Tagged: Creating your Digital Self

Tips for a Techie Start

ani_superteacher Being a teacher is not the easiest job you can have. You have to prepare lesson plans, manage different classrooms with different children with different abilities, you should also have the ability to teach different levels and you have to stay up-to-date with the current events and innovations. And now, there is the technology challenge for today’s teachers. There are numerous web tools that you can use, I think this is one of the reasons what makes the technology overwhelming and conflicting for some of us. So it can be a good start to have a look at the tools that you can use to improve yourself as a teacher. So; here are my suggestions for a techie career start:

Social bookmarking is a great tool to start. It allows you to categorize, access and share the websites easily. It’s the best way to collect the websites you like and keep a list of them and share it with others anytime. Delicious is my favourite social bookmarking tool. It’ specially designed for educators. You can access your favourite websites anywhere, anytime and share it with other people. Stumble Upon, Squidoo and Diigo are the other alternatives to delicious.

On the way of becoming a techie teacher, you are sure to follow many blogs from great educators but it’s difficult to check their websites every single day to see if there is something new posted. RSS readers can help at this point. Google Reader is my favourite feeds reader. You can easily organize one simple page to follow the blogs that you read every day instead of visiting them one by one. Netvibes, PageFlakes and Bloglines are other alternatives.

The most popular and social networking site is the Twitter. You can find amazing educators, teachers, writers on Twitter tweeting about different topics on teaching & learning. Twitter will help you to find new articles and blog posts to read, online conferences to join and to make friends with great people.

Wiki is a place to put text, pictures, links, audios, videos and collaborate with other. Wikispaces is my favourite wiki and it can be a good start if you want to do an online&collaborative project with your class, with other classes or with other educators all around the world.PbWorks can be an alternative.

There are many educational video hosting websites that you can use for professional development or to use in your classes. TeacherTube, EduTube,TeachersTV and SchoolTube can be the best places to start.

You may want to start your own blog to share your experience and knowledge with other people. Edublogs ,WordPress and Blogspot are the sites that you can start your own blog journey.

Of course, the technology will evolve and change every single day, so work hard, collaborate, get inspired and inspire others and be online.

Cross posted on TechLearning.



Creating Your Digital Self – How to stand out from the crowd (Part 4)

interview_-_stand_outI would like to name this post ‘ How to stand out from the crowd ‘ because I want to tell you my story of how to stand out from the crowd!!

Have you ever thought of the digital footprint that you left in the online environment ? You can leave these prints by simply joining a website, writing a blog, commenting on some body’s post, writing and completing online information and in some cases by just connecting to a website. The best way to see what you’ve done or what your digital footprint looks like is to google your name! This is what most people will do with your name, checking your footprints online!!

I’ve started creating my e-portfolio three years ago and it has never ever been a complete one since then because you learn something new every single day and you need to change and edit it every day.

I decided to have one just because I thought it was going to be fun and I could use it instead of a paper based CV. When I first sat in front of the computer, I knew where to start: Wikispaces.!! Because it was the only and first Web 2.0 tool that I knew and we have had one that we have been using to collaborate with my colleagues at my school.  As far as I remember, I think organizing my thoughts was the most difficult part. I spent days thinking about the titles, choosing the colours, text, pictures,widgets etc., the least important things that you should deal with when you decide to have yours.

After spending my whole term holiday, I had one that I wasn’t very proud of;  but as I read, blog, interact,create, share, exchange and collaborate more, I have improved my self and my e-portfolio as well.

And exactly one year ago today, I got an e-mail from an American Film Company telling me that they would like to work with me on an interactive DVD project that aims at teaching EFL  and very+young learners English through games,songs,interactive activities, story and online activities & teaching. It seems like a joke at first, but it has turned out to be my dream that has come true!!

I’ve been working for Mindactiva which is a producer company of educational services and products, for almost a year as the educational coordinator of this DVD project also I’m responsible for writing the scripts and the screenplays and we are so close to launch our first DVD of  “Yes, I Speak English” series. The DVD will be the first one on the market as it is animated, interactive, with online learning/teaching courses and materials,video conferences and aiming at teaching EFL learners.

A month ago, I’ve been interviewed about the project by the company that will be on the DVD as well, you can see my pictures below, it was an exciting time because I’ve also met Daniel Bonjour who is an actor in Hollywood and one of the producers of the company and was interviewed by himself =)

I owe this to my e-portfolio! Because I am an English teacher in one of the school in Istanbul, Turkey and involving this project would just be a dream for me if I hadn’t left my digital footprint …
Yes, you’ve read my digital story of standing out from the crowd, what is yours?
(Me being interviewed in Istanbul, Turkey …)

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