Blog Assignment #6

Personal Learning Networks (PLNs)

A Personal Learning Network is basically a global network of educators and other professionals that can help you throughout your career. It is a space where people can collaborate ideas and share information through Twitter, blogs, and other social sites. As we learned previously in this class, teachers have to be learners. Through this network, we are able to connect with people we can learn from so we can become better teachers. As Steven Anderson said in Building Your PLN- A Primer for Anyone teachers do not have to know everything, or feel like they have to know everything. (Just as Dr. Strange always says, "I Don't Know. Let's Find Out.") They are able to ask the other people in their network to get the best and most well-informed answer. Michael Fawcett pointed out in PLN- Michael Fawcett (@TeacherNZ) Offers His Insights, a student in his classroom wanted to know the exact time Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon. Fawcett tweeted out the question, and NASA replied in about thirty minutes! I would say that is a pretty well-informed answer! I think this could become extremely useful to me as an elementary educator especially. Younger children have the thirst for knowledge and are apt to ask as many questions as possible. Me not knowing the answer is bound to happen more than once, and I can use my PLN to give them the best answer.

PLNs are formed by subscribing to different information, such as conversations on blogs, etc., that intrigues you or what you are currently studying. After seeing the video Welcome to My PLE, I decided to check out Symbaloo. I absolutely love this way of organization. As the 7th grader said in the video, she is able to construct her page in such a way where all of her school resources are together and all of her social media sites are together. I think this is a great idea and can help students stay on task. Especially if they are like me and as soon as they log onto the internet they type in Facebook without even thinking about it. Although I have gotten better about it (mostly because of this class), it still happens from time to time.

To create my own PLN, I will definitely be using Symbaloo and Delicious. The first people I will probably add are Dr. Strange, along with other teachers I will have throughout the education program at the University of South Alabama (such as Dr. Vitulli). I will also add some of my elementary school teachers if they are education-based active on blogs or Twitter. I will also add the teachers I have been assigned to for C4T assignments along with other teachers that are elementary education centered. The last group of people added will be people that I find on the internet that talk/ write about my future profession that I could find useful later on when I start my teaching career.

Personal Learning Networks seem as though they can be extremely helpful, even for those teachers that have been teaching for years. I know I will find it especially useful as a new teacher, and maybe even as I am continuing my education through the University.

Thanks for reading!

Jennah Rose