Journal 7: My Personal Learning Network

A Personal Learning Network, also referred to as a PLN, is a way for learners to derive knowledge from people associated with a particular topic they plan on learning about through networking devices. Personal Learning Networks help students, teachers, and other learners grow in knowledge by sharing their current knowledge and resources with each other. In creating my PLN, I interacted with others related to education through sites like Twitter, Diigo, and a PLN site called, "The Educator's PLN." These resources will help me as a future teacher by creating an educational bridge between more experienced educators and myself, hopefully opening up the door to many useful resources that will help me to be a successful educator.

Twitter, an online social networking site, uses posts consisting of 140 characters or less to share resources, messages, and to connect with others. I have been using twitter as an educational tool to build connections with other educators and students interested in similar topics and to gain knowledge and resources from who I'm "following." I have also been using twitter to post interesting articles and links I think may be useful to my fellow classmates as well as other teachers out there. I chose to follow Carolgau, NMHS_Principal, Javafest, Farzindunning, and ChereeMcKean. All of these twitter users are educators interested in the advancement of technology in our education system. Most of them are also middle school teachers which is the grade level I am interested in. One of them is a Principal and I chose him because I wanted to see education from an administrators perspective. Twitter is not only a way to connect but it is a way to get active and participate by joining in on educational chats. My first chat occurred on October 27th at 8:30pm with #6thchat. This group is for 6th grade teachers who are looking for new ideas in the classroom, and to discuss various topics that reflect issues surrounding the 6th grade level. During my experience in the chat, these 6th grade teachers discussed many topics from books and helpful resources in regards to lesson plans for criteria in 6th grade to events happening at their schools to requests for qualified classroom and student teachers for grade 6. I found this chat to be a fantastic resource for 6th grade teachers! It was amazing how everyone seemed to know each other, even though it was just through a social networking site. They even welcomed new teachers via tweet into their chat.

Diigo is a social bookmarking website which allows people to bookmark and tag their favorite pages on websites. I am currently using Diigo to follow other Diigo users and view their tagged sites in hopes of building educational knowledge from their resources. I am following Angela Maiers because she has been a teacher for many years and specifically works in literacy for children. I thought she would be helpful with ELL students which I know I will have in my future classroom. I am following Christina Freitas because she did her undergrad in Psychology (just like me) and has her multiple subjects credential from USD. She is currently working on her master's in education and I thought she would have a lot of current information regarding education. I am following Nikki Robertson because she is passionate about new technologies and applying them to the classroom which will be useful once I become a teacher. I am following Tim Lauer because he is a Principal and like I had previously stated, it is nice to see what our administrators are putting out there into the social networking world and what resources they have to offer. Lastly, I am following Tom Whitby because he founded #edchat as well as The Educator's PLN so he is an amazing source of knowledge regarding education. On my Diigo site I tagged Building a PLN, The Educator's PLN, The Innovative Educator, PLN: Your Personal Learning Network made easy, and Personal Learning Networks are Virtual Lockers for Schoolkids. I bookmarked these sites with the PLN tag because they all shared ways in which to encompass your PLN into your educational plans for the classroom. They gave tips on starting your PLN, building it, and then helping it to grow.

I joined the Educator's PLN, a digital discussion forum aimed at supporting PLN's for educators. After doing so, I posted a badge for the website onto my blog. I did this so that my fellow students may click on my link and expand their PLN through my networking. On the Educator's PLN website, I read a blog post entitled, "iPod touch/ iPad Integration with School Administration Software" by Dov Emerson. This post discussed the idea of integrating the iPad with school management software and "Power School" in order to have easy access to student records, write reports, and input notes and observations quickly. Emerson talked about possibly creating an app for this. He had many people respond who liked the idea and gave feedback on how to go about doing this. I liked how Emerson integrated technology into a part of education that no one a couple years back would have ever thought possible. It's nice to see administration trying to find innovative ideas in technology relating to education.

Journal #4

“It’s in the Bag” (NETS-T 1,2&3)

Basham, J. D., Perry, E., & Meyer, H. (2011). It’s in the bag. Learning and Leading with Technology, 39(2), 24-25. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-september-october-2011.aspx

Summary: This article discussed the concept of a digital backpack. A digital backpack is just that: a backpack filled with digital tools that your students can use in order to enhance their digital experience. There are three types of learning devices found in these backpacks: foundational technology, modular technology, and instructional support materials. Most teachers overlook the importance of instructional support materials, which in reality is deemed most important. The article goes on to discuss an example of using digital backpacks for elementary, middle school, and high school and gives a lesson plan for each level. The digital backpack provides a great method for engaging students across different content areas.

Q1. How would you use a digital backpack in your classroom?

A1. I would use a digital backpack in order to enhance the learning experience in the classroom. I really liked the example given in the article for elementary level students, where they took a field trip to the zoo with their digital backpacks. They were instructed to design a way in which to make the zoo more kid friendly. I think incorporating technology into fun and interesting lesson plans engages the kids and encourages them to learn how to use these devices.

Q2. How are you going to overcome technological obstacles when it comes to getting comfortable using digital tools inside a digital backpack?

A2. I would take my issues and concerns to my PLN on twitter and ask advice and seek to find resources that they may be willing to share that will increase my knowledge of how to use these tools. 

