Journal #7 My Personal Learning Network

A Personal Learning Network, or PLN, is an individualized network that is created by connecting with individuals that share common interest and goals.  Maintaining a strong PLN is a great way to network with other educators and administration, locate tools and tips for the classroom, learn about new technology and how to incorporate it into a curriculum, obtain lesson plans from successful teachers, as well as collaborate with other educators about certain subjects of interest.  Although my PLN is still growing, I have found some useful Internet and web 2.0 tools that will help me build my PLN.  Some tools that I have found useful in developing my PLN are: Twitter (micro blogging), Diigo (social bookmarking), Storify, and Tweetdeck (RRS).  My PLN will help me develop worldwide relationships with educators that strive to engage and exchange information online.

Twitter is a micro blogging tool that provides its users with the ability to create short 140 character post, re-tweet/re-post others comments and links, and view live feeds from people they choose to follow.  I use Twitter to connect with my fellow Liberal Studies colleagues, teachers, and other educators.  Twitter is one of my main resources for building my PLN, because it gives me the opportunity to follow anyone I find inspiring and educational.  I have chose to follow 44 educators, organizations, and groups.  Some people I am following are Jerry Blumengarten, Sir Ken Robinson, Melinda Gates, Justin Reich, Lisa Dabbs, and Steven W. Anderson.  I have also chose to follow many organizations including Ollibean, Autistic BigBro, NU Ability, AdvocatesforChildren, Edutopia, and Teri Inc.  By following these individuals and organizations, I am able to build my PLN, find interesting links and articles, and network with other educators.  On Wednesday March 27, 2013 at 5pm, I participated in the #ntchat about Earth Day, regarding it’s importance in schools.  I used Tweetdeck to manage the conversation and replies.  I found TweetDeck very useful because it allowed me to pause the fast paced conversation and reply to those post I found interesting.  It was awesome to know that I was in conversation and connection with others around the world.  Many of the post were very fascinating and very useful in the classroom.

Diigo is a networking tool that allows every user to bookmark important articles, websites, and videos on the Internet. Using this online bookmarking tool has allowed me to bookmark articles that give information about developing a strong PLN.  I’ve found five people to follow in Diigo, Barbara Lindsey, Cherice Montgomery, Maggie Tsai, Shelly Terrell, and David Saldkey.  These individuals are all people who actively use Diigo and talk about education. Maggie Tsai is a Chief Diigo Ambassador, and has created discussion forums and groups that focus on the development of education.  I found three websites that are accurate and viable resources in the development of my PLN.  The first site discusses the stages of PLN adoption and development.  The next site helps with the difficulties of Twitter, by teaching one how to minimize Tweets and make them interesting; in order to look professional and build one’s PLN. The last website shares many links, articles, and videos about how to build ones PLN.

In order to develop my PLN, I joined the website community Classroom 2.0.  On this website I watched a video called, “aPLaNet what is a Personal Learning Network (PLN)?” by Joel Josephson.  This video discusses the importance of a creating a PLN with other educators.  It also talks about the importance of joining other PLN networks, because it will open your personal network over a huge global community.  It states that it is important to choose educators that are willing to share, available to talk and discuss, and ones that are knowledgeable. Lastly, the video states that it is important to use micro blogs, social media sites, RSS, etc. because they have the ability to act as a free learning platform.