NETS V This journal entry describes my work in creating my PLN ( Personal Learning Network) and how I have used it to improve upon my current teaching practices.
A PLN is the acronym for Professional Learning Network. A PLN comes
into formation when a person begins to use social networking sites such
as Twitter, to create a community of preferred professionals and people,
who maintain an interest or insight, into similar topics. It provides a
way for people to access information globally and extend their options
for professional development beyond the immediate community of resources
available. Having a PLN means that I have unlimited access to
resources and collaboration that are specifically linked to my area of
need. I can also provide this support to others who may be seeking a
need for resources, strategies or even words of encouragement.
Especially in this time of limited funding for professional development
and support, I have found that building my own PLN has already shown to
be of great worth to my teaching. Three social media sites that I have
used to help me in establishing my own PLN include: Twitter, Diigo and
"The Educators PLN" website. As budget cuts have swept through public
education, the priority on professional development opportunities has
all but ceased to exist. It is important to me that I remain committed
to being a lifelong learner not only for myself but for the benefit of
my students. Creating my PLN has provided me so many new colleagues
whom I may never have otherwise ever worked with. I have already worked
with people who can help me to create more unique behavior support
plans for my students with social emotional disabilities. I have also
gained a plethora of resources to assist me in developing a professional
development workshop on differentiating instruction and Web 2.0 tools,
for my staff. A PLN can provide a fresh perspective and a wealth of new
ways to approach learning.
The first social
networking site that I have used to access and build my PLN, is Twitter.
In my naiveté, I understood Twitter to be something where people
posted "tweeted" information about their daily activities. Feeling that
there wasn't really much to my daily activities that would entice
others, I stayed away. However, I have now become introduced into the
potential of Twitter which far exceeds my initial understanding.
Twitter has enabled me to make contacts with educators and thinkers
abroad. As a teacher of students with identified disabilities, I am
always searching for unique ways to bring the curriculum to my students.
I want them to maintain an experience that is positive and builds upon
their ability to self-advocate and lead independent lives.
ThroughTwitter, I have made several contacts that will provide me with
the supports and collaboration that I am looking for. What I find most
valuable is that I have been able to be in conversations with people who
are "famous" in the world of education and I able to be part of their
academic circles, their PLN's. Currently, I am following: Alan
November an Ed Tech and 21st Century learning skills expert, Timothy
Gwynn,whom I found and added after following Michelle Baldwin. Both
Michelle and Timothy present to me as very accessible and extremely
knowledgable. Their profiles both include statements of a commitment to
forward thinking and development of technology use and education in the
classrooms. Nicole Eredics is a wealth of information on inclusion and
conducts a weekly podcast centered on inclusive classrooms. I have
read Paula Kluth's many books on teaching students with Autism. I can
now follow her Twitters as well. I have also been led to new experts
through following here Twitters. Within one week of beginning my
concentrated efforts with Twitter, I already feel that I have such an
amazing wealth of resources. I have also gained two followers on
Twitter as a result of my PLN Network on Diigo.
Om
July 24th 2012, at 9:00 a.m., I participated in my first Twitter chat.
#edchat is a site where thousands of people in the education field
elect a topic of the day. Once the topic has been voted on by the
participants, a continual stream of Tweets, begins. The topic during
my experience was on the value and sustainability of PLN's. At first, I
was overwhelmed with the speed of the posts. I saw comments that I
wanted to expand upon but they were replaced in a flash by more wealths
of knowledge. As information sped by, I began to write down the names
of people that I saw frequently or whose Tweet contained a link to an
article that I was interested in. Many of the people I chose to follow
on Twitter and Diigo, came from "lurking" on the #edchat stream. Tom
Whitby appeared several times in the discussion and so I added hi to
both my Twitter following and my Diigo network.
Diigo
is a social networking and bookmarking site that I also utilize in an
effort to build my PLN. Upon registering to the site, Diigo lets me tag
things of interest that I find as I am searching the internet. It then
categorizes them into a "tag roll" based on the title that I give it.
In this way, I am able to build a library of resources. in addition,
Diigo allows me to connect with other people who are Diigo to add to my
network. When I come across an article on the internet that I like and
want to keep it as a resource, I can bookmark it and tag it. I can also
add the author to my network or look up the author in the network
search engine and decide if I would like to follow that person based on
their profile and their subject tags as well. Tero Toriavan, for
example is one of the people I have chosen to follow in my network. He
is a special education specialist with an emphasis on Autism. I found
him when I clicked on Paula White's Diigo network page. I had found her
from the #edchat, looked her up on Diigo and when I clicked to follow
her, a whole range of other people from her PLN opened up to me.
Danielle Klaus was another person I chose to follow because I found her
profile to suggest she was knowledgable in the subject of education
technology and adding her would be a good part of accessing resources
and ideas to implement more technology in to my classroom. Also, her
PLN offered lots of people who could help me with my overall
professional development and to provide future trainings and development
with my staff and students.
The final social
networking site I utilize in an effort to build my PLN is " The
Educators PLN" website. This site is another overwhelmingly awesome
source for building relationships and ideas for my classroom. Once
again, as with the information rich Twitter and Diigo, I will also
utilize this site in helping me create professional development
presentations to help forward the thinking at my school site. My PLN
offers me hope with its ability to offer me fresh ideas and perspectives
practically every time I choose to access it. As I become more
proficient, I would love to incorporate myself more as a contributor
rather than an observer. What I find myself doing is starting one blog
or video, and then from that I get linked into something else, which
introduces me to someone else. I feel that it can go on to infinity. I
guess that one of my future goals will be to better navigate all this
beneficial information and collaboration. One blog Mrs Keehners Blog,
has become my current favorite. Her blog offers millions of references,
articles, sites and professionals into the topic of differentiation in
learning and incorporating Web2.0 tools. Her blog has given me so many
great ideas that I can't wait to start the year. I will be co-teaching
with an 8th grade language arts teacher this year and I would love to
encourage my teaching partner to participate with me in the blog chats
regarding our daily co-teaching experiences. I found a few people on
the site who shared negative stories and I know that my partner and I
will be able to show a different perspective. Once I become more
comfortable myself, I would like to collaborate with some educators from
my school site to create our own PLN. Maybe even students too!
A few of the sites that I selected to tag PLN include:
Assistive
Kids Together, Inc. www. kids together.org/at
I chose this site because there are so many articles related to
promoting moderate/severe students into the classrooms learning with
their like peers and how assistive and adaptive technologies can be used
to help. I am passionate on this subject
Another site
that I tagged in my Diigo PLN is
Mrs.Kheener's Blog
I especially appreciated and want to research more into all her listed
resources on differentiating instruction using Web 2.0. This is the
area where I set my professional goal for this coming school year.
One
last site I chose is educators technology.com because I want to
continue to research their articles on web tools for the classroom.
No comments:
Post a Comment