Category Archives: Week 4

Making connections

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So, I sat down with my original list of people/areas I want to connect with, and compared it to the list of web tools that have been recommended by a host of people, including Will Richardson.

I have concluded that there are a handful of tools I will use to  get and stay connected. Those tools are:  microblogs, blogs, wikis, social bookmarking tools, podcasts, and webinars.

After reading pages and pages of how to create a PLN, I came away with two strong messages. 1. Each person’s PLN is unique to them, and 2. Start small so as to not get overwhelmed.  So, that said, I am going to ensure that I take the time to think through my PLN choices carefully to ensure that whatever I create is both manageable and sustainable.

That said, there is a lot of ground to cover  and not a lot of time to cover it in so below is a list of how I will spend the next nine weeks setting up my PLN.

Week 5-7. Twitter/RSS /Aggregator. During these three weeks I will be focused on setting up a Twitter account and finding relevant tweeters to follow. As well as looking for bloggers who are talking regularly about issues that matter to me. In order to subscribe to their blogs, I will need an RSS aggregator as well.  As I mentioned in my last post, Google Reader is folding at the end of this month so I will need to do some research and determine the best tool for this. (I have been looking at desktop home page options and web-based options as well. I have not come to any definitive conclusions at this point).

Week 8. Week eight will be spent working on my second Commentary which I believe will have something to do with Facebook and the pros and cons of using it as a professional networking tool. (I have to confess, right now I am dead set against the idea of using Facebook as a PLN tool. As a teacher, I feel like there are aspects of my life that I simply want to be just for me – and Facebook is one of them. Not that I am on Facebook that often, but I do have an existing account and it is a social networking tool that I use solely  for family and friends, and I want to keep it that way. At least for now.)

Week 9. Podcasts. I really do not have any experience with podcasts so this will be new to me. Although I do have an iTunes account and have seen the iTunes U option so I at least have a place to start from.

Week 10. Social Bookmarking. Will Richardson noted that he had wanted to go with Delicious but at the time he was going to publication Delicious was in jeopardy, so he went with  Diigo.  I already have a delicious account but am interested in some of the additional features that Diigo offers like highlighting and sticky notes. So, I may be changing my choice of social bookmarking. Truth be told, I have really only been using the bookmarking aspect of delicious, and not bothered with the social aspect of the tool at all. That needs to change. I need to make connections with others who have found great sites and resources in areas of interest to me.

Week 11. Webinars. As far as professional development goes, webinars sound like a great way to connect in a pseudo-f2f environment. I like the idea of it, but much like podcasts, I have no experience, beyond meeting up for live chats in my MET courses.

Week 12-13. This time will be spent creating my Assessment Rubric to be used to evaluate my PLN presentation, finalizing my PLN presentation, and writing my final reflection. Busy, busy, busy!

Let the PLNing begin!

Building a PLN with web 2.0 tools

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Chapter 2 of  Richardson’s book on PLNs offers up tips for “jumping in” to the world of PLNs.  He recommends five specific web 2.0 tools to initiate connections: 1. Twitter, 2. Blogger , 3. Google Reader, 4. Diigo, and 5. Facebook.

Richardson’s suggestions got me looking for other recommendations on the best 2.0 tools for the task.   While many recommended the same tools as Richardson, others offered even more possibilities. Both Lisette Casey, and Lisa Nielsen, aka the Innovative Educator recommend joining a professional social network like Edublogger or Classroom 2.0. Like Richardson, Nielsen stresses the need to use a tool like Google Reader to follow a handful of bloggers.

The problem I have discovered is that Google Reader is shutting down  July, 2013. So, I will need to seek out some alternatives to manage my deluge of incoming information. From what I have read so far, some viable options are: Netvibes, the Old Reader, Feedly, and Pageflakes. I will keep you posted on this.

Sue Waters, better known as The Edublogger, has created a valuable wiki for those about to take on the challenge of creating a  PLN. She offers step by step tips on setting up a twitter account, starting a blog, subscribing to blogs, using social bookmarking tools (like Diigo mentioned above), and joining an ning (which turns out is what sites like Classroom 2.0 and Edublogger are apparently!)

Both Eric Patnoudes and  Kate Klingensmith recommend attending webinars (web 2.0 Live or Edtech Talk Live) and backchanneling conferences as means of building your PLN. I confess, I had no idea what backchanneling was. I thought it meant sneaking in the back door of conferences I couldn’t afford. In a way it kind of does. Read more about it HERE.

Finally, Katie Morrow’s slideshare offers up all of the above, as well as teleconference tools like Skype, and podcasting (iTtunes U or Education Podcast Network). Something I had not even considered!

What I have discovered over the last few days is that PLNs are as unique and personal as the people that are creating them. There is no “one size fits all” model of PLNs.

I came across Skip Via’s podcast about PLNs which sums this past week’s reading perfectly. So I will leave you with this as I begin to allign my list of PLN needs (posted last day) with the web 2.0 tools at my disposal.