Journal #3

“Students Dig up Dirt to Learn about Internet Safety” (NETS-T 4)

Morehouse, J. (2011). Students dig up dirt to learn about internet safety. Learning and Leading with Technology, 39(2), 34-35. Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20110910?pg=36

Summary: This article was about internet safety and how much of your personal information is easy access to the average web user. The author goes into detail of a lesson plan involving data mining. In this exercise, students try to “dig up dirt” on their teacher using the internet. Later, they select an individual (complete stranger) over a social networking site from another town and try to find out as much information as possible about them. Most students found way more information than expected. At the end of the lesson, the teacher had them sign into their Facebook accounts and showed them how to change their privacy settings. He gave them an option right then and there to change whatever they wanted, and everybody did. It was a great lesson on not realizing how much you are putting out there for the world to see when you use sites like Facebook.

Q1. How are you going to prevent your students from “digging up dirt” on your private life?

A1. It is student nature to try to dig up dirt on their teachers. They will try to find anything they possibly can that may come across as controversial or unexpected by a teacher. The important thing to note is that when you become a professional, all of your online social networks have to then become professional as well. Having a private Facebook that cannot be accessed by anyone who is not your “friend” is one way. For me, I am too skeptical of that. I have way to much faith in the technological skills of the students and feel that you should never put anything on the internet that you don’t expect your boss to see. That is my rule of thumb, whether it is “private” or not.

Q2. Would you ever implement a lesson plan about data mining?

A2. I found this lesson plan to be quite entertaining. It got the message across to the students in a way that they could understand and relate to. That is important when dealing with issues that don’t seem like a threat to the student. You want them to see it from an outside perspective looking in. This lesson does that. However, I am not quite sure I feel comfortable prying into innocent user’s Facebooks. I am old school like that. 

Journal #2: “Join The Flock/Enhance Your Twitter Experience”

“Join The Flock” (NETS-T 1&3)

Ferguson, H. (2010). Join the flock. Learning and Leading with Technology, 37(8), 12-15. Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20100607?pg=14&pm=2&fs=1#pg14

Summary: This article discussed the many benefits of joining the social networking site Twitter and how beneficial developing a PLN can be to your learning and teaching experience. The author goes over the major steps in order to develop your PLN. First, start with creating a twitter account. This is necessary in order to communicate with your fellow teachers. Second, learn how to follow someone. For teachers, you would want to make sure you are following other teachers out there that may share beneficial knowledge with you on subjects you are interested in. He also discusses the process of exposing yourself on twitter. He suggests that you share your knowledge on twitter so that other teachers can benefit from your knowledge as well, not just you from theirs. Last but not least, don’t forget to tag your tweet!

Q1. From a teaching standpoint, how do you see yourself using twitter as it pertains to the classroom?

A1.  First off, there are many useful aspects of twitter for educators. Getting yourself connected with other teachers is an easy way to seek help and easy access to many useful resources. It also helps you to see other teacher’s progress and help when they are in need of assistance. Before twitter, most teachers did everything alone. Now they don’t have to.

“Enhance Your Twitter Experience”

McClintock, S. (2010). Enhance your twitter experience. Learning and Leading with Technology, 37(8), 14-17. Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20100607?pg=16&pm=2&fs=1#pg16

Summary: This article took a more in depth look into what to do once you’ve created your PLN. It gave great advice to expose yourself and make comments on others good ideas such as, “Yes!” or “Love it!” before you retweet it. That way, you can make yourself known and enter into the conversation. It also spoke about twitter terminology and to familiarize yourself with twitter terms.

Q2. How could you see yourself benefitting others using twitter?

A2. Once I am a teacher, I plan on using twitter to look for advice on great lesson plans and ideas on resources for the classroom. I will benefit others when I create my own lesson plans and expose myself on twitter and share them with my fellow educators. 

Technology Assessment: School 2.0

School 2.0/Tech Self-Assessment (NETS-T 2) I used the School 2.0 website, an online resource for teachers who need extra resources for their NETS standards, to self-assess my knowledge on the NETS standards for teachers. This assignment was used to students with a way to use multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching.

During my technology assessment I found I needed extra help in NETS-T number 3, “Model digital-age work and learning.” In order to improve my skills I read, “Grow Your Personal Learning Network” by David Warlick. I chose this skill to improve on because I am going into elementary level teaching and technology is definitely less prevalent at that level. Assignments are mostly done using worksheets and projects with markers and paper. I am hoping to come into the classroom with fresh ideas and ways in which to implement technology into lesson plans. In the article I read, Warlick discusses PLNs as a great tool for the classroom. He talks about how having these resources opens up so many doors for educational tools that we didn’t have even just a few years ago. He also discusses the different types of PLNs including two PLNs that connect us with each other (these include things like ichat, twitter, facebook, skype) and the next kind of PLN connects us with content (such as youtube, teachertube, google reader). All of these types of PLNs connect us to our students, other teachers and the world around us. It helps us to develop an understanding of how to search for resources that can be used in our classrooms to help improve students learning. This made me feel a lot better about using technology in the classroom because it made me realize that using technology does not always have to be so confusing, it can be fun too!