Snow Day- Schools Closed- Learning Continues

Snow Days - Blizzard on the East Coast

This week we had 2 snow days - So far that is!  We had a big blizzard with high winds which kept schools and government offices closed both locally, in the Washington, DC and the surrounding states. This particular storm put us in the record  breaking category. As of this week, there is officially more snow in Philadelphia this winter than has ever been since records were first kept in 1888.Of course,though being housebound during a storm on a snow day has it's challenges by and large, you do get to relax a bit and know that you don't have to be somewhere in a hurry. For some it means reading, relaxing or staying in by a warm fireplace. for others, it is sledding, shoveling, cleaning snow of your car.  Some local energetic types were even seen sledding down the Philadelphia Art Museum steps!Tough government offices and schools can close during a blizzard, it is easy to see how learning online continues. With the world at your fingertips, learning is never canceled.In our diocese, we had scheduled an online session with educators for today. Obviously, with this being a snow day there was reason to believe that some would not attend.  Our forward thinking Superintendent, Mary Rochford and I decided to go ahead with the session. What better way to encourage continual learning for all!   We were pleasantly surprised to hav 25 principals and teachers attend our afternoon session and 35 attend our evening session, each 1.5 hours long!  All links where shared in advance. Some that hadn't planned to attend are able to take advantage of the snow day to join in the session. We had great sessions with input from these many dedicated educators.  We had inspiring leadership from our moderators Robin Ellis and Lani Ritter Hall in these sessions planned in conjunction w/Sheryl Nussbaum Beach and Will Richardson at PLP.There are many ways to learn online. I share my thoughts here about how to learn on a Snow Day.

How To Learn Online On a SNOW DAY

1. Use Twitter: Use Twitter. Following folks on Twitter allows you to learn nonstop. Follow hashtags about the storm.  There were twitter hashtags for words such as snowstorm and snowmageddon which allowed me to keep up with updates related to the storm. Links to articles, blogs and stories continued to flow during the storm. Find educators to follow here.
2. Use Elluminate. Tap into free learning sessions in web conferences. You can see some archived at Classroom 2.0. We have archived our Virtual Academy sessions for teachers here.
3. Go Digital: Access and Share Photos and Multimedia. The internet was abuzz with news of the blizzard through the news media, facebook, youtube and much more. With user generated video and photos, you could find out about what the storm conditions were in almost any place at anytime. See the photos posted here on the New York Times. Our local paper the Catholic Standard and Times creatively asked people to upload photos of their church in the snow.Having encouraged viewers to share 'snowtographs' and videos,  WPVI Channel 6 in Philadelphia said they had record visitors to their website with over 2.7 million page views!
4. Join Virtual Online Communities for Educators. Use a ning. Some popular Nings for Educators are: I belong to several communities online using nings such as ones through Powerful Learning Practice and Classroom 2.0. I had the opportunity to connect with many of our teachers and principals on a number of topics such as Netbooks, Smartboards, Professional Development and more.
5. Connect with People Use various means such as  Skype, cell and more. I shared some snow photos from he New York Times with an educator participating in a skype project with our schools. Being from Australia, she said that her students have never seen snow.

I am a big proponent of learning online. I have the opportunity to interact with students online at a course online at Cabrini College and also use a variety of online tools for professional development myself and with teachers in my diocese.

Online Learning on the Horizon

At our online session today, the topic was Emerging Technology Trends and Impact on Education via the Horizon Report. One trend highlighted in the recently released Horizon Report is that 'People expect to be able to work, learn and study whenever and wherever they want to.'I love a 'snow day' now as much or more as I did when I was young. I enjoyed these snow days and spent some time relaxing with family.  I also spent a lot of time learning online. So if you are interested in learning more about weather events, the world around you or in connecting with others and expanding professional, resources there are abundant resources at hand. In schools, keeping our eyes on the Horizon and keeping our minds open to adapting to new venues of learning is essential to providing quality programs for our students. This type of learning will continue to 'snowball'.  So sit back, listen to the forecast and remember that with the world at your fingertips, learning is never canceled.