Week 10: Teaching the teachers

For this week's assignment, I chose the option of creating a PD for teachers who wanted to learn about Social Bookmarking. The idea for this came about in a very organic way. About 6 weeks ago a teacher came to me to get some good research websites. I noticed the teacher jotting down each URL and when I asked if the teacher used Social Bookmarking, the teacher had no idea what I was talking about. Cut to the teacher's lounge during a lunch break a few days later. I casually inquired about Social Bookmarking and none of the teachers in the room had heard of it. I'd made a mental note to create an overview presentation but hadn't gotten around to creating it until last week.

As much as teachers (myself included) focus so much of our energies helping our students learn new tools, I find that we don't give ourselves the support we need to discover new ways of doing things. I decided to use Prezi since it's a more exciting and dynamic way of presenting information. I also wanted to explain what Social Bookmarking is without being too preachy or heavy handed. I also included YouTube basic tutorials so I wouldn't be standing in front of the crowd talking for the entire time.

Following this mini-PD, I would survey teachers to see which platform they were interested in learning more about. Then I would hold mini intro workshops on Symbaloo, Diigo and/or De.li.cious.