Edina Digital Age Learning

As I've mentioned in a previous post , October is Connected Educator Month . Yesterday, I had an experience that reminded me of the power of sharing , making connections, and opening up the door to possibilities. For the last two years, my district has been involved in looking at what our schools will look like in the years to come. We have done studies at the Birth-Grade 5 and Secondary level , and have some pretty cool projects underway. Yesterday, the Communications department sent out a link to a video they created to share one of the shifts in learning, personalizing learning . Edina Public Schools - Personalized Learning from EPS Communications on Vimeo . I decided to ask for some feedback on the video from Will Richardson , who was the keynote speaker at our district kickoff a few years ago , and someone whose opinion I respect. What followed, was a good back and forth conversation that I captured in Storify below: [ View the story "Connections ...

Paul Oh On October 10, 2014  Paul Oh , from the National Writing Project , presented a talk on Connected Learning at the University of Minnesota. I had a chance to interview Paul a few years ago for an EduWin Podcast , and it was great to finally meet him in person and hear his thoughts on connected learning, and education. The  event was co-sponsored by the  Emma Birkmaier Critical Literacy and Urban Education Speaker Series , the  Learning Technologies Media Lab , the U of M Department of Curriculum and Instruction , and the  Minnesota Writing Project . Oh started out his talk asking two questions: What was an interest you had as a young person that you were passionate about?  Was that interest recognized in the school you attended? The room was evenly divided as to whether they had the opportunity to pursue their passion in school.  He provided examples where people have taken an interest in a topic and followed their passions ...

These six Educational Competencies above have been identified as the core of the Next Generation of Edina Public Schools , the district I work in. When I look at each of these competencies, I believe that if we want our students to leave our district with these skills, we as educators have to have them as well. I believe that they are also the qualities of a " connected educator !" October is  Connected Educator Month , an opportunity for teachers to communicate, collaborate and share with other educators around the world in a variety of formats: chats, webinars, book studies, discussions and social media venues. Every day, the calendar is chock full of opportunities for learning and growing in all of the educational competencies above. This is the third year of Connected Educator Month. This year, it is being jointly sponsored by the National Writing Project's Educator Innovator . Below are examples of how connected educators I know are demonstrating the educa...