Personal Learning Networks

Wondering about Personal Learning Networks?

While taking a MOOC called "Becoming a Dynamic Educator" instructor Savilla Banister provided us with an article about PLNs. Kate Klingensmith's article gives a terrific overview of PLNs and their benefit.  If you only have a couple of minutes, I highly recommend watching the video on her page. She also provides this great list of resources you can use to create a PLN for your students.  If you're like me, you were probably already using some of these tools individually, but not using them in conjunction with learning.

Build Your Own PLN

If you’re interested in expanding your PLN, here’s a directory of some of the best web 2.0 tools:

Category	Value	Examples and Guides
Social Networking	Keeping up with personal, more social contacts like friends, family, and former students	Facebook, Myspace
Microblogging	Populated with educators from around the world who share best practices and resources in short bursts	Twitter, My guide to Twitter, Plurk, Utterli
Professional Profiles	Find other professionals and experts in your field	LinkedIn, Brightfuse
Wikis	Community-monitored sites that can function as websites or for group organization and projects	Wikispaces, pbwiki,wetpaint
Blogs	Great sources of information such as classroom best practices as well as personal opinions; Blogs monitor the heartbeat of new trends in education and the commenting back and forth leads to many great ideas and relationships	WordPress, (check out my ‘Blogroll’ to the right – they’re my favorites),Blogger, Typepad, Alltop – top blog headlines by subject, Technorati – a blog search engine
RSS Reader	RSS means “Real Simple Syndication” – an RSS reader is a tool that allows you to keep up with many of your favorite blogs, all in once place (see this video ‘RSS in Plain English’)	Netvibes, (My Netvibes),PageFlakes, Google Reader
Nings	Communities of people interested in similar topics, with forums and messaging	Classroom 2.0, Future of Education, Ning
Social Bookmarking	Share bookmarks with others, see what others are bookmarking; you can join groups and get email updates on new bookmarks	Diigo, Diigo Groups,Delicious
Webinars	Live, on-line presentations or conferences, with real-time chat, hosted by experts on specific topics; Great way to learn about new things and to meet new people	Classroom 2.0 Live!,EdTechTalk Live,Elluminate – host your own!, Dim Dim
Backchanneling of conferences	When there are neat (and expensive) conferences that you can’t attend, follow conversations and links about the highlights	Twitter search – use acronyms like ‘NECC’ or ‘SXSWi’

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POSTPONED! - A new release from Instructure will update the Quiz tool, the Inbox, and Group assignments!

Hello everyone,
Canvas postponed this release.  They are looking at customer feedback and making some changes to how the new Inbox works and how regarding will work.  Please read the comments to this post for more information.
Justin

A New Release this Saturday

In Quizzes, you'll now have the ability to regrade a quiz if you find a question is incorrect.  This allows you to put in the correct answer and decide if you want student grades updated for those students that have already taken the quiz.

The Inbox will also see a light refresh.  Filtering by course will now be easier with a drop-down menu, you'll be able to forward a message, and add a subject.  Not to worry, this is an opt-in change.  Click the question mark in the Inbox if you're interested in seeing it.

This week's release notes has more information or you can watch the video below.

09.14.13 - New Feature Screencast from Instructure on Vimeo.

How to Report a Problem in Canvas

If you encounter a problem while working in Canvas, let us know. The best way to report the problem is from the Help link in the top right yellow bar in Canvas. Information from the page where you encounter the problem is sent directly to Instructure for troubleshooting when you use the Help link in Canvas.

Once you've entered your problem report, feel free to contact eLearning or the Help Desk to discuss your problem in more detail. We will troubleshoot the issue and if need be, we will escalate it to Instructure. 

How to get help - from the CCC Faculty Resource Center in Canvas