Educators are flocking to Google+ for news, ideas and interaction. It’s a great sounding board for your ideas, and an awesome place to share great ideas. Whether you are interested in educational technology, the future of learning, or looking for ideas to support your subject area, there is a community for you to join. I think everyone should add a few communities to their professional learning arsenal. A great place to start would be to take a look at those of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. The DPI has quite a few Professional Learning Communities that it has established on the Google+ Community Platform. Some of these are “public” and you can just click on “join,” while others are “private” where you will click on “join” and then wait for the moderator’s approval. Here are some from the DPI that you can join:
- WI DPI School Libraries PLC
- WI DPI K-12 Gaming & Playful Learning PLC
- WI DPI WeTECH
- WI DPI Leadership & Digital Learning PLC
- WI DPI English Language Arts PLC
- WI DPI CESA Updates
- WI DPI Mathematics PLC
- WI DPI 1:1 Instruction & Device PLC
- WI DPI Virtual, Blended & Charter Programs
- WI DPI GIS Educator Community
- WI DPI Resource Sharing Community
- WI DPI WISExplore PLC
- WI DPI Wisconsin Career Pathways
- WI DPI Arts Education Leaders PLC
- WI DPI K12 GIS Community
- WI DPI Urban Social Studies
- WI DPI Computer Science Licensing
- WI DPI EdCamps PLC
There are also many other Google+ communities that you can join that are a part of national or international groups of educators gathered together for sharing and discussions.
- Chromebook EDU
- Common Core
- Connected Learning
- ePortfolios
- EdTech
- Education
- Educational Leadership
- Educational Revolution
- Educational Technology
- Elementary School Teachers
- English Teachers
- Gamification in Education
- Geography Teachers
- Google Apps for Education
- Google Docs and Drive
- Inquiry Based Learning in Math
- iPad Ed
- K-12 Education
- Kindergarten Korner
- Mathematics Education
- Math Principles in Everyday Life
- Middle School Teachers
- Minecraft in Education
- MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses)
- Music Teachers
- #NTChat (new to education) Community
- Personalized Learning
- Physical Education
- Physics Education
- Playbased Learning
- School Psychology
- STEM Educators
- Teach Preschool
- Technology and Innovation in Education
- Technology in Education
- US History Teachers
Didn’t find a community that interests you in my list? You can always search for groups and find one that will. You could even search for ones on a personal interest level. I have several of those I am a part of too. Once you have joined, make sure you decide how you want to be notified of updates to the community. The default is usually showing posts on your Google+ homepage and notifications are off. If this is a group you want to keep up on, I would suggest that you click on the notifications and mark it as notifications on. You can also click on the wheel/cog in that same area and choose that you see more, standard, or fewer posts. If you find the community isn’t for you, or that you are getting too many notifications, you can always update your options for that community by clicking on that same wheel/cog.
I encourage you to go out and join a Google+ community. I’ve found them a very powerful resource and integral to my personal professional development. If you still have questions on Google+ communities, here is a Google+ communities for education video that you can watch for more information.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhGMDSGgPFw#t=217]