Journal #7: My Personal Learning Network

As a future educator it is important that I begin to develop my Personal Learning Network in order to excel in the profession. A Personal Learning Network or PLN is a series of connections made in order to share, discuss, and develop ideas for education. PLNs used to be limited due to it being constricted to people such as co-workers, administrators, and people met while at events such as conferences. Today PLNs have greatly expanded since technology allows interconnection with people around the world by using tools such as Twitter, Diigo, and PLN forums.

Twitter is a Internet-based social media which allows users to view comments and post their own related to what they are doing or thinking about. On it, I am following people or organizations of my choosing in order to expand my PLN. Currently, I am following a large group of my peers and professor in order to improve my classroom experience. I have also been adding other users to my list. Most of these users are teachers or professors from around the country and some are organizations that promote the growth of the profession. By following these people I am able to understand different viewpoints held throughout the United States and grow from them.One of the most beneficial aspects of Twitter is the ability to enter into discussions with people around the world in real time in order to discuss a specific topic, which I use for educational purposes. I took part in the #edchat discussion on Tuesday, April 3rd at 9am PST. The discussion topic for that meeting was what it takes to make a good administrator. Most of the people doing the talking were teachers and administrators.  It was clear that people involved with the chat had many different viewpoints on the matter. Though many aspects of this topic were discussed the biggest one was trying to find the balance between business and education. From what I gathered administrators are stuck in a situation where they need to not only ensure students are gaining a proper education they must also maintain stability and functionality of the school.  I found the discussion to be interesting and enlightening, but at times it was a bit overbearing with new comments and information streaming in extremely fast at times. I believe that such chats are beneficial to my PLN because of the rich information being presented as well as allowing me to connect with others on a near instantaneous level

Diigo is by far the PLN tool that I enjoy the most. Diigo is a web-based social-bookmarking tool which allows me to create a personal library of bookmarks that I can access from any device worldwide (assuming it has Internet connection). Not only can I view my own bookmarks I can also view those of other users. This is beneficial to me as a History major since it allows me to perform research in a much more efficient manner. I can see what others have found in order to supplement my own findings as well as establish a base of understanding when struggling to understand a specific topic. To help develop my PLN I have tagged some members of the Diigo community. The people I chose to follow relate to the subjects of history, education, technology, government or the blending of them. These people were Mr. Rice, Mr. Peterson, Mr. Evans, Mr. Maher, Miss Danner-Kuhn and Miss Jensen. All of them were related to education either as a teacher or as a an administrator.  To help making finding out what a bookmark is about you can select tags that can be used for reference points and can right a short summary of the site or article to accompany the tags. Also you can highlight sections of the source so when you open it at a later time you know exactly where you were looking for important information. The articles I marked with PLN were four blogs called My Island View, History is Elementary, 2cent Worth, and Internet Time Blog. These blogs, like the people I followed. All reflect my interests in history, education, or technology and provide information I found beneficial To benefit myself as a future educator I have bookmarked blogs written by others that have information relevant to education and/or technology.

The final tool I used to expand my PLN was a Digital Discussion Forum. The one I chose to join was the Educator's PLN. This forum is a place for current, past, and potential educators to come together and discuss and share information concerning the profession. As a future educator I found that, at this time, this Forum had the most desirable information for me. While on the Educator's PLN website I viewed an Article entitled "Cellphones are a Distraction." I found this article interesting because it is something I see on a daily basis even at a University. Students are constantly texting throughout the class and are at times even walking out to take a personal call. The writer also discusses how this distraction can also be beneficial to the student if they use it for academic goals such as taking a picture of the work-board or recording the class. The problem I see with phone, specifically smartphones, is there is no control over what the student is doing with it. This is pointed out by the writer and he presents an interesting idea of teaching students how to properly use these devices while in class.