The Virtual Staffroom: sharing across the ethersphere

On Friday 5 August did a short presentation and workshop for ATESOL ACT on harnessing Twitter, Facebook and other Web 2.0 tools to increase teacher PD 100-fold. I shared my passion for networking with other English language teachers across the world to discuss ideas and issues, share lesson plans, solve problems and more.  I also introduced teachers to just some of the FREE online conferences, seminars, and workshops for ESL teachers - there is at least one EVERY week!  My aim was to whet the appetite of teachers in my local area and get them started on their own explorations of the vast learning environment out there on the World Wide Web.

 

I am posting here the links I shared in the presentation, but remember, these are only the start of your online PD journey and building your own Personal Learning Network! ...  

Twitter

• Twitter
• Tweetdeck
• Commoncraft’s Twitter in Plain English video
• Twitter- Turn 140 Characters into a Virtual Staffroom - video presentation by Guido Europeaantje @europeaantje
• Twitter for English Language Teachers - video presentation by Shelly Terrell 

Don't forget to tweet using #ATESOLACT so we can connect and share.  If you don't feel confident to share more widely just yet, that's fine, I'll retweet to my PLN so anything you share will be spread to English language teachers across the world.

#ELTchat

• #ELTchat website - suggest topics, vote, read past transcripts and summaries
• #ELTchat on Facebook
• How #ELTchat works: #ELTchat – 31,226 Tweets and counting!
• Twitter “Chats” For ESL/EFL Teachers (& How To Participate In Them)

Facebook

• Facebook for English Language Teachers - a video presentation by Shelly Terrell

Blogs
There are too many wonderful ELT blogs for me to even attempt a list!  Here is a great place to start to find some of them and keep up with new posts:

• Bloggers about English Language Teaching on Facebook - feeds in all the blog posts from the ELT blogosphere!

Managing the flow of information

• Google Reader 
• Feedly 
• Paper.li - Turn Twitter, Facebook and RSS feeds into online newspapers in just a few clicks.   Example: The Starter-PLN Daily
  
• Flipboard for iPad 

Webinars, conferences, etc.

• American TESOL webinars - presented by the amazing Shelly Terrell @ShellTerrell - a must follow on Twitter!  See links to some of her webinars elsewhere in this post.
• SEETA - South Eastern Europe Teachers Associations Online Community
• Virtual Round Table Conference on language learning technologies
• The Reform Symposium      RSCON3 Recordings from last weekend
• EVO - Electronic Village Online - January short courses
• The Australia Series

Networks and Communities for ELTs

• Online Professional Development for English Language Teachers - video presentation by Shelly Terrell
  
• aPLaNet - Autonomous ‘Personal Learning Networks’ for Language Teachers
       aPLaNet on Ning
       aPLaNet on Facebook
       aPLaNet on Twitter
• The Educator's PLN
• EFL Classroom 2.0
• technoLanguages - conversations about languages, learning and technology
       the technoLanguages wiki
       technoLanguages LIVE on the Australia Series
       and also check out Jess McCulloch's #technoLanguages blog

Check out this video for more ideas on how to start a PLN:



Someone asked me yesterday about PODCASTS and PODCASTING - this might be of interest: Podcasting with English Language Learners - a video presentation by Shelly Terrell