Our Teacher Inquiry Group - the PLN 2012

 Our school has implemented  Teacher Inquiry Groups for practice-based professional development this year. Teachers were invited to volunteer and nominate a topic for inquiry and many were activated.I am enjoying leading  a group exploring social networking as a tool for professional development and web 2.0 tools for learning and teaching in the 2012 Personal Learning Network programme facilitated by the State Library of Victoria.

The guiding questions for our inquiry are:

1.How can web 2.0 tools support and inspire student learning?

2. How can social media facilitate my professional growth?

3. As we engage in a new digital environment, what matters of global citizenship are important to my students and myself?

We will meet every 3 or 4 weeks to review and discuss our progress and the tools explored. Each group member has created a blog and will write a post after each session, perhaps even more. So will I.

So, what are my hopes and expectations for this group? Essentially, I hope that after this 12 week programme, these teachers will come to

• appreciate the power of social networking to inform and inspire their practice; make some enduring professional contacts through tools like Twitter, Ning, blogging.
• sustain a curiosity for the power of the internet, social networking and web 2.0 tools in education.
• discover new tools for their classrooms and try them out.
• 
  

  continue to be reflective, collaborative practitioners.