Top Ten Social Media Competencies for Teachers

What are The Top Ten Social Learning and Educational Networking Competencies for K-12 Teachers?*

1. Help students use educational networking tools to solve information problems and communicate digitally with experts, peers and instructors.
2. Know the major Web 2.0 categories and tools that are useful in the K-12 setting. Know which tools are provided/supported by one's school.
3. Use educational networking sites to communicate with teaching peers, students and parents.
4. Navigate, evaluate and create professional content on networking sites.
5. Use online networking to create, maintain and learn from a personal learning network - AND their students.
6. Know the district networking guidelines, follow netiquette, conform to ethical standards and interact appropriately with others, especially students, online.
7. Understand copyright, security and privacy issues on social media sites and share these understandings with students and professional colleagues.
8. Understand the importance of identity and reputation management using social media and help students understand the long-term impact of personal information shared online.
9. Create and follow a personal learning plan to stay informed about developing trends, tools and applications of social media.
10. Participate in the formulation of school and district policies and guidelines related to educational networking and social learning.

 Et tu, readers? What should make your Top Ten list?

* This idea stolen from modeled after:

Top Ten (10) Social Media Competencies for Librarians (by Dean Giustini)

1. Understand, explain and teach others about the main principles and trends of web 2.0 (and library 2.0)
2. List major tools, categories and affordances of social networking sites
3. Apply social media to solve information problems, and communicate digitally with users
4. Use social networking sites for promotional, reference and instructional services in libraries
5. Navigate, evaluate and create content on social networking sites
6. Follow netiquette, conform to ethical standards and interact appropriately with others online
7. Explain copyright, security and privacy issues on social media sites to colleagues and user communities
8. Understand the importance of identity and reputation management using social media
9. Explain related terminology such as collaboration 2.0, remix and open source
10. Renew social media competencies, advocate for institutional strategies and policies and build evidence base in social media

CODE 77 Rubrics for Administrators

My friend Scott McLeod had once again put the call out for bloggers to participate in Leadership Day 2010. My contribution, CODE 77 Rubrics for Administrators (2010), can be found here.

I've always felt it unfair when we ask someone to be competent in an area (technologically literate, etc.) without carefully defining what that looks like. This is my effort. Use and modify as you can.

Warning to all parents!

Parents, let me give you some advice you need to act on now! If you wait too long, you will suffer.

Do not, under any circumstance, make readers out of your children. Here is the sad, but true story of the mistake I made. Let it be a warning to you....

I found my daughter, even as an infant, loved to be read to. Bedtime stories, middle of the day stories, stories read by grandparents - you name it, she ate it up. Cranky day - a little Scrawny Tawny Lion made things OK.

She started getting books as gifts. The ones she loved the most she saved. Why did I not see this early on?

She read before she started school and continued to read voraciously throughout school. I am ashamed to say, I encouraged this, insisting she have a book to read when we traveled. I was even proud of her high reading scores and interest she showed in books. And of course, she continued to collect more books.

When she started college, I should have realized, there was a problem. Her books came with her. Just a few boxes, but, hey, doesn't everyone have a few favorite books to keep around?  I missed so many warning signs!

As college progressed, the book collecting habit grew worse. Each move to a new dorm room or apartment included a growing number of book boxes. Even if they weren't labeled you could tell them from the others - even the small ones were heavy as gold bullion. (And I don't remember her staying in any place that fewer than three flights of stairs to climb!)

In college, my daughter met a man who shared her obsession - another book collector. And now there are two grandchildren who seem to adding to the family book collection. OK, OK, I will admit that I've even give the grandsons a book or two, but come on!

As a father who spent the last couple days helping his daughter and her family move, I have to warn all parents to take action before it is too late. Turn your kids onto video games, e-books, even television watching. If you don't  each move your children make means a visit to the chiropractors.

I am grateful that my beautiful daughter has never broken my heart.

But she has sure done some damage to my back!