Happy Victoria Day!

Despite the fact that it’s been “May long weekend” (a.k.a. May 2-4,) I’ve managed to spend several hours this weekend getting to know Will Richardson, who I am officially naming the “Guru of PLNs”.  (Although I am sure someone somewhere has already beat me to it!) Richardson is an educator,  motivator, co-founder of Powerful Learning Practice, parent, and self-proclaimed outspoken advocate for change in schools and classrooms in the context of the diverse new learning opportunities that read/write/create technologies offer. Richardson has been blogging since before blogging was cool!  Seriously! His first blog ran for 10 years and provides a wealth of information on everything to do with networking and learning in the 21st century, on a read/write web via web 2.0 tools.   (Be sure to check out his Resource page). Currently, Richardson can be found at his new website. You can also check out his two wikispaces: willrichardson.wikispaces and weblogged.wikispaces which offer a wealth of useful links and information.

This weekend I managed to track down copies of his books: Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for the Classroom (2008) and his most recent work, Personal Learning Networks (2011), (quoted in an earlier post).

While I have accumulated several articles on the steps for creating PLNs, and I am eager to jump in and get down to the business of creating networks, I know the importance of  grounding practice in solid pedagogical theory. (Thank you ETEC 511 and ETEC 530). So, I want to spend this next phase of this journey exploring the WHYs of PLNs before I jump into the HOWs.  I believe Will Richardson’s book, website, and blog are going to help me do just that…

stay tuned!