Journal 7 - PLN

A personal learning network (PLN) is a way for people to come together and engage in common interests and exchange information electronically.  Educators can utilize a PLN on a daily basis. Having a PLN is beneficial in gathering resources and aid in research. As a future educator I hope to build my PLN over the course of my studies. When I am hired as a teacher I will be able to access information for any topic that may be brought up in class and receive answers immediately through the interaction with other educators. The best part is my PLN will be customized to who I am as an educator.

The use of Twitter has really opened my eyes to the fact there are countless users communicating about their research, interests, daily thoughts, helpful resources, and questions they may have about their role as educators. Before becoming involved in Twitter I always thought it was a place for people to follow celebrities... I never realized actually how big of a resource Twitter is for all professions. For me, Twitter is amazing because I am able to follow a wide range of individuals such as fellow classmates, family members, role models in education, and co-workers. Twitter allows individuals to collaborate about any topic from anywhere in the world. This allows for various perspectives and input from people with different backgrounds. I am really excited to be a part of live chats on Twitter such as the one designed for new teachers called #ntchat. This is a great way for me to get involved in the latest topics and meet people from around the world putting their input for various weekly topics. I am sure with time I will feel more comfortable involving myself in these chats and will benefit a lot from the experience. I would also like to find some live chats on Twitter specified for special education because that is the area of teaching I plan to be involved in.

Diigo is also a powerful resource for educators. I was amazed that there is a tool that can save all of our sites/resources electronically, and can access them through any computer anywhere in the world. Diigo is helpful because as we build our PLN we can collaborate with other online users who share common interests. As I follow other users on Diigo I will be able to look through their libraries (that they make public) and see what it is they find interesting and helpful for education. I can then add their research to my library for future use. Diigo makes research easier and more convenient. My Diigo library is customized to my interests and is extremely convenient! I recently joined a group on Diigo: Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0. This is a great group for me to be apart of because thousands of members come together and share research and information pertaining to education. I found one member through this group who I found very interesting! David Wetzel often posts lesson plans and classroom activities for all age groups relating to Science! The sites he chooses seem to be very engaging and I could see where students would benefit from the lesson plans he suggests. This is just one example of the thousands of members you can follow on Diigo. Diigo is better than any Google search! Diigo makes finding resources for your classroom easy and being able to follow others is a great way to see what other educators found interesting/successful in their classroom. I saved a couple sites that were specifically related to PLN discussion. For many individuals they may not even know what the term PLN means especially when it is directed in an educational setting. The sites I saved were dedicated in defining what a PLN is and exactly what you can do to start creating your own network. One article I saved in particular was Personal Learning Network 101. This article was great because it listed many ways that you can start acquiring a PLN. Many of the suggestions listed we have already started in class such as: Twitter, Diigo, and our personal blog! It was great to see that this class is preparing us with a PLN that will help us as future educators.

I recently joined a digital discussion forum: Classroom 2.0. Classroom 2.0 is a free community supported network where users come together to share videos, involve themselves in forum chats, share blogs, and provide resources for other users. This is a perfect network for educators of all levels and is especially helpful for new educators. I am excited to be a part of a forum where I can log in and pose questions I may have or join in on other topics of discussion I find interesting. One particular Forum I looked into was a question posed from a high school special education teacher. Sarah was looking for advice in how to engage her students with math lessons. It was amazing to see the different responses from users all around the world! I think it is so neat that people can collaborate together about a classroom topic without even leaving their home office and receive responses with virtually no time at all. Classroom 2.0 is also a great place to read different blogs posted by thousands of educators. Reading blogs from others is a great way to go inside the classroom and see how their classroom operates without actually being there! Sometimes seeing different situations from different perspectives is what helps us improve the most. Having access to educators blogs will re-shape our thinking. My goal is to set up a blog of my own so that other educators can learn from my own experiences in the classroom.