Never one to back down from a challenge, I’m officially throwing my hat into the ring with this post.  What’s the challenge, you ask?  I’ll let Clif Mim’s original post give you the details:

Directions

Summer can be a great time for professional development. It is an opportunity to learn more about a topic, read a particular work or the works of a particular author, beef up an existing unit of instruction, advance one’s technical skills, work on that advanced degree or certification, pick up a new hobby, and finish many of the other items on our ever-growing To Do Lists. Let’s make Summer 2008 a time when we actually get to accomplish a few of those things and enjoy the thrill of marking them off our lists.

The Rules

Pick 3 professional development goals and commit to achieving them this summer.
For the purposes of this activity the end of summer will be Labor Day (09/01/08).
Post the above directions along with your 3 goals on your blog.
Title your post Professional Development Meme and link back/trackback to http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/353.
Use the following tag/ keyword/ category on your post: pdmeme.
Tag 8 others to participate in the meme.
Achieve your goals and “develop professionally.”
Commit to sharing your results on your blog during early or mid-September.
My Goals

1. Learn how to be a better blogger.  In my first post, I admitted that I was jumping in before I really knew what I was doing and now’s the time to figure it all out.  So, by the end of the summer, I pinkie swear that I will really know what it means to do a trackback and how to use widgets  and manage my blog. Plus, I promise to leave comments on blog posts I read and respect like these.  And I’ll even promise to take all those tiny slips of paper that clutter my desk and nightstand with ideas I have when there’s no time to write and actually put some of them them into a post.
2. Explore interesting tools like Second Life and Diigo and how they can be used as tools for virtual learning and collaboration.  I usually am willing to give any new tool a try and can see the big picture, but so far Second Life isn’t one that I “get” in terms of education.  Diigo is one I’m very interested in, especially as a potential tool for our AP Literature classes to use for “virtual annotation” of public domain books they read that are online.  By the end of the summer I want to have a good handle on Diigo and at least know how to get around in SL without running into walls…
3. Submit proposals for presenting at FETC.  Anyone out there interested in putting together a preso on Personal Learning Networks?

I feel a little like I’m casting pebbles out into the calm waters and waiting to see how far the ripples reach. Here’s hoping that the ripples reach ’round the world.

I Tag…

Tom Woodward

Larry Anderson

Ted and Trang Lai

Katie Morrow

Craig Nansen

Liz Davis

Drew Buddie

Tag…you’re it!  Who’s next?