Journal #7: My Personal Learning Network

I.  If, like me, you are on a journey to improve your understanding of technology tools and their positive applications, you may have heard about or seen the abbreviation "PLN" online.  The term Personal Learning Network (PLN) describes the set of online resources that an individual uses to stay informed about topics of personal interest, communicate with other people near and far, and form relationships for the sharing of ideas and experiences.  The mind-boggling scope of the Internet means that we now have access to people and information on a much larger scale than earlier generations could even imagine!  The tools that comprise PLNs include:

As a visual learner, I found this picture helpful.  

• e-mail
• RSS feeds--a tool that allows you to keep up with educational blogs, news, wikis, and podcasts all in one convenient location (definition by Scheninger, E. (2010, August 28). Personal learning networks 101. Retrieved from http://connectedprincipals.com/archives/723).                           Click here for an example from USA Today
• regularly maintained journal-like websites called "blogs" (short for "web logs") 
• social-networking sites like Facebook
• communications programs like Skype (for live video messaging)
• social-bookmarking sites like Twitter (for shorter messages/posts) or Pinterest 
• services that help to manage your collection of online content like Diigo and Symbaloo
• digital discussion networks (Classroom 2.0 or Social Studies Chat).

ED 422 has provided me with a total-immersion crash course in these tools and I am now (barely) using most of them to build my own PLN.  Six weeks ago I maintained a Facebook presence mostly to keep an eye on my children, went to other teachers at my school when I had a question, and participated in one online teacher LIST-serv discussion.  Today, I am working on two blogs, following about 10 people on Twitter (and have even--gasp!--posted 5 tweets of my own), and I know how to use both Social Studies Chat and Symbaloo.  Having a PLN will help me as a teacher by raising my knowledge of technology closer to that of my teenage students and giving me a better understanding of their world--not to mention another area of common ground to use in building my teacher-student relationships.  The access to a greater pool of information, while still a bit daunting, will help to make me a better-informed teacher, both in terms of my subject area and best teaching practices.  And, having a greater number of co-worker relationships (once I overcome a phobia of sharing my own information) will help to stimulate and motivate me along the life-long learning path.

II. Twitter
    Before taking ED 422, Twitter was definitely on the list of things I was convinced I would never EVER need or use!  I was nonplussed to discover that an early class assignment was to create a Twitter account...and follow others.  I'm still not entirely convinced that I'll become a champion tweeter, but I've found people to follow and even survived making a tweet or two of my own.  As a neophyte tweeter, here's who I'm following and why.

All the current members of ED 422--because we are surviving this semester-packed-into-five-weeks class together.

CSUSM Professor Jeff Heil (@jheil65)--because he's the one who forced me to join the "tweetisphere."  He's old enough to reminisce about the 80s but also wildly knowledgeable about education technology.  Oh, yeah...and he totally invalidates my two objections to ed tech: that I'm in the wrong generation to really understand all this stuff, and that with my regular teaching and general life responsibilities I don't have time to become an ed tech guru.

Paul Aleckson (@oralhistorybuff)--like me, he teaches AP U.S. History.  I chose to follow him to see how a teacher who trained before the tech revolution is adjusting and incorporating new tools into classroom toolkit.  Also, a brief survey of his tweets convinced me that I would find useful classroom ideas there.

Matt Moore (@mooresclassroom)--because as a self-described History and Technology enthusiast he seems like someone I will have things in common with and someone I can learn from.

Casey Meier (@CaseyMMeier)--an AP World History teacher in Kansas, because his tweets appear to be full of practical suggestions and good links I'd actually use in class.

Chris Miraglia (@dcmm14)--because as "a techie and and education enthusiast," following his tweets will keep me abreast of new ed tech developments.

Nadia Zananiri (@nadiazananiri)--one more history teacher (AP World this time) who is very interested in the political issues affecting education.  I suspect her opinions may be more liberal than my own, and this will provide an interesting opposing viewpoint to consider.

On July 25, 2012, I participated in my first online EdChat covering topics of interest to new teachers.  The hour-long session (5 - 6 p.m.) dealt with planning for the upcoming year, including how to prioritize and what tools -- both digital and non-technological -- experienced teachers find helpful in the planning process.  It was easy to follow the chat because the pace of this one was slow.  I put in a couple of comments and was disproportionately pleased when someone re-tweeted my comment, adding "Right on! I like your style!"  I'm still overwhelmed with the amount of information available; I don't know how I'm going to find time to sift, read, bookmark, and digest all these links...that will be an ongoing project even after this class is over.

  III.  Diigo

OK, I followed the assignment instructions and have tagged 5 sites as "PLN."  While I understand and really like the capacity to bookmark web pages for future references, I'm still confused about the distinction between "following" a person or site, as compared to adding them to my "network," or forming a "group."  Since I've already taught for a number of years and have achieved a degree of success using traditional methods, I looked for blogs, wikis, and digital discussion forums that deal specifically with web 2.0 tools, education, history...or even better, edtech tools for teaching history.  Here's a  Diigo list of sites I've tagged PLN.

A Diigo group for history teachers -- This group is for any history teacher interested in sharing online sources and teaching ideas to improve the quality of history teaching and learning in high schools and universities.

A wiki called 21centuryteched --21st Century Educational Technology and Learning

Melissa Seideman’s blog (notanotherhistoryteacher.edublogs.org) sub-titled “History and Technology: a Perfect Pair”

The digital discussion forum called Educator’s PLN --  a ning site dedicated to the support of a Personal Learning Network for Educators.
 

IV.  Digital Discussion Forum

I joined Social Studies Chat, a network designed to connect social studies teachers around the world through blog posts, smaller topic-specific groups, and weekly live chats via Twitter.  Once my membership was approved, I added the badge to my blog and began to build a profile page.  I viewed an archived chat dedicated to exploring alternatives to note-taking in class and watched a power point on flipped classroom as well as a blog post by the same author about a different activity to do on the first day of school.

In this blog post, Peter Pappas suggests that teachers forego the traditional dry routine on the first day of school.  Instead of running through the roll list and then reviewing classroom rules and the course syllabus, he gets all the students talking and working together solving murder mysteries.  I’ve never enjoyed that boring first day of class – why would we want to make the first impression on our students so dry and uninteresting?? – so his murder mystery idea sounds good.  While the kids are working out the clues, the teacher walks around, observing and learning the students’ names.  By the end of class he tries to know each name, demonstrating that in his class everyone is a learner.  I really liked the idea of starting the year with this message and I plan to use the instructions included in the blog post for this year’s first day of school on August 13, 2012.