Easy way to Review K12 online AND get PLU Credit

For my friend Shelley Paul, I told her I'd post this information.  I know this is for Georgia Educators and may be for others -- take a look at the information.  In these times where money is tight - this is a GREAT way to get Professional Learning Units and save money.  The K12 online conference has great material and is a wonderful way to expose teachers to a wide variety of technology.

If you know of other ways to get PLUs in this way, feel free to share them in the comments.

K12 Online Conference PD: Attend a Conference in Your PJ's!

Earn PLU's for "attending" the archived K12 Online Conference! The next course starts January 25, 2010.

The 2009 K12 Online Conference took place December 7-18, 2009. The theme was "Bridging the Divide." This free event offered more than 50 sessions in the areas of 21st Century learning and digital tools for the K-12 classroom. The conference was delivered completely online with video presentations and supporting resources made available for anytime, anywhere learning. All presentations are archived for ongoing access. Currently, the site offers over 175 archived presentations from 2006-2009.

In order to help teachers make the most of this great PD opportunity, and to earn credit for “attending” the conference, I have created a self-directed, self-paced PLU course (approved by the GaDOE) using the conference sessions as content. The course is open to all Georgia educators, and you may sign up for 1 or 2 PLU credits. For each PLU earned, participants must view 5 conference sessions of their choice and respond to a series of reflection questions. Completed responses are published to a wiki page using a variety of free online tools.

The conference itself is free, but there is a small fee for the PLU course ($30 for 1 PLU/$45 for 2 PLU).

The next session of “K12 Online PD” begins January, 25 2010 (using the ARCHIVED conference sessions).

More information, including a full course description, registration info and example participant work may be found on the course site:
http://k12onlinepd.wikispaces.com/


K12 Learning 2.0: Tools for 21st Century Teaching & Learning

The next K12 Learning 2.0 course will begin on February 8, 2010.  The course is delivered completely online in ten weekly installments.

This self-guided course is designed to provide classroom teachers and other school personnel with an introductory, but "hands-on" exploration and experience with some common tools and concepts related to Web 2.0. Weekly course topics include blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasts, social bookmarking, social networking, tagging, photo sharing, online office applications, personal start pages and more. The course is challenging, but worthwhile. More than 300 educators have completed the course thus far. This will be its 7th session.

Each school group will need a technology coach/cheerleader to support the experience at his or her school. That person must commit to helping teachers as needed, monitoring participants' progress and reading and commenting on their blogs. (I am willing/able to serve as stand in coach for a few individuals).

The course is approved for 3 PLU / 30 hours for Georgia educators, but many participants from other states have completed the course for credit as well, according to the rules/guidelines for their school or state. Individuals are also welcome to participate without seeking formal credit.

The course fee is $60.

To learn more, please visit the course wiki site, which contains a full description, FAQ, outline of course activities and registration info:
http://k12learning20.wikispaces.com/