If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.
You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!
Personal learning networks are
- a group of people who can guide your learning, point you to learning opportunities, answer your questions, and give you the benefit of their own knowledge and experience... to provide us not only with pointers to sources of information, but to answer questions, to coach us, to reinforce our learning when we try to apply it to our work. - Daniel R. Tobin
Objectives
by the end of the workshop you will
be prepared to develop your own PLN
be able to integrate RETA, NMSTE, and other organizations into your PLN
understand how to organize / access your PLN in a way that is effecctive for you (pt. 2 of the workshop)
NETS for Teachers
1d. model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in f2f and virtual environments
2b. develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiousitys and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress.
3d. model and facilitate effective use of currentl and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning.
5a. participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning.
Tech Requirements
Computer w/ Internet connection
Activities, PLN Part 1 (1.5 hours)
Being a 21st century educator requires an understanding of your personal learning network. These activities will provide a fast paced tour of PLN tools and strategies. This will enhance your experience online and further strengthen your ties to RETA, NMSTE and other learning communities, in NM and beyond.
PLN discussion - what is it? why is it important? why is this different?
Personal - it's all about you; your interests/needs/goals/methods... it should be a system that works for you and, while others may have good suggestions for getting started, it really is a system that you'll have to develop over time (and that will change over time too!!)
Learning - the info and ideas that improve your knowledge and understanding... have some learning/professional/personal goals but also throw in random stuff because you never know when that spark of genius will strike
Network - your group of people, accessed via your methods... and, depending upon your PLN style, the ideas grouped and regrouped in different ways.
We Follow - General Directory of Twitter users by interest area
Twitter Edu - A listing of a variety of useful Twitter accounts which may be useful for educators
Extend your PLN graphic to integrate any new information.
Activities, PLN Part 2 (1.5 hours)
Further develop and enhance your PLNs in this set of activities focused on discussion of learning strategies and support for individual exploration of your PLN.
Expanding Your PLN
It's actually pretty easy to increase your PLN without trying too hard but a few tips and ideas certainly wouldn't hurt. Just remember - on the web, it's easier than ever to get a lopsided perspective (e.g. only following people who espouse ideas you agree with) but it's also easier than ever to purposefully include "rogue agents" (e.g. those who hold oposite ideas) into your PLN.
Twitter users
The people you follow also follow folks. See who they follow and become a follower.
FriendFeed - search for people in your contacts (gmail, yahoo, twitter, etc) who have a FriendFeed (more on FriendFeed in the Organizing Your PLN activity)
Organizing your PLN requites some understanding of RSS Feeds. If you're new to the concept of RSS, check out this Introduction to RSS feeds and RSS Readers. Of course, if you know about RSS, then skip ahead to next activity.
Organize Your PLN
With all the information coming at you from all those great people via all those wonderful technology channels, you're likely to start feeling quite overwhelmed. So, let's take some time to review some strategies that will save your sanity! ;)
RETA FriendFeed - RETA started a FriendFeed to make it easier for people to follow all the info they post from various places (twitter, blog, web site, etc.)
Bethany's FriendFeed - you can subscribe to my friendfeed to put me in your PLN. And, once you create a FriendFeed account, I can add you to my PLN.
As we mentioned earlier - It's not just about the technology or the people, it's aboutinformation literacy. More than ever, your students will need have to be able to determine the accuracy and veracity of the info coming at them from their PLNs.
Discuss strategies for helping students create a PLN and add those strategies to this wiki.
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.