At the End of the Day...

Before I started work on this Fellowship I thought I had a clear idea of where I was going and how to get there.  Originally I believed that I would need to do some groundwork before I could begin working with Roseanne and Andrea.  Now I see that this is not only counter-intuitive to the process it is impossible.  With this in mind I did begin to list out a group of skills however this is only a first pass.  Maybe I need to work on my collaboration skills.
With this in mind, I am starting this list as a beginning, knowing that I will be working with Roseanne, Andrea, Crissy and Roxie to help me begin to make sense of this process. 
To support students in developing a PLN we need to begin nurturing these skills:
•    Collaboration
•    Critical Thinking
•    Media Literacy
•    The ability to seek out information on the Internet and sift through it for relevance
•    The ability to craft questions.
•    The ability to sift though large amounts of information for relevance.
•    Organization
•    Time management
•    Reflective Thinking

The tools students need to have proficiency with to create a PLN could include:
•    Delicious
•    Twitter
•    Blogger or another blogging platform
•    Wikis
•    Nings
•    RSS
•    Flickr or another photo program
•    Podcasting

To begin portfolios students will need all of the above skills, but will also need:
•    The ability to communicate in different mediums including text, images, video and sound.
•    Analysis and synthesis
•    Problem solving
•    The ability to choose the best tool for the job

Tools students will need proficiency with include:
•    Digital editing software such as PhotoShop
•    Video Editing Software
•    Slide Show Software
•    Podcasting software
•    Word Processing
•    Spreadsheets or graphing software
•    Web Development Software

Additionally, I had the opportunity to work with Toni today to see how we can support each other in our work.  We realized that we share many of the same challenges in that the skill sets that we are hoping to help teachers teach their students are dependent on the content of the class.  For our first meeting we were able to identify some of our needs to create coherent curriculum and identify the people who would be able to support us.  We will be working together more throughout the summer to streamline our own processes.
This first day has been a little difficult in finding a way into the work.  I think the initial reflection that I posted this morning helped me to organize my own thoughts, hopes and priorities.  I am hopeful that people will feel comfortable sharing thoughts and ideas with me via this blog, through email or in person throughout the coming weeks and beyond.  Even if we are meeting it would be great for any and all input to help shape this work. That is a direct plea by the way.