Building a Personal PLN (Professional Learning Network)

How do you currently network and learn about teaching resources? What have you learned from reading and watching the resources provided? What will you do to expand your PLN?

I must admit that I haven't used very many online resources to gain teaching resources, even though the internet is chock-full of tools for educators to use. I have been very reluctant to network with other teachers outside of my immediate vicinity (my school), other than to look for unit/lesson plan ideas online.

I DO have personal accounts on Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, and more recently Edmodo, all of which I consider tools for establishing a Personal Professional Learning Network. The most used of these networking sites for me are Pinterest and Facebook. I mostly use Pinterest for DIY projects and recipes. However, after reading the article "Five follow-worthy ed-tech Pinterest boards" by Laura Devaney, I have added lots of tech-savvy pins to my "School Stuff" board! (Click here to view my Pinterest board.) According to Devaney, social media venues such as Pinterest are "continuing to influence how educators collaborate and teach."

Twitter is another tool that educators can use to engage and promote technology use in the classroom. In the article "How Twitter Can Be Used as a Powerful Educational Tool," Alan November and Brian Mull point out the effectiveness of Twitter as a way for students and teachers to connect globally. By tagging tweets and organizing them into accessible categories of information, students have access to authentic views of world events directly from the people who experience them. November and Mull also highlight the use of Twitter in the classroom by showing the actual connections made by a teacher and her students. There is much to learn from Mrs. Caviness's experience using Twitter, and this example sparked my desire to revive my own Twitter account.

The most recent tool I have found to be extremely useful is Edmodo. By joining communities (like Language Arts), I am able to connect with other Language Arts teachers around the world. Teachers post information, unit/lesson plans, ideas, and questions, on which other educators share their experience and knowledge. There is no formal protocol and teachers are very eager to help. In her video "Importance of a PLN in Education," Kelsey Wilkinson states, "With an online PLN, there are no limitations to who you can learn from and share ideas with."

The next steps to extend my PLN are to use these resources to their full potential. I will make a point to peruse and pin more targeted information for use in my classroom, post and glean information from other educators on Edmodo, and use my Twitter account both as a global connection tool as well as a learning tool for student responses.