Notebook or My Personal Learning Network

COVID-19 has upended normal social connections that develop between students and professors. We are missing the connections that develop through casual interactions in office hours, pre-class discussions, post-class questions, and any other in-person interaction. These social connections are important for student retention, academic development, diversity, and inclusion. As universities and faculty grapple with the shift to an online education system, and as uncertainties and budget concerns about the fall semester take hold, strategies to maintain student-faculty connections should be a top priority.

As we thoughtfully shift our courses online, we must also strategically consider how to best replicate or innovate to develop social connections. While maintaining a connection with students should be a university wide initiative, in the short run, faculty can assist by developing their own student connection initiatives. The purposeful use of social media presents a great opportunity for educators to connect with their students and recreate some of the social connections that are lost due to online education, while also providing new ways of developing connections.

Let me introduce you to one of my new go-to tech tools: Padlet. It's free, it's easy-to-use, and it's awesome. Oh, and did I mention... no signup needed? Padlet is essentially a digital poster that can be individually or collaboratively created. Simply visit the website and click "Create" to get started building your "wall" today. Then,…

If you follow my blog, you know I curate a lot of resources for teachers. This post brings together a suggested list, a curated list if you will, of 16 curation tools for teachers and students from the Shake Up Learning community. Choosing how to curate and what tools to use can be a very personal decision depending on your own needs and preferences. That’s what’s so great about the world wide web of tools! There is no shortage of tools.


Curation is absolutely necessary in the information age! As Gayle Allen says in her book, The New Pillars of Modern Teaching, “We’re assembling resources in a way that represents the ongoing story of our learning. We are the curators.”