AT PLN Assignment Purpose The purpose of this assignment is to help you develop your Personal/Professional Learning Network (PLN)

with regard to assistive technology and using technology with students with disabilities. Procedure There are three phases to this assignment: PLN Development, PLN Management, and PLN Contributions. These are done relatively in order but as your PLN develops, you may find that you go back and forth between the phases. Each of the phases is described below: PLN Development In this phase, you will begin building your PLN with respect to AT and using technology with students with disabilities. During the PLN Development phase, you will be using various tools and accessing various resources to make connections with others regarding AT and the use of technology with students with disabilities. Some of the tools you will want to try or resources you will want to tap include (but not limited to): Twitter Pinterist Social Networks (e.g., assistivetech, Classroom 2.0) Blogs Listservs (e.g., QIAT, yahoo groups, google groups) PLN Management As you PLN becomes established, you will begin encountering quite a bit of information and will need to find ways to manage it. Information will be in the form of new blog posts, activity on the social networks, tweets from your twitter network, emails from listservs and other groups, and so forth. There are tools that can help you manage the information. Some of these tools include (but not limited to) RSS Feeds and RSS Feed Readers/Aggregators (e.g., Google Reader) Social Networking Sites (e.g., Diigo, Delicious) Twitter Tools (e.g., Tweetdeck, Twirl) Email Management Tools (e.g., filters, rules) Creating Virtual Web Homepages (e.g., iGoogle) PLN Contribution It is not enough, when building a successful PLN, to only be a consumer of information. One must also be a contributor. As you are beginning to learn the content in this area, the expectation is for you to participate and contribute but not be a content expert. Attempt asking questions and commenting on information that others have posted.

Examples of Active Participation within PLN include (but not limited to) Tweeting Posting on social networks Commenting on blogs Contributing to Listservs/Groups

Assessment There will be periodic checkpoints (3) over the course of the semester. These serve as a means for you to (a) reflect on the process of developing your PLN; (b) share successes and ideas with your class community from your experience; and (c) seek feedback from others on issues that you may be experiencing. Evaluation This assignment is worth 15% of your final grade. Successful completion of this assignment involves active development and participation of you PLN with regard to AT and technology use with students with disabilities. To serve as the culmination of this assignment, students will submit a product (which can take any form) that provides a reflection of what was learned about AT and technology use with students with disabilities from the PLN documentation of effective participation within the PLN an analysis of what tools/strategies/services were found to be personally most effective in learning from the PLN an explanation of future plans/directions in expanding and participating in the PLN

Criteria for Evaluation and Scoring Information

Area Reflection of Learning (double point value) Not Acceptable (0) Reflection inadequately conveys the learning from the PLN. Developing (1) Reflection contains a general summary of learning that has occurred from the PLN. Acceptable (2) Reflection is well developed and discusses, in detail, significant points of learning from the PLN and how the learning/experiences has/have influenced the thinking of the teacher candidate. Exemplary (3) Reflection is well developed and discusses, in detail citing back to source significant points of learning from the PLN and how the learning/experiences has/have influenced the thinking of the teacher candidate. Documentation clearly demonstrates active and professional participation in the PLN. Participation is characterized as meaningful where knowledge was obtained or constructed through meaningful dialogue. Analysis contains clear ranking of tools/strategies/services where the range of what was found to be most effective to least effective is communicated and the rankings are explained. Clear examples are used. Explanation contains a clear plan for maintaining and further expanding the PLN. Goals are evident. Decision making is evident evaluating tools/strategies/services and resources to refine and hone the PLN.

Documentation of Effective Participation (double point value)

Documentation demonstrates insufficient participation in the PLN or unprofessional participation in the PLN.

Documentation demonstrates participation in the PLN but the participation may be not considered active but still professional.

Documentation clearly demonstrates active and professional participation in the PLN.

Analysis of Most Effective Tools/Strategies/Services (single point value)

Analysis contains insufficient information to explain the relative personal effectiveness of the tools/strategies/services .

Analysis contains clear ranking of tools/strategies/service s where the range of what was found to be most effective to least effective is communicated.

Analysis contains clear ranking of tools/strategies/service s where the range of what was found to be most effective to least effective is communicated and the rankings are explained.

Explanation of Future Plans/Directions (single point value)

Explanation contains an insufficient plan for maintaining and further expanding the PLN.

Explanation contains a clear plan for maintaining and further expanding the PLN.

Explanation contains a clear plan for maintaining and further expanding the PLN. Goals are evident

Note - Final products will be considered unacceptable and are subject to revision (without a grade change) if any area is rated unacceptable or contains more than two errors in conventional writing. Each conventional writing error lowers the raw score 0.5 points from the total.