development. However, it must also be supported. There are great resources online for giving a simple definition of social media. In an in-service session I did on using audio in the classroom, we discussed podcasting. I used a video from www.askaninja.com, where the "ninja" defines podcasting in "simple terms". These types of resources help introduce social media tools. || media type="custom" key="4143235" ||
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