Annotation of Grow Your Personal Learning Network

New Technologies Can Keep You Connected and Help You Manage Information Overload.
By David Warlick

Warlick gives today’s educators insight in keeping up with technology by creating their own Personal Learning Network (PLN). He writes that friends, families, and colleagues, all who rely on so many resources and professional information encompassing a PLN. The use of technology to grow PLNs is constantly changing. PLNs can be very successful but with all of the information out there things can quickly get out of control. Although technology is the source of this problem, it can also be the solution. New technologies can help us collect, store, and organize all of that information as well.

According to Warlick, he highlights three different types of PLNs:

- Synchronous (personally maintained face-to-face communication)
This is the traditional network of people and places you’ve always had, but people can enhance PLN with technologies like chat, instant and text messaging, teleconferencing (such as Skype and messenger), Twitter, and virtual worlds such as Second Life.

- Semi-synchronous (personally and socially maintained real time connections)
This refers to the idea that “collaboration doesn’t have to happen in real time” and can involve such technological tools as mailing lists, wikis, Google Docs, Twitter, group discussion boards and comment walls on Facebook, and commenting on blogs.
* SURN has 3 blogs focused on: Literacy, Middle School Math, and Education Research Annotations.

- Asynchronous (dynamically maintained collaboration over a period of time through a “different time-different place”)
This differs slightly from the other two types in that this type more often connects us with content sources like RSS aggregators (Google Reader and Netvibes) and social bookmarkers like ‘Delicious’ where people bookmark it for later use.

Want to read the study? Warlick, D. (2009). Grow Your Personal Learning Network: New Technologies Can Keep You Connected and Help You Manage Information Overload. International Society for Technology in Education, 12-16. Retrieved November 17, 2009 from http://landmark-project.com/workshops/handouts/gypln_ll.pdf

Learning Profiles & Achievement: do learning preferences have a place in promoting students success in the classroom?

Tomlinson gives administrators and teachers beneficial insight of using student learning preferences in guiding for their decision making to students. She writes that learning profiles are only part of differentiated instruction which challenges them to draw on their best knowledge of teaching and learning.

According to Tomlinson, she identifies the difference between “learning style”, “intelligence preference”, and “learning profile” that teachers and administrators need to take into consideration to promote successful decisions in student learning:

• Learning Profile- How students learn best in their differentiated learning backgrounds such as gender, culture, learning style and intelligence preference.


• Learning Style- How students feel about their work, and their environments as a whole.


• Intelligence Preferences- Students’ ways of thinking, understanding, and skill related to a particular intelligences or sets of intelligences of learning.

Also, she explains the difference between two leading intelligence researchers on intelligence preference in Gardner’s multiple intelligences and Sternberg’s analytical, practical, and creative intelligences.

Want to read the study?

Tomlinson, C. (2009). Learning Profiles & Achievement: do learning preferences have a place in promoting students success in the classroom? School Administrator, 66(2), 28-34. Retrieved Oct 9, 2009 from Education Research Complete database.

Annotation of Teaching Students and Teaching Each Other: The Importance of Peer Learning for Teachers

This study examines the benefit of having high quality teachers in schools to positively affect their students’ performance as well as influence the performance of their teacher colleagues’ students. The study found that when high quality teachers are in a school that there are “peer spillover” effects. This means that teachers may be motivated change their amount of effort and teaching practices when they observe and/or are aware of what a highly effective teacher is doing. This peer learning is a positive influence in increasing teacher effectiveness over time. Indeed teachers perform better when their colleagues have a high level of professional excellence. In particular, new to the profession teachers benefit more from working with high quality teachers as they generally are receptive to feedback about their teaching performance.

An analysis of 11 years (1995 to 2006) of testing data on 3-5 graders in North Carolina was used. The researchers measured teacher quality using teaching experiences, license exam score, and a calculated a “value-added” score using data from teachers’ previous year’s students standardized test results in reading and mathematics. As expected students of teachers with less teaching experience and lower licensing exam scores performed more poorly than their peers who had more experienced teachers with higher exam scores. All the teachers had North Carolina issued regular licenses.

Want to read the study?

Jackson, C. K., & Bruegmann, E. (2009). Teaching Students and Teaching Each Other: The Importance of Peer Learning for Teachers. NBER Working Paper Series. Retrieved September 8, 2009 from www.nber.org/papers/w15202

Academics Trumps Transportation, but Transportation Woes are a Barrier to School Choice

Rain is falling on this first day of school in my area. So the bus stops are full of colorful umbrellas and raincoats providing a festive appearance to the day. School buses are a staple in American public education. Given that nationally 55% of students are daily school bus riders spending an average of 90 minutes (45 minutes each way) on the bus each day, transportation is a considerable issue both in terms of time and public dollars. An issue that influences school choice.

A study was conducted in Denver, Colorado (some public transportation and most people have cars) and Washington, DC (mass transit and fewer families have cars) to determine the degree to which transportation influences school choice for families earning $75,000 or less per year. Approximately 75% of the parents had considered where to send their children to school (i.e., private, zoned, or public charter) and about half had opted for a school other than their zoned school. The top ranked reasons for school choice were:

• #1 Academic Quality
• #2 Location/Convenience
• #3 School Environment

Overall, 56% of parents were very satisfied with their zoned public school compared to 66% for charter schools and 81% for private schools. The study found that transportation was a barrier to families sending students to another school for a better academic program when the family earns less than $20,000 per year. Further, a third of these families were unaware of transportation options provided by their school district to transport their child to another school. For families earning $40,000-$75,000 per year, the parents were typically satisfied with their school options. A challenge identified by the researchers is for school districts to make families aware of their options for transportation.

Want to Read the Study? Tesk, P., Fitzpatrick, J., & O’Brien, T. (2009). Drivers of Choice: Parents, Transportation, and School Choice. Center on Reinventing Public Education: Washington, DC. Retrieved on September 8, 2009 from http://www.crpe.org/cs/crpe/download/csr_files/pub_dscr_teske_jul09.pdf

From Jefferson to Obama and Beyond: Essential School Leadership for the Next Generation of Engaged and Thoughtful Citizens (NLA, Tuesday Session)

Dr. Carl Glickman offers a surprising analysis of the real achievement, economic, and citizenship gap in America and how education cannot close any of these gaps until they understand the relationship between all of them. This interactive presentation will explain- through the use of vignettes and protocols and guided questions- how educators can center teaching, learning, and assessment practices so that students learn that education and improving democratic life are one and the same. The talk will draw from the newly released book Those who dared: Five visionaries who changed the face of American education.

Creating Rigorous Culturally Responsive Classrooms (National Leadership Academy, Tuesday session)

Dr. Donna Ford shares strategies and resources to address the strengths and needs of our increasingly diverse student population. It is important that educators create classrooms that are culturally responsive and rigorous in order to effectively address the achievement gap.

She is the author of numerous articles and books including Teaching Culturally Diverse Gifted Students.

Leading in a 21st Century Paradigm

Steve Edward's session will focus on the changing dynamics of leadership in a global knowledge economy. An era of continuous and rapid change requires a leadership skill set that is always evaluating and adapting to external forces.



Please share your thoughts and reflections about this National Leadership Academy session in the comments space.