Created By : Aminah Geary EDLD Informationa l Systems Management

 Is a professional social networking site that connects past and present colleagues and classmates.  Is full of industry experts that are to share knowledge in discussion forums.  Grew from 3.6 million monthly visitors to 7.7 million within a year  As of October 14, they are up to 50 million users. - Statistics courtesy of: ( Owyang, 2009)

“Technology also gives teachers access to resources that can help them identify and refine standards and objectives.” (Pitler, Hubbell, & Kuhn, 2007)  LinkedIn is a unique networking website for professionals to communicate and collaborate according to interests and profession.  It offers automatic friend suggestions based on your area and career so that you can find other like-minded peers to connect with.  The most beneficial aspect of this website is that you can “ask an expert”. You can browse discussion topics of interest or create a new one. This feature allows you to get fast and accurate information in one central location.  This website could be used for some types of professional development and team collaboration. I would recommend this site to my colleagues to share resources and discuss with other peers in our area. I noticed that I actually knew some of the educators that were generated in my “friend suggestions”.

 Being a member of a professional social networking site builds on at least two of the three types of knowledge, individual knowledge and community knowledge (Cartelli, 2006)  Community knowledge is the most important to build on as educators. We must have a support system of interaction among fellow colleagues in order to be successful. Although many times we may never see one another face to face; our experience, knowledge, and common goals are invaluable tools to share.  I envision LinkedIn to be a great resource for educators, especially those in the same geographical location.

AdvantagesDisadvantages  Diverse connection to people all over the world  Network professionally  Free service  “Ask an expert” feature  Site navigation tutorials  Site does not have real- time chat features  Site is not education specific  You must import address book in order to make “connections”  Must sift through many other topics before you reach a narrowed search

 A FREE basic classroom website or educational blog that is designed for teachers K-12 for students and parents to interact with the teacher.  A plus membership is $5.95/month and includes unlimited pages, unlimited discussion groups, and more storage.  Over 34,000 schools are currently members of the site.  Their mission is to enhance communication outside of the classroom between teachers, students, and parents.

 One way I would utilize this website is for the parents of my students. I can post grades, important information and dates, and even private message individuals.  My students are fairly young (2 nd grade) At this grade level, I would not post assignments to be taken for a grade. Rather, I would give assignments in class and use this site as a reference. About a two-thirds of my students have internet access at home, so I couldn’t use this site as the only source of giving them information. 62% of American homes have internet access (USA Today, 2009)  Many parents in my district have inquired about the inability to see their child’s progress and grades online. We are moving in that direction in the near future, but until then I could give parents my website to report grades and host discussions if they are unable to meet for a traditional conference. The private messaging feature lends itself well to conferencing.

 My 2 nd grade team has taken on a new challenge of team teaching. I teach math and Science while my team mate teachers literacy and social studies. Using this website could be beneficial to our students parents because it allows for a user to subscribe to multiple teachers’ sites. Also, we are the English As a Second Language (ESL) certified teachers, so our parents that may not be fluent in English could translate the page to their native language.  The website also has a feature to search for other teachers by school name, location, or teacher name. This allows for collaboration outside of your own campus.  Having a personalized teacher website that encourages interaction among the teacher, students, and parents can build a close knit, accountable enviroment.

AdvantagesDisadvantages  Opens up new avenues of communication  Parents are able to stay informed despite busy schedules  The teacher can share important information quickly  Can subscribe to multiple teachers  All children don’t have internet access  My students may be too young to navigate the site  Can possibly be quite time consuming to keep up to date information

 Owyang, J. (2009, January 11). A collection of social network stats for Retrieved from strategist.com/blog/2009/01/11/a-collection-of-soical-network- stats-for-2009/  Pitler, Howard, Hubbell, Elizabeth, & Kuhn, Matt. (2007). Using Technology with classroom instruction that works. ASCD.  Cartelli, A. (2006). Semantics, ontologies and information systems in education: Concerns and proposals. Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology, Vol. 3. Retrieved on November 17, 2009, from 1.pdf  Cauley, L. (2009, June 03). Percentage of homes with internet triples within the past 10 years. USA Today, Retrieved from broadband_N.htm?csp=34?csp=23&RM_Exclude=aol