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I love my Personal Learning Network because it allows me to easily access information that will be valuable for my profession. One of my favorite tools that I have obtained access to through this course is my RSS feed. I am currently using Bloglines and I couldn't be more satisfied with it. Using this technology allows me to quickly see if anyone that I am following has posted new information. This way I do not waste time searching every blog that I follow to see if new information has been added. One of the features of blogger that I really enjoy is having the ability to put the different blogs that I follow into categorical folders. This way, if I know that I only want to look at blogs related to social studies learning, I can click on that folder and focus on those specific blogs. My RSS feed does not limit me to professional information, but also allows me to follow blogs that fall within my non-academic interests such as sports or deafness.
I have tried to give Twitter a chance, and I do like that everything on twitter is very concise. Therefore I can search through different feeds until I find something that appeals to me. I can then look further into it if there is an article that is tagged within the post. However, I can't get myself into the habit of checking it like I do with my rss feed. I tried to post at least a few times a week during the first half of this course, but I have a hard time because I am longwinded and so I have to constantly think about how I can shorten my message. Over time, I have posted less and less on Twitter and instead posted more on my blog instead because my blog allows me to write as much as I want in one post. Therefore, I don't think that Twitter is something that I will use in the future, after this course.
Overall, I think that developing a Personal Learning Network has really helped me to figure out where to go when I want to find specific types of information. Now, I have a network of colleges, and I feel as though I have sorted through some of the blogs that I didn't like as well, to really find the ones that were the most helpful to me. I can now find information on specific topics more quickly and easily than I have ever been able to in the past.
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ReplyDeleteI really agree with you! PLN's are great! It makes searching for information much easier and less hectic. I am so glad that we were able to learn how to use them in our class!
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving!
I am really glad that we have been learning about them as well. Without taking this class, I never would have thought to use places on the internet like blogs or Twitter as professional resources. i thought that they were merely a form of social media.
ReplyDeleteHappy Thanksgiving to you too! See you Tuesday!
Completely agree with you both! The other day someone came to visit a course of mine and saw that I was making a webpage for a particular project and she immediately began talking technology with me and I found myself telling her about all the different tools i have learned about that i would have never discovered on my own...she seemed really interested in the conversation and I was too! (it was nice to actually be able to engage in a tech convo seeing as i could have never done that before this course!
ReplyDeleteOur PLN's are extremely important resources for us as teachers. The internet is an extremely vast world and without our PLN I think that it would be even more difficult to find reliable sources and ideas. PLN's definitatly have a huge spot in my technological world now too!
ReplyDeleteI really like our PLN's too. I like using RSS feed a lot because it keeps you up-to-date on things you're interested in and you don't have to spend time searching for information. I also like that you can put everything in categorical folders. I have used this tool and it makes things much easier. I don't have to search for specific blogs because they are organized in folders already. I have really enjoyed developing our PLN's and I plan on using them in the future.
ReplyDeleteI really like our PLN's also! I think that all teachers should have one and I have talked to my mom about building one. It allows you to keep so much information and to connect with others to share ideas. I think that it is important to not get stuck as a teacher doing the same thing over and over. By having a PLN you open yourself to new ideas and ways to do things and it keeps you up to date.
ReplyDeleteDarcie,
ReplyDeleteI love that now I can knowledgeably talk about about technology with other people. In fact, just the other day, I had a similar experience with one of my colleagues. She said that she was looking up some information about the Deaf Education program on Google and she came across my blog posts about deaf education.
Abby,
I completely agree that my PLN allows me to find reliable information on the web!
Breanne,
I love that my PLN keeps me up to date on everything that I am interested in. I also love that the setup is such that I can locate whatever I am looking for almost instantly.
Guiliana,
I completely agree with you> I think that having a PLN would be a useful resource for any teacher, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone in my cohort or any of the teachers that I work with.