Classroom 2.0

Classroom 2.0 is great community of educators. You are not required to "join" this community, but you should poke around. Look at the different groups that are available. Search for groups related to science. What are they discussing? Search for discussions that are "tagged" with science.

One of the many exciting things about building an online professional network is the sense of community. There really is a lot of trust and collegiality built up among educators the interact frequently with each other in these networks. In the "ed tech" world, there really is a grassroots group that is doing a lot of thinking and blogging about "best practices." I included a link on the "announcements" box n the main course page that listed many of the blogs for this group. Many of these educators are also exploring different ways to provide professional development - for free - online. It really is an emerging trend (still in its infancy) that will revolutionize the way we conceptualize professional development. Sometime during this course, I would like you to participate in a free online PD session. Many of the opportunities are posted on Classroom 2.0 at http://live.classroom20.com/. You can see a calendar of sessions by clicking on "calendar." You can also watch archived sessions by going to the archive section. Remember, for this course I want you to participate in a LIVE session. This way you can get a feel for how to interact using a chatroom. The technology isn't perfect yet, but it is really powerful.