Get the #NCed mobile app!

Heather Mullins, one of the co-founders of #NCed, has developed an app to make staying connected with NC educators even easier! Use the app to view topics for upcoming chats, access the mobile version of the #NCed blog, provide feedback to the #NCed team, and more. You can download the app by visiting myapp.is/NCed on your mobile device. We'd love to hear your feedback on the app. Feel free to leave a comment below or send us a message through the app by clicking on "More" and "Feedback".

If you're interested in suggesting topics for #NCed chats or moderating a future chat, please visit the Get Involved page to connect with us. Be sure to stop by the Guest Book to let us know you were here. Thanks for your interest in North Carolina education!

A Moderator's Perspective: Reflections on our First #NCed Chat

Co-moderating the inaugural #NCed chat on Twitter with Andrew Thomasson @thomasson_engl was quite an honor for me and exhilarating beyond words.  In my role as a Regional Professional Development Consultant for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, I have been charged with the great responsibility of serving educators across our state and providing them with resources, information, and support they need to meet the needs of all students.   

Several educators joined us for the Tweetup at the Koury Convention Center at #13CCSA.  Many thanks to @jenniferlagarde and @mcdh109 for your support at the Tweetup.

 

As I worked with my #NCed team to prepare for our first Twitter chat, I couldn’t help but grow more and more excited about our goal to provide a platform for teachers across our state to grow their personal learning networks (PLNs), to share best practices and resources, and to provide opportunities for support and guidance.  Not only was I excited about the chance to connect virtually with educators across our state, but I was genuinely touched by the excitement around the chat.  

One of the greatest accomplishments of #NCed is that it is truly a collaborative effort among public school leaders, leaders in higher education, and leaders from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.  We know that to meet the needs of our teachers and leaders, it takes all voices to gain perspective and to provide the best resources available.  Tuesday, March 26 was just the beginning!  We plan to continue to support NC educators through building this PLN to meet their needs.

If you missed our chat, here are some of my favorite Tweets.  

If you want to revisit more of the conversation, visit the March 26 archive to review the discussion.

Several educators have shared with me that they want to get involved but need more support about how to use Twitter.  If you would like to review more resources to support you as you use Twitter to build your PLN, you can review this self-paced Twitter professional development resource.  

As we continue to learn and grow as an #NCed team, our goal is to support you – educators in North Carolina – by providing topics that are meaningful to you.  Please share our Smore and our blog with your colleagues.  Take a moment to complete share topics you would like to explore with us on our Get Involved page. 

First #NCed Chat a Success!

Last night was the first ever #NCed Twitter chat. The conversation was rich! One hundred nine educators from across the state and outside the state actively participated, and several others lurked and learned. We had such great participation, in fact, that #NCed was the number 1 trending topic on Twitter last night around the world! If you missed the first chat, you can read the archive here. Participants shared tons of great ideas and resources for teaching the 4 Cs of 21st century learning: critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication.

Some of you may be wondering about how the #NCed chat originated. The idea for #NCed first came up in a Google chat conversation between Dr. David Stegall and Jayme Linton, who are both strong believers in the power of a Personal Learning Network (PLN) and advocates for Twitter as a tool to build a PLN. They've worked to connect with other educators and districts face-to-face through conferences, meetings, and professional learning communities, but this networking is limited by time and distance. A PLN removes those barriers and allows us to connect with educators around the world. Through Twitter, their group of go-to educators changed from a handful of local folks to hundreds of exceptional educators around the world, most of whom they would never have had the opportunity to interact with otherwise.

The co-founders of #NCed often participate in Twitter chats that are targeted to specific populations and felt that there was a need to connect practitioners across the state of North Carolina. David and Jayme are both regular participants in #ncadmin, a bi-weekly chat for North Carolina educators, and they've experienced the power of connecting with others across the state. They wanted to do something similar and include educators at all levels - classroom teachers, curriculum specialists, administrators, teacher educators, pre-service teachers, and state-level educators - in order to broaden the scope of connections and conversations that are already happening in many districts. #NCed is all about building collective capacity across the state.

In Google chat on January 29, 2013, the idea for #NCed was born. Soon after, David and Jayme reached out to Heather Mullins and Cindy Geddes to be part of the #NCed team. Through Heather, the #NCed team was able to get the support of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. NC DPI has been instrumental in advertising for the chat across the state.

If you enjoy participating in #NCed, visit the "Other Chats of Interest" to find other great educational Twitter chats you may be interested in joining. Mark your calendar for the next #NCed chat on April 9th at 8:00 pm EDT.

Y'all Ready for This?

Video created by Cindy Geddes

Welcome to #NCed Twitter Chat!

Welcome to the site of the #NCed chat, a bi-weekly Twitter chat for North Carolina educators. #NCed Chat will provide an opportunity for North Carolina educators to grow and develop their personal learning network (PLN) by connecting to other NC educators throughout the state .  The chat will create a forum for North Carolina educators to come together once every other week in a public Twitter conversation around topics that pertain to their work and connect with other educators with similar interests. The chats will be primarily moderated by school and district level practitioners. By incorporating the NC Department of Public Instruction into the chats, NCDPI can receive real-time feedback from educators across the state on issues that they are facing and best practices that are yielding positive results. Additionally, incorporating NCDPI into the chats will allow NCDPI to provide expert insight into issues, strategies, resources, etc. that are being shared and discussed in the chat. The chat is not intended to be a NCDPI responsibility, but instead it is intended to be a peer sharing approach for NC educators that NCDPI can supplement.


Here, you can find topics for upcoming chats, archives of previous chats, and resources shared by #NCed participants.

If you're an #NCed participant, please sign our Guest Book by visiting the tab at the top of the page.

If you're interested in getting involved with #NCed or would like to leave feedback for the #NCed team, please visit the Get Involved tab.

     Photo by Flickr user Jeff Kubina