Start your new year inspired and connected

For those of you either ready to begin your new school year, or perhaps have just begun, here's an opportunity to start off your year inspired and connected!

Be sure to tune into the "Learning 2.0" the World-wide Virtual Conference, held from Aug. 20 to Aug 24, all free and online. There are more than a dozen keynote topics, recorded and ready for your viewing. Learn from notable speakers such as: Julie Evans of Project Tomorrow, "Connecting the Dots with Digital Learning - Speak UP 2011 National Results;" Heidi Hays Jacobs from Curriculum21; Sugatra Mitra of MIT Media Lab; Lee Rainie of Pew Research Center; and Yong Zhao of the University of Oregon, "World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students."

The Learning 2.0 Virtual Conference is presented in conjunction with Connected Educator Month,  a "month long celebration of community, with educators at all levels, from all disciplines, moving towards a fully connected and collaborative profession..."

What are others saying about the conference? Browse the comments posted on twitter using the hashtag #learning20. Remember, you don't need to know how to "tweet" or "be a twitterer" to learn from the comments of others.

Mobile devices in education. Which % are you in?

A recent discussion among members in my PLN regarding the necessity of creating targeted professional development when deploying mobile devices, cited the following observations:

1. 5-10% folks play with it for 10 minutes and can rattle off 10 ways they can incorporate immediately into the classroom
2. 20-30% folks play with it for a week and then see a couple of apps that might support or replace specific lessons in the current curriculum
3. 20-25% folks play with it and, over the course of a few weeks, figure out some useful ways for a teacher to streamline processes (attendance, observations, tool for updating classroom website, etc)
4. 10% folks see the device as a crappy computer without a keyboard - if it can't replace current keyboarding time then it is of no use
5. 10% put it into their bag and never touch it

Are you part of a mobile device initiative? What PD would be most helpful in moving you out of the bottom 20%?

If you are in the top 5-10%, please leave a comment to rattle off some of your ideas!