 Hello everyone my name is Chris Chernbull and I'm a personalized learning specialist in a large urban school district in Minnesota. In my position I work with schools, principals, and school-based technology integration teachers on special assignment and iPad managers to deploy one-to-one iPads to students and staff and to provide professional development both online and in person to help teachers to not only use the iPads and apps but also to begin thinking about how to integrate the iPads into their classrooms as an academic tool that can be used to engage students and to allow for more student voice and choice as well as allowing for creativity in demonstrating learning and to transform teaching and learning to raise academic achievement through the personalized learning essentials of tailored instruction and learning supports allowing for more student voice and choice in demonstrating learning and engagement in a technology-rich learning environment. As a professional development provider in my district I'm always searching for sources for professional development for myself in order to continue to build my own skill set and to expand my mindset and thinking to be more innovative, nimble, and responsive to teacher and student needs. In my journey as a connected educator and lifelong learner I have sought out a variety of collaborative professional development learning opportunities that helped to build my personal learning network, impacted changes in my pedagogy, and helped me to constructively dig into professional learning resources to revitalize and expand my own skill set and knowledge. I would like to share a few of the professional learning opportunities that I've participated in over the course of the past year that may also interest you if you're searching for some professional development opportunities for yourself or if you just want to connect and build collaborative relationships with like-minded professionals. In the past teachers were limited to seeking out advice from their colleague across the hall or from a department chair during lunch or after school. Over the past several years the extent to which teachers can use a variety of social media tools and apps to find and tap into the collective knowledge of educators near and far has expanded exponentially allowing for quick and easy access to new ideas, resources, and ways to hook and engage students in academic learning. There are a variety of ways to expand your professional learning network and revitalize your teaching possibly even with a little help from a global lineup of educators you may never even meet face to face though you may begin to converse with them online on a daily or weekly basis. It has these connections with others and the resources, diverse experiences, and unique knowledge that they share that contributes to the real power to your professional learning network. Connections begin for most of us at the local level. At the personal, local, and immediate level we probably seek out information for questions that we need answers for right now with those who are most available to us such as the teachers across the hall or who are in our grade level or content-based professional learning community. In the department that I work in, I'm fortunate enough to work with a great team of innovative individuals who are always looking for better ways to do things and who also have students best interests at heart. Local connections most likely also extend to finding like-minded people with similar positions and job duties in the close proximity to where we work such as other school districts, universities, or education-related companies who we may email back and forth with and sometimes we may even meet to share ideas over a cup of coffee. Local conferences and events are a great place to expand our PLN as well as by reaching out to others attending sessions that provide just-in-time information to support a project that we're working on right now and even keynote and featured speakers or sessions that stretch our thinking inspire us or help us to reflect on new ways to do things to better motivate and engage our students. Living close to two major metropolitan areas surrounded by many suburban school districts with technology initiatives and within close range of the TIES Technology Conference and other TIES events, I have been very fortunate to be able to attend and present at a variety of educational technology-focused conferences, institutes, and events. Being able to meet and network with others in roles similar to my own has been invaluable to helping me to stay up-to-date with what is going on in other districts and to build my pool of contacts who I can reach out to for ideas and help if needed. EdCamps are also a great resource for professional development for those who don't live close to an area where many conference opportunities are available or for those who teach in smaller districts that do not have extensive professional development departments or in district professional development available. The EdCamp model vision is to bring together a diverse network of educators willing to give up a Saturday and dedicated to participant-driven professional learning for themselves and others that accelerate student growth and results in reigniting their passion in the classroom. The EdCamp schedule is completely driven by the interests of the participants as the first half hour to hour, depending on the size of the group and the number of rooms available, begins with a blank schedule and is quickly filled in by colored cards ranging from reaching out to the collective experience of the group to learn more about a particular topic, wanting to network with others and dig into a topic or offering to lead a session on a particular topic that is a personal passion or project for which you have resources to share. Participants are free to leave a session that just doesn't fit what they wanted and can join another group mid-session or use the time to network and meet others. Session notes are collaboratively written by participants and available online, usually through Google Docs, for others to peruse later. Contact information is also shared, allowing participants to continue to expand their personal learning networks. I've been to several EdCamps and always appreciate the built-in time that allows for mingling and networking between sessions. You can find a list of scheduled EdCamp events at edcamp.org. Conferences that are held at the state or national level can also add another layer of contacts to our PLN, who we may only see face-to-face once or twice a year, but who we may stay in frequent contact with via social media. It's always fun standing next to someone in line and looking at their name badge and realizing that you follow them on Twitter and now have the opportunity to introduce yourself in person. State and national conferences also often schedule speakers and keynotes who are thought leaders on trending or innovative topics that can stretch your thinking or provide the inspiration to light your fire again. I have been fortunate to be able to attend and privilege to present at the TIES conference, iPad Palooza MN, and ISTI many times, as well as engaging in some new learning opportunities this year, including attending the Apple Foundation's Trainer Academy, which brings together cohorts of people from across the United States who are the primary professional development providers in districts with one-to-one Apple device initiatives. FlipCon was also a new conference experience for me this year as I attended to expand my thinking about Flip Professional Development, and I was also privileged to present a couple sessions on iPads, apps, iBooks, and flipped learning. Being an ISTI