Below is my Action Plan for my final project of my Personal Learning Network PLU course.


GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Name of Organization:  Rock Mills Jr. High School

2. Project Title:  Using Blogs for Effective Communication and Collaboration

3. Project Location:  Internet-Based

4. Contact Person:  Jennifer Payne Braden

5. Contact Information: 415 County Road 75, Roanoke, Alabama 36274; (334) 885-6823; jbraden@randolph.k12.al.us              

6. Project Timeline:  2012-2013 School Year

7. Amount Required:  No funding will be required to begin or maintain this project.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Provide a brief overview and summary of the project. It should provide a credible statement that describes your organization and establish the significance of the project

In an effort to provide better communication to all stakeholders, I will maintain a blog entitled “Rock Mills Jr. High School News”.  This blog will be used for general announcements, communications, praises, and discussions on happenings at school.

A blog will also be created for collaborative professional development.  I will use this blog to launch discussions with faculty regarding topics of importance to our educational environment.

PROBLEM STATEMENT:

State the challenges identified, the rationale/need to address these challenges and the conditions to be changed by the project

Each year, parents respond to a Title I survey for Parental Involvement.  One of the main obstacles listed is the need for improved communication between the school and home.  The news blog will be maintained in an effort to improve this communication. 

Also, we are a very small school.  Because of our size, it is hard to schedule professional development time with faculty during the work day.  A professional development blog will be created to increase collaboration between faculty members and foster an active learning environment for us as well.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES:

The objectives should describe the intended outcome of the project and should be SMART (Simple, Measurable, Accurate, Realistic and Time Bound)

Indicate how the objectives will contribute to the achievement of the project, what difference the project will make and the time frame during which this will happen.

During the 2012-2013 school year, two blogs will be created and maintained. One blog will be used for communication between the school and home, and the second blog will be used for professional development discussions between faculty members and administration.

PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION AND MANAGEMENT PLAN:

Describe the project activities indicating how the objectives will be accomplished, what will be done, who will do it, who are the implementers, partners and beneficiaries and when it will be done. Describe how the project will be sustainable after the funding period.

I have already created one blog, “Rock Mills Jr. High School News”, and I will soon create a second blog for professional development for faculty members.  No funds will be needed for the creation or maintenance of these blogs.  Beneficiaries of the news blog will be all stakeholders of Rock Mills School.  The professional development blog will be used to launch discussions for professional development on job-related educational topics.

 PROJECT MONITORING AND EVALUATION:

Describe how you are going to monitor and evaluate the project so as to assess progress during implementation and improve the project efficiency as the project moves along.

Both blogs will have the comment section activated.  The news blog will be monitored for effectiveness based on comments and number of views that it receives.  The professional development blog will be monitored by a checklist that I maintain monitoring responses and comments posted by faculty members.  The project will be evaluated based on the number of views and comments.

DOCUMENTATION AND SHARING RESULTS:

Describe how you are going to document the progress of your project during and after implementation. State how you will document and share your results and let others know of your purpose, methods and achievements.

Since the blogs will be public and can be viewed by anyone with the link, I will use that as documentation of the project.  I plan to share this project with administrators in my district.

PROJECT BUDGET:

Indicate the total cost of the project and also provide a detailed budget for these costs.

Items needed for the project include computers, Internet connections, and administrator time for research for appropriate professional development topics.  These items are already in place, and no additional funding will be necessary.

Personal Learning Networks

Just as our students are busy with their studies, I have been working on some continuing education as well.  Administrators must earn one PLU (professional learning unit) per school year, and this year, I have chosen to study about Personal Learning Networks, or PLN's. 

Personal Learning Networks, or PLN's, are simply networks of people and resources who have information to share regarding similar issues.  A school administrator would want to develop a PLN with other school administrators to discuss, learn, and share information about common challenges they face on a daily basis. 

For my final project, I have been asked to reflect on how my personal learning network has changed and grown during the course of the workshop and discuss my plans for how I plan to continue to grow my learning network and how I hope to contribute to the professional learning of my administrative colleagues.

My PLN has definitely changed and grown over the last six weeks of this workshop.  I have learned to utilize many new technologies and Web 2.0 tools to find other school leaders who share their knowledge and experiences through these tools.  As all of you know, I use this blog to communicate with parents, students, faculty, and the community about important news and activities here at our school.  Many administrators share their professional knowledge on their blogs, and I have learned to use Google Reader to subscribe to RSS feeds to quickly and effectively access some of the blogs onto one readable site.  This allows me to use my time more effectively when searching for information.  I have also created a Twitter account for the first time!  I know, you're thinking that is strictly for social or entertainment purposes.  Through this course, I have seen Twitter used effectively as an information platform for educational issues.  I am still on the fence as to whether it would be useful for our school as I use our e-mail lists, blogs, web site, and SchoolCast for informing you of news and events.  One final tool that was used in this workshop was podcasting.  Podcasting is a voice recording that can be embedded into web sites or blogs to distribute information.  Our SchoolCast is a type of a podcast, and that will probably be what I stick with for the present time.

In the future, I plan to continue to utilize this blog for communications with our school stakeholders, and I also plan to begin blogging with our teachers for professional development.  To continue to grow my PLN, I will continue to subscribe to RSS feeds of blogs that have good, solid educational information.  I will also begin to experiment more with Twitter as an educational tool.  I hope to contribute to the professional learning of my administrative colleagues by sharing this information and encouraging other administrators to learn to utilize these Web 2.0 tools for increasing communication and collaboration within their schools.

I would encourage feedback from parents and other administrators on the use of these Web 2.0 tools, and how you think they would be useful (or not), for our school!