The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age, Nov/2011

Are you relevant to your students? The Connected Educator examines and explores the ways educators can use their surrounding landscapes--including the landscape of technology and social media--to re-envision what happens inside schools and classrooms.

You'll learn that in order to reclaim the power of your own professional learning, you must first create a connected learning community. Comprised of three different learning environments--local (professional learning community), contextual (personal learning network), and global (community of practice) -- the connected learning community in total allows like-minded learners to contribute, interact, share ideas, and reflect. With the power of technology behind you, along with a community of other connected educators, you'll improve your own learning and ultimately the learning of your students.

Benefits

1. Features chapter-specific author vignettes on leading and learning in networks and communities
2. Provides educators with step-by-step instructions on how to utilize a particular technology tool
3. Includes reflection questions on each chapter topic
4. Offers relevant, real-life examples of educators using technology tools to enhance learning in their classrooms and schools
5. Contains the research behind the authors connected learning community model and scale
6. Includes hashtags for readers to connect online and extend their learning

About the Authors:
Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach is a veteran twenty-year educator. She has been a classroom teacher, technology coach, charter school principal, district administrator, university instructor, and digital learning consultant. Currently, she is completing her dissertation for her doctorate in educational planning, policy, and leadership at the College of William and Mary.

She is the owner and founder of 21st Century Collaborative, LLC, a digital learning consulting business through which she regularly delivers keynotes and workshops, along with supporting nonprofits in their grant work. Through Powerful Learning Practice, which she cofounded with Will Richardson, she works with schools and districts from across the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, and Australia to re-envision their learning cultures and communities.

Sheryl is a sought-after presenter at national and international events, speaking on topics of 21st century reform, teacher and educational leadership, community building, and educational issues impacting marginalized populations such as the homeless.

Sheryl lives near the Atlantic Ocean and spends her spare time playing on the water with her four children and dachshunds Itchy, Bane, and Abby.

Lani Ritter Hall has more than thirty-five years of diverse teaching experiences in urban, suburban, and independent schools at the middle and secondary level in the United States and Canada. She and her students began collaborating globally in the 1980s using a curriculum she designed and developed. Lani, a National Board Certified Teacher, has created and facilitated professional development around technology infusion into learning for more than twenty years and has presented at local, state, and national conferences. She has expanded her global collaborations through her leadership role in the initial years of K12Online, the first educator-led, free, totally online conference; her participation in the first massive open online course that explored connectivism and connective knowledge; and through her current roles of community leader and co-director of connected coaches in online communities of practice for Powerful Learning Practice.

Lani earned a bachelor s degree in political science from Earlham College and a master s degree in curriculum and instruction from Cleveland State University. She lives with her husband in Northeast Ohio.