Blog #3 Using Tools to Support Connected Learning

Chapter 5 of The Connected Educator was a very informative chapter to analyze. Chapter 5 was named ‘Using Tools to Support Connected Learning’. This chapter had taken an overview of everything you need to know about online tools and how they can be helpful for you. 

Tools can be extremely helpful in any kind of career. The internet is a very beneficial place and offers many tools to use to help you with your career needs. An online tool is basically a tool that can help you with anything and keep you organized, or maybe even make things easier than they would have normally been. Using tools will provide a visual aid for you and for who ever else is taking advantage of it. 

During this chapter they displayed different types of tools you can use in your life. For example one of the tools were for connecting and collaborating. There are many resources for online connecting and collaborating to build up your personal networking in any career you are pursuing. Some examples of tools are different types of blogs and reading websites. Blogs can be very helpful because blogs are websites that continually update with journal entries and post about very useful information. 

This chapter had also introduced to me extending learning tools for the classroom. This part had stuck out to me more importantly than it would for others because I am an Education Major. Teacher’s often wear several different hats within one school day and obtain many responsibilities at on time. So I believe it is key for a teacher to stay organized and on top of their students and their classroom. With online tools this can benefit educators to keep an organized life for themselves. 

These are resources that can be handy and useful for any teachers. One of the tools the author named was TeacherTube. TeacherTube is an online community for sharing educational videos made for teachers by teachers. This is like a never ending sharing system that can benefit everyone. I can definitely use this in my future career and take some pointers and ideas from other teachers and when I become experienced I can then share my experiences later on in my career. 

There are many strategies you can utilize to assist you to be successful with using tools. You can build your own professional webpage or blog. I believe that I can definitely see me doing this when I begin my career. 

You can also build professional profiles that organize all of your information on them for people to see. I can see myself doing this in my future because if I do not have a job yet and I am showcased nicely, employers will notice that I am trying to present myself in a professional way and will be a great first impression. 

I have only discussed just a small part of the tools that chapter offers but I analyzed the tools that could be helpful in my teaching career. Would any of these I discussed be helpful in your career paths? 

Nussbaum-Beach, S., & Hall, L. R. (2012). The connected educator: learning and leading in a digital age. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.