Tuesday, January 1, 2013

EdTechSandyK's Top Five Posts of 2012

White Rocket Burst
Used With Permission
As the new year begins, I thought it would be interesting to start my 2013 postings by looking back on the five most popular posts on this blog from 2012. It's instructive moving forward to reflect on what was on my mind and what resonated most with my readers over the past 12 months.

Based on Blogger's built-in stats reporting, here are the Top Five Posts of 2012 in order from most page views to least:

  1. Parent Concerns in a 1:1 iPad Initiative, October 5, 2012 - Although my district is not involved in a large scale 1:1 implementation, a mother whose son is in a 1:1 iPad school in another district contacted me because of blog entries I had previously made on the topic. She was looking for help in managing her son's time spent on the iPad at home. With her permission, I posted her email and my advice to her on my blog. The ideas shared in the comments on the post make it a great resource for schools and districts who are helping parents and students transition to 1:1 learning.
  2. Trying to Ban Facebook is Not the Answer, February 22, 2012 - After seeing a news story about a Florida charter school which had sent a letter home to parents encouraging them to get their children off of Facebook, this post flowed out of me like no other post I can remember. I was largely incredulous that a school would even ask such a thing in the year 2012, and also sad that they were choosing to address problems by trying to bury them rather than attempting to work with parents and students to help them appropriately navigate our social media saturated world. This post is currently my personal all-time favorite.
  3. School iPad Implementations: What Would You Do Differently?, October 19, 2012 - Upon learning that my district would for the first time be implementing iPads for student use and being tasked with helping to create a plan for said use, I reached out to my Twitter network via my blog to ask for advice from those who had gone before. A lot of great ideas were shared in the comments. The popularity of this post also shows that we're all looking to learn from the early adopters in the iPad/mobile learning arena.
  4. 1:1 iPads in a Third Grade Classroom, June 24, 2012 - This post was a compilation of notes I took in a session I attended at the one day iPadpalooza conference at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas. I like to post conference notes to my blog because it gives me a one-stop-shop for finding my learnings no matter where I am or on what computer, and it extends the reach of the insights shared. Again, the popularity of this post on  my blog shows that educators are hungry for information and practical ideas when it comes to mobile device implementation in the classroom.
  5. Supporting Teachers and Students in the Curation of Their Digital Footprint, February 7, 2012 - In February of 2012, I presented this topic to attendees of the TCEA Campus Leadership Academy, which was held as part of the annual TCEA Convention and Exposition in Austin, Texas. I posted my presentation slides to my blog, as I try to do with all of my professional presentations. Again, much like posting notes I take at conferences, I believe posting my presentations increases the potential reach and impact of the information I'm sharing. I'm pleased to see that it has received many hits over the past year. I also have to credit my preparation for this presentation for equipping me to write the #2 post on this list about Facebook.

And so my Top Five Posts of 2012 list is complete. Five may be a short list to draw any major conclusions from, but there is definitely an iPad/mobile learning theme and a social media/digital citizenship theme in this list. It will be interesting to see what themes/trends evolve in the year ahead. What topics do you think will get the most screen-time in the Edublogosphere in 2013?

I wish you a Healthy and Happy 2013 as we explore the future together!