August is Connected Educator Month!

I'm catching up on this a little late, but better late than never!

I received an email at the end of June from The Global Education Conference Network, announcing August as Connected Educator Month. According to the Connected Educator Month website,

"Online communities and learning networks are helping hundreds of thousands of educators learn, reducing isolation and providing “just in time” access to knowledge and opportunities for collaboration. However, many educators are not yet participating and others aren’t realizing the full benefits. In many cases, schools, districts, and states also are not recognizing and rewarding this essential professional learning.

For these reasons, the U.S. Department of Education’s Connected Educators initiative is launching Connected Educator Month in August 2012. Throughout August, there will be coordinated opportunities to participate in events and activities in dozens of online locations to develop skills and enhance one’s personal learning network."

This is a great idea and I hope that it grows every year! I can testify that using social media and online networks is great for your PLN (Professional Learning Network). Most of the information I share through my social networks came from somewhere else and they are things that I found very interesting and helpful. I feel that PLN's are most often more helpful than the traditional in-school professional learning opportunities because it's learning on my time and geared towards my interests.

Connected Educator Month includes a wide variety of events and activities on a daily basis throughout the month of August, and even reaching through October and November. A calendar of events and activities can be found at: http://connectededucators.org/cem/ If you create an account and log in, you can sync your favorite events to your personal calendar and/or phone.