My First Blog Posting Ever!

I would like to welcome all Delaware adult educators to collaborate with me on this blog. I have created the blog as a project for a University of Delaware Educational Technology course that I am taking this semester, but I believe that my goals for the blog are very timely.

First of all, thanks to Joanne, we have started listservs for both the board and the membership of DAACE. We are in the process of adding email addresses to the listserv and inviting all of the DAACE membership to the list. Secondly, we have just come from the conference, and hopefully we left the conference with a renewed spirit for the work that we do. Also, and I hope I am quoting Maureen correctly, it is my understanding that the state has cut back all funding for DOE professional development for the 2009 fiscal year, and the indicators predict that money will be very limited for the next few years. What I recall from Maureen’s presentation and in other conversations is that the state has not been in such a difficult fiscal condition since 1991.

There are inexpensive ways to use the Internet to improve our skills at integrating technology into our classrooms (even those of us who teach in prisons) and even more importantly to use online learning for our own professional development.

My primary goal for writing this blog is to educate and encourage Delaware Adult Educators to take advantage of online professional development tools/activities including listservs (http://www.units.muohio.edu/psybersite/cyberspace/cmcreal/listserves.shtml and online communities of practice (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_practice).

I will start my first blog entry with a suggestion from my technology and wiki mentor, David Rosen. I posted to two NIFL listservs asking for suggestions about encouraging my peers to participate in listservs. He suggested that we look at “Adulted online 's Technology Integration Self assessment (TISA) [http://www.adultedonline.org/] Go to Tech Savvy -- select "Teachers start here" link. . This (free because it was developed with funds provided by the U.S. Department of Education] online process is a self-assessment and much more. It is an online professional development process.”

I registered and took the self assessment. It does not take much time. After taking the assessment you will be guided to free or inexpensive online learning resources to meet your specific needs. David asked that if you would take the time to take the self-assessment you might reply to this blog entry with answers to questions such as:

• What do you think?
• Do you like it?
• Is it helpful?
• What are its strengths?If there were more funds available to support it, how could it be improved?”

I will end this first posting for now, but I will come back to topics I have mentioned today. I will also ask you to consider that I have some Attention Deficit Disorder issues of my own, and I will ask that if my posting go off topic, that you gently and kindly remind me to get back on track.