Last week our education association launched our new “Academy”! The idea is to collaborate on technology skills and share with one another. We launched the Academy with a blog, wiki and some google docs sign up sheets. We already had someone update the wiki with a new page containing some “how to” links for things like Voki. We have also had a number of people sign up to guest blog! I am very excited by the enthusiasm of my colleagues. Our members have many different levels of ability with technology and our hope is to match “techies” with “newbies”. I am so very pleased with the initial week’s progress and hope for even more participation as the weeks progress! Our new superintendent is very supportive of our initiative and is a “techie” himself!
Teachers and other staff are encouraged to post on google docs, ideas they have for sharing or things they would like to master or explore. Each Academy is based on need! Sessions are informal and take into consideration the time availability of the members of the Academy, as they are set up by the members themselves! Some might only meet for one session, for something like a simple web tool. Other Academies can meet on as needed basis, for example, group might work on building a PLN. This would be an ongoing group that could communicate virtually all year! I think this is a great opportunity for sharing and promoting our endeavors! We are also looking to share our successes with the community. It will be great for our staff to let the community know how we are diligent in our efforts to be 21st century educators!
