In my continued efforts to support the staff at my school navigate the ever evolving landscape of educational technology, I have begun producing a fortnightly email newsletter.
When sat writing it for the first time a few weeks ago I hit upon a nice set of regular sections I could easily update every 2 weeks. I have written them using Google Docs, then published the doc, and then shared the link with staff via email. (Plus a PDF copy too)
- IN THE NEWS
- TOM’S TECH TIP
- AROUND SCHOOL
- HAVE A GO!
- WEBSITE WATCH
- MY TEACHERS TV PICK
- FROM MY TWITTER NETWORK
Many colleagues in my Twitter network have asked to see the newsletter and so I have caved in to popular demand. Please understand that this is primarily aimed at helping the colleagues at my school, however I am sure you will still find something useful.
LearningTech Newsletter Issue 1 (October 2009)
Download PDF version (No printing allowed!)
The second issue is out soon and I will post the link on here too. Please take a minute to drop me a comment if you use the newsletter in school. Also let me know what you think as it would be great to get some feedback from you all as well.
Hi Tom,
Great idea. I may use your structure for a similar newsletter at my school – many thanks for the inspiration.
i particularyly like the ‘Tom’s tip’ section. So many ICT competent people assume that everyone knows the basics
Best wishes
David
Thanks Tom. I really enjoyed reading the newsletter. I have used Wordle for a variety of different activities in the Library. It was great to pick up the tip about using Windows then D to clear to the desktop–a great little tip!
Cheers
Glenys
Head of Library
Lowther Hall
Essendon Victoria
Australia
Hey Tom,
Great job with the newsletter! I think it is important when doing a ‘newsletter’ such as this that the reader has to click outside of email to actually view it, and so a Google docs a great idea!
I did one a while back via a blog post: http://datruss.wordpress.com/category/digital-magic/
By putting the post on my (seldom used) blog and linking to the category rather than the individual link, I didn’t have to change my link address and older newsletters automatically loaded below the most recent one.
I like your regular sections and think that if I redo my newsletter, (my current staff can’t see my wordpress blog in China), then I might do that. One semi-regular section that I used was “Things that make you go hmmmm…” which I hoped would inspire conversations about learning. Another thing that I did was to feature what some of my teachers were doing. I love your ‘From My Twitter Network’ section, it models the power of shared learning and developing a PLN.