My Personal Learning Network consists of many valuable resources that sort of confused me at first, but now that I am getting the hang of them it actually makes my life a lot easier. I use skype, Twitter, Diigo, Facebook, and blogging to get resources from other educators. Mind you I have just begun, so my posts are minimal. I am still in the stage of just browsing what other people can offer. As I browse others' opinions and resources, it gives me a better understanding what what I enjoy, feel, and would like to use during my educational journey. When we had the assignment to sign up for Twitter, and our professor, Jeff Heil stated that Twitter was the single most informative educational social network he has, I honestly sort of didn't believe him. I was (and still kind of am) under the impression that Twitter was just for celebrities to talk about things they are doing all day long, and people who are bored just follow them during their daily routine. I thought Twitter was just another form of Facebook, just 140 characters long. Just another place to shout out your business!
With this mindset, it was hard for me to want to participate in an educational chat. I participated in Socal Media Club Education Connection (#smcedu) at 12:30pm, 4/11/11, and found their views on trying to create a news model for the US with higher technology incredibly honorable. Although they are small voices just tweeting about this subject, they had some pretty powerful things to say in 140 characters or less! The chat made me realize that "The news will never make the kind of money entertainment makes." Their words were powerful and made me feel like I was participating in something way bigger than me. I guess Twitter isn't so bad after all! I am now following a few friends, but mostly other people in my class on Twitter. I have still kept my following in Twitter limited because I am new to who I really want to follow. It's still hard for me to follow people on Twitter because I feel strange "following" someone that I have never met, but hopefully I will get more acquainted with Twitter and become followers of many!
Diigo as a networking use was kind of odd to me at first too. I thought it was just a really cool way to save pages that you like so you don't always have to be on your computer's "bookmarks" to find them. Little did I know that there is yet ANOTHER place where people are tagging things, following each other, and sharing information. I tagged a really cool website where someone posted his "Top 10 Educational Videos" (and I also followed him), I tagged random educator's blogs that stood out to me (Cool Cat Teacher, Teacher's Teaching Teachers), and lastly I tagged a People to People International Youtube channel (because of my obsession with everything international). I am networking on Diigo by following these people with the same interests as me, with hopes that I can share some of my information to them also. These things stood out to me, and they also link to other resources...creating my PLN one step at a time.
Finally, I joined the Educator's PLN. I watched an AMAZING video that someone posted about reading vs. understanding. I found it so amazing I will also post it here. If you're anyone interested in 10 minutes of wow, just watch this! Simple, to the point, and powerful.
Okay, okay, Professor Heil I get it. I am starting to understand the great uses of technology and sharing of information. I thought this video was so awesome it made me want to make one myself, and to also explore what other ideas are in educator's heads. I'm excited to see what my PLN can do for me, and what I can do for my PLN!
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