Ignite speaker this year was not only a new presentation format for me that was fun and engaging, but also brought some of the experts and gurus who I follow on Twitter and social media to a first-name basis for me now. It is often this opportunity to meet edgy celebs and gurus that not only expands my PLN, but also offers inspiration and access to innovative thinking and practices that stretch my thinking and that place students at the center and lead to other professional connections and opportunities. Nothing has been as humbling in my career as having conference attendees come up to me this past summer after my presentations and ask me to take a selfie with them because something that I shared inspired them and they wanted to add me to their network of colleagues with similar interests. In addition to the people in our personal learning networks who we see on a regular basis or who we meet up with in network at larger conferences, the people who we reach out to via email, follow on Twitter, read their blogs, or Vox with provide an even broader range of experiences and expertise that we can add to our professional learning network. I follow many educators and instructional technologists online who I've never met, but I've come to regard them as a good friend and look forward to sharing information, resources, and ideas with them on a weekly basis via social media. This past summer and fall have included many opportunities to participate in online book chats via Twitter, blogging, Google Plus, and Voxer. I read Learn Like a Pirate by Paul Solarez, ditched that textbook by Matt Miller, and Integrating Technology in the Classroom by Bonnie Hamilton. The online chat on Bonnie Hamilton's book was sponsored by Teachers First and ISTI's EdTechCoaches Network. As I read each book, I was able to dig into the key concepts and ideas with others via scheduled weekly Twitter and Voxer chats. The questions for each chat were posted online in advance, giving me time to reflect on my answers and helping to make the short chat time very purposeful. I felt amazed, privileged, and inspired that the authors regularly and actively participated in the chats too. In addition to making connections with these authors, I was able to add many other educators to my PLN via Twitter and Voxer, so that I can continue to have great conversations with them that support and stretch my thinking. Voxer is a free mobile app that I have used extensively over the past two years, and allows for creating and joining groups as well as boxing with individuals. The app is a combination of walkie-talkie, voicemail, and texting tools, and allows for talking live with others who are online, leaving a voice recording for an individual or group to listen to at their convenience, texting a written message with clickable links, and uploading and sharing images and video. The Voxer service also includes a paid premium subscription option that allows for downloading and saving recordings, as well as creating groups of over 15 people. Some of the bookchats took place in Voxer and Twitter simultaneously, allowing for a quick scheduled overview chat in Twitter on a couple chapters a week, and then a deeper dive into those same chapters via Voxer over the course of the week. One of the great features of Voxer is the app really allows for more reflective sharing and conversation, either via voice or text, than the short 140-character limit of Twitter. Being able to hear the other members of the group as they talk also adds to the conversational feel of the sharing and creates a more well-rounded understanding of the person sharing over time, in my opinion, than the brevity of Twitter allows. One of the Voxer groups that I belong to is the Minnesota Educators on Voxer. This group is composed of forward-thinking principals, administrators, and student-centered innovative teachers, and some of the conversations and reflections have centered around ed tech, maker spaces, student-centered classrooms, genius time, and improving teaching and pedagogical knowledge through sharing ideas and experiences within the group. In addition to voxing online, there have been several scheduled meetups making this a very connected group of like-minded educators. Twitter is also a great free app and service that has allowed for the expansion of my personal learning network. Twitter's 140-character limit makes it difficult to try to have an in-depth conversation with others, but it is a great tool for sharing links, photos, and short thoughts or pieces of information as well as quickly finding resources shared by others and for making connections by searching for particular hashtags that interest you, such as Ed Chat or Ed Tech Chat, and hundreds of others. The Cyber Area Man website has a list of hashtags that identify regularly scheduled Twitter chats. Participants in a scheduled chat label each post with the hashtag, which makes it easy to search for information shared on that topic later. Twitter allows for scheduled synchronous chats and for curating and contributing information with the hashtag at any time. One of the weekly chats that I participate in regularly is the Min Lead Chat, which is composed primarily of Minnesota educators and educational leaders, with some folks from other states joining the chat as well. Each week has a topic and organized questions for the one-hour conversation. The chat mostly focuses on making us all better educational leaders and teachers and making our schools a better place for our students. The ease of use of and the improvements in social media and the accessibility of video conferencing make it possible to expand your personal learning network to a global level as well, which makes for more conversations around diverse school and curriculum models, as well as diverse educational policies. With over 316 million active users on Twitter, 500 million tweets sent per day, and 77% of users being from outside of the United States, odds are you will be able to connect with many educators on a global level on Twitter alone. But there are also many opportunities to expand your personal learning network, make connections, and learn from other educators on a global level throughout the year, including this K-12 online conference. Digital Learning Day, EdCamp Global, and Connected Educator Month are other organized events that allow for cataloging and linking separate events taking place at different times, dates, and locations around the world, but yet making the information and resources and the opportunity to participate remotely accessible to all. There are a myriad of quotes about being able to accomplish great things when we work together. It is through that shared knowledge and experiences of others that we are able to expand our own learning and improve upon the successes of others to make our own teaching better, thus impacting the experiences of our students. By sharing our learning resources and experiences and forming friendships and professional connections with others who we meet either in close proximity or through online tools that allow for virtual interactions, we are able to expand our learning exponentially, making us unstoppable as lifelong learners and connected educators. Additional information and links related to this presentation are posted on my blog at playlearnteach.blogspot.com. Thank you so much for joining me for this presentation, and please feel free to share feedback and professional development resources and conference information with me via the form on my blog, playlearnteach.blogspot.com, and also on Twitter at my Twitter handle, at Turnbull Chris. I look forward to connecting on Twitter with you as well as meeting some of you face to face some day and even taking a selfie with you.