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| Gerd Altmann |
This week I am looking at my own skills, learning and my PLN. I'll look at where I am now, where I hope to go during my time in LIBE 477 and beyond.
What is a PLN?
Educators are building networks, called PLN's, to help each other learn and share resources. It seems like the main benefit of building a PLN is that these connections between educators are useful for professional development. PLN's help keep you up to date with new technologies and ideas. This video gives a good overview of what a PLN is.
Where I Am Now
Currently, I am in the classroom teaching grade 4. At the moment my PLN is mostly face to face and I've only dipped a toe into digital PLN's. On my own, I have persued professional development in the form of: 1) Blogs 2) professional books recommended by other teachers. 3) School Book Clubs 4) Conferences and Workshops 5) Conversations and sharing with colleagues.
Where I Am Heading
It’s easier than ever to personalize your own professional development. There are so many educators around the world who have similar interests and who are sharing their experiences and resources online. As I think about this course and beyond, I realize that there is just too much to know. As a teacher librarian I think that knowing what is available for teachers in your school is important, but so is knowing where to find the information you need when you don't know the answer to their questions. The latter seems to be where a PLN comes in. I would like to stretch my professional self in 3 areas: Skill Development, Building My PLN, Using My PLN.
1) Skill Development: Makerspaces and Twitter
A. Makerspaces
I am interested in Makerspaces since our school has a small room which has been turned into a basic makerspace and few teachers are using it (me included). Makerