Oregon+School+District

Our team is the Oregon School District. Our members include Jon Tanner, Velvet Holmes, Pam Sengos, and Shelly Kadow.

Here are some of our assumptions from the beginning of the project:
 * All be active learners & learn from others both in our community & globally
 * Out of the box ideas
 * Meet once/month f2f or via Elluminate (if we have access to that)
 * People will share with others
 * All support each other; non-judgmental
 * Enthusiastic, but worried how it will work
 * Difficulty figuring out project b/c we're a non-traditional team
 * Help admin see how tech is going to help students; no more "teaching to the test"

Where we were before PLP?
We dabbled. Some people were avid users of Web 2.0 tools. Some had no idea these existed. [ [ [ [ Excerpt from our video ] ] ] ]

My favorite response to "What is a PLN?" was "Um, Personal....Learning.....uh....NIGHTMARE!" Not exactly what we were going for. This is a reflection on us, not the teachers. We don't hold students responsible for things we don't teach them. In the same way, we don't hold teachers responsible for things we don't teach them.

Obviously, we needed to grow people's awareness of PLNs, show them how it is important for their teaching in modern, networked society (which is what we live in now, in case you hadn't noticed) and the ways to develop them for their own use.

Where we are now. What evidence do we have for change?
We have moved beyond being a "lone nut" leader. We have some "first followers," and are drawing a crowd. Need a reference point? [|Watch this]. media type="youtube" key="fW8amMCVAJQ" height="385" width="640"

Evidence for change
We have followers. Both in the Twitter/Blogger sense, and in the sense of people finding value in what others have done and wanting to join the group.

Where we are going? Plans and next steps.
We are not content with just a group- we want a **movement**.

We have developed a reference site to be used as a curriculum to introduce staff to PLN, to be implemented next year. The curriculum was designed to be meaningful to staff- giving them a quick, tangible benefit. It was designed to be adaptable. We already have some channels for professional development, including the Technology Integration Project (TIP) classes and Technology Tailored 4 Me (TT4Me) class. We plan to integrate this PLN training into these classes.

Next steps

 * 1) Use the curriculum to increase the emphasis on PLNs in our TIP and TT4Me classes, in hopes that they will spread their learning to other staff (which has happened with other technologies and practices in TIP).
 * 2) Publish our curriculum so it's available to all staff.
 * 3) Offer to teach series of PD classes on PLNs as part of a school's individual professional development plan.
 * 4) Some schools have a "buffet-style" PD menu, where teachers can choose which ones to take. We will have our PLN class included on the "menu."