50 things to do during Connected Educators Month

Although I live and teach in Australia, I love the notion of Connected Educators Month during August, which is an initiative of the USA. Here are some ideas and thoughts on what to do during and beyond the month of August.

1. Share with one other staff member at your school on the importance of connectedness. Skype a class within your school. Learn to use a collaborative tool together eg twitter
2. Start a blog – a necessity  for ongoing connecting
3. E-Lurk and explore. Get lost in cyberspace reading other blogs.
4. Leave a comment on a blog, making sure you leave your blog address for return comments and connect ions.
5. Blog about what connectedness means to you
6. Share a lesson or something simple that worked for you, tweet out your blog post url.
7. Participate in quad blogging. Get to know three other classes really well.
8. Join the Blogging Challenge for Teachers – don’t just lurk, do it!
9. Involve your class in the Student Blogging Challenge
10. Read the posts for Create your own PLN (Professional Learning Network)
11. Read and comment on the Connected Learner Manifesto document created by Sheryl Nussbaumbeach
12. Leave a comment on each of your student blogs, get to know them on a more personal level.
13. Have a lunchtime sharing session with students on the technology they use – get them to share. How do they connect?
14. Start your senior students on twitter (age dependent) Teach them how to effectively connect.
15. Complete the challenges in the PLN Challenge of Edublogs
16. Attend a face to face conference and swap contact details with someone new
17. Attend a teachmeet either f2f or virtual Plane group, Teachmeets (Australia)
18. Attend one of the online webinars organised during Connected Educator month.
19. Attend Classroom20Live  webinars, Tech Talk Tuesdays webinars, Australia Series  webinars
20. Attend, present or volunteer for the Learning 2.0 Virtual Conference
21. Follow someone new on twitter, DM them, retweet their tweets, actively include them in a tweet
22. Join in on one of the regular tweet chats eg #educhat #globalclassroom etc Lurk, then share or ask questions (lots of them)
23. Setup columns for hashtags in one of the popular twitter clients eg tweetdeck, hootsuite
24. Set up a twitterchat account and follow a trending hashtag, conference hashtag or other
25. Add your name to this list set up by Sue Waters, of Edublogs, and mentor others in the use of twitter.
26. Join a collaborative ning or space eg Classroom 2.0, the Global Education Conference Network, Educators Guide to Innovation,
27. Join a global project eg the Flat Classroom Projects, (there are fabulous projects for all year levels) Taking IT  Global
28. Create a global project of your own
29. Join skype in education, join one of the projects
30. skypeplay. Join the wiki.
31. Check out the Global Classroom  Wiki, read what others have done, email those people, join the wiki. Read the Global Classroom Blog, add a comment, share in the conversations.
32. Join an educational group on facebook, ask a question, add updates
33. Like a fellow educator’s update on FB or add a comment
34. Participate in a MOOC eg  Games Based Learning, Google Search for Learning MOOC.
35. Connect with parents – run an information session at school sharing collaborative technology eg blogging, facebook, or run an online session. Commence a class or school blog.
36. Connect with community – actively seek out a community member eg an author, a scientist etc and get them to share with you and your class
37. Try a mystery skype session
38. Create a Family Feud skype session
39. Join the connected educator challenge
40. Show you care – Empowering Children and Youth  Open World Cause, projects from TIG
41. Share your connectedness online, share what you have done with others, why it is important to be connected
42. Join linkedin and join some groups. If a member join a new group
43. Create a google hangout and invite others in to learn with you
44. Join an educational edmodo group
45. Early years teachers should #skypeplay or #kinderchat. Join their wiki, follow their hashtags
46. Complete the VICPLN course
47. Join the Powerful Learning Practise
48. Join the Connected Educator Bookclub
49. Check out Design Thinking for Educators
50. Just connect and keep on connecting!

My connections started through blogging, classroom 2.0 and then twitter and they continue to grow. How did you start? What other ideas do you have for connecting? Please share in a comment below.