Personal Learning Network
Image from Wiki Commons
The video below is interesting because it says that a PLN is “not a thing or a plan” but a “mindset that starts with a question: How do my relationships make me a better teacher?” (Youtube). Thinking about it in this way makes me expand my idea that a PLN is based on web 2.0 tools to an understanding that my PLN is all around me whether I am online or not. There are several ways I have already developed a PLN and, after doing some research for this course, several ways I would like to increase my PLN in the future.
Currently, I belong to a Discovery Education Network group on Edmodo. This group consists of educators from the Surrey School District who attended a 3 session workshop called Den Stars as well as educators from around North America. In this Edmodo page, we discuss how we are incorporating Discovery Education into our classroom as well as other web 2.0 tools. In addition to being a Den Star, I often check my Flipboard magazine set up to import tweets from #sd36learn, #sd36LC and #tlchat. In the future, I would like to not only gain information from these posts but also contribute information to the feeds.
I have had a personal twitter account for sometime but recently set up a professional one. Now I have to start sorting through the people I follow to move them to my professional twitter account. I see Twitter as a great way to keep informed and connected to those who are taking the same diploma program as me. We are all working towards a similar goal and can definitely learn from one another. I am like a hidden twitter user though. I do not tweet! One of my goals is to contribute to discussions on Twitter. Can you have a PLN without really contributing?
In researching PLN, I came across an interesting blog post. Kate Kingslensmith writes about PLNs and provides an in-depth list of ways to create a PLN. Take a look at it here. She also has a link to the stages one experiences when developing a PLN. I have set up many of the web 2.0 tools Kate has suggested, like Twitter, Delicious and Digg Reader, but feel that I have not used them to their full networking potential. I know that I have not necessarily been a contributor in the exchange of information. I have been more like an information taker than giver! While I don’t see this stage in Kate’s steps of PLN development, maybe as I become more comfortable with the tools, I will understand how I can be a contributor to someone else’s PLN.
As the Youtube video mentioned, not all of my PLN is online. I have created my own network of other kindergarten teachers who I can bounce ideas off of and who I gain new knowledge from. We do this, sometimes through email, but also in the lunch room or at workshops.
Going forward, I would like to really focus in on using one or two tools to develop my PLN. I think if I narrowed my focus, I would gain a better connection to other educators and have more confidence in asking questions and sharing my experiences and knowledge.
Works Cited
Personal learning network. (2014, January 19). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:57, February 10, 2014, fromhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Personal_learning_network&oldid=591462441
Klingensmith, K. (2009, May 5). PLN: Your Personal Learning Network Made Easy | Once a Teacher… Retrieved February 10, 2014 from http://onceateacher.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/pln-your-personal-learning-network-made-easy/
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Great post! I think that you have outlined some excellent rationale for formulating a PLN and reassuring your readers that it does not have to be too complicated or hard. In also appreciated your honesty in your “lurking” phase online and I can definitely identify with that. Its a natural place to start, to check out the lay of the land, to see how others are sharing and what they are sharing, and then to figure out what you can contribute! I had a good amount of time lurking online in twitter too, until I started getting more comfortable with sharing my experiences, learning and connections. It all really came together for me once I started live tweeting conferences, keynotes, and presentations to share and document the learning I was experiencing at different conferences. Overall, great post, good plan, and definitely count me in as part of your PLN!
I like that you have different levels in you PLN, from fellow students, other kindergarten teachers, a PLN within your school district and beyond, to “creeping” (as my son would say about visiting facebook pages without letting the user know). I think that even though you don’t contribute online you probably share that information with your face-to-face colleagues.
I am impressed you already had a twitter account and now are adding a professional one! Sounds to me like you are well on your way!
I, too, found Kate Kingslensmith’s blog informative. A few years, if were to have answered the question, “How do my relationships make me a better teacher?” my answer would have been limited to the people around me. Now there are so many possibilities online that we are not confined to certain times to make those all important relationships.
Thank you for sharing Flipboard. From what I can see, it looks like a good alternative to Feedly and not so limiting.
Liesbet is right!! You are well on your way to having a very well-rounded PLN! I didn’t know what a PLN was until this course, but have come to realize, as well, that I have a bit of a PLN started with my facebook page and pinterest. I really enjoyed the video, it was simple, but got the point across about what is involved in developing a PLN. Thank you for the sharing!!!
I also didn’t know what a PLN was until we started this course. There is lots of talk about them on Twitter. The video was fun and content rich. It showed us lots of ways to get started on our PLN although some of us probably already have and don’t even know it 🙂