All I Want for Xmas is FREE Resources

Usually, at the end of the year, I post about the edtech books that I'm most looking forward to reading, and I encourage you to go find them and read them yourselves. This year is going to be a bit different.  Sure, you can still go to Amazon and look at the most popular books in the Computers and Technology or the Digital and Online Learning subjects within the Schools and Teaching topic at Amazon.  However, much of the inspiration that the field of adult education needs is finally coming from the field's own practitioners and instructional designers.

This year at the COABE conference, we gave out hundreds of hard copies of our College and Career Readiness Roadmap to make it very plain how teachers can adjust to the instructional shifts taking place and incorporate more technology fluency into their instruction.  You can get your own copy by emailing info@essentialed.com.  If you already have a copy, please share your feedback here.

More specific to online distance learning is our new teacher's guide: Blended Learning in the Adult Education classroom (download it here).  The guide was presented at COABE by its co-author and edtech guru, David Rosen, and again via webinar last month with WorldEd (see the webinar recording here).

Let the Maestro Be Your EdTech Guide on the Side

Facilitating blended learning is easy when you have good models and mentors to turn to for inspiration. When I got started with Virginia's distance learning program ten years ago, one of the innovative educators that I looked to was David Rosen. His online repositories of resources and his work with the Learner Web made him an authority in the edtech field. He was WAY AHEAD of most state's leadership, much less the average practitioner.  But now the field is catching up. Blended learning is not just a lofty goal. It's a standard practice. I should know, because I'm meeting with increasing enthusiasm while talking with teachers about Essential Education's innovative adaptive learning programs.

These stars aligning made it a natural choice to collaborate with David Rosen on a FREE downloadable Blended Teacher's Guide. The publication of this resource has prompted WorldEd to host a FREE webinar with David Rosen on November 13th at 2pm Eastern. YOU CAN REGISTER HERE. Please invite your fellow teachers, convene a program-wide meeting around the webinar and spread the word on social media.

Get Connected at COABE in Denver

It is with excitement and some embarrassment that I resurface with this post having been MIA from my own blog since before Christmas in 2014. Maybe it would be plausible to say that I was busy reading all the edtech books I asked for last year. like a bear hiding out in my cave for the winter.  Or I could say that 2014 presented so many changes and challenges (and growth!), that I'm still catching my breath and slowly turning the page toward 2015. But the reality is that my slightly overwhelming workload coincided with a few health issues (think red spots covering 90% of my body) and family-life juggling acts that the sum total simply bumped this blog and my social media routine to the back burner.

In terms of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, I've just been dealing with basic needs while my ambitious aspirations and my higher self haven't been a high priority.  It's certainly okay to tread water or maintain the status quo from time to time, but I think you can imagine that I am not satisfied with this state of affairs. That's why I foresee a comeback and hopefully it is precipitated by the awesome source of inspiration that is the annual COABE conference.  Yes, I will be in Denver, looking forward to seeing you, and giving you lots of great new resources.  Please say hi. 

Here's a message that we sent out to Essential Education's contacts to build the buzz about what we're about to release to the field (use this link to sign up for the Essential Education newsletter email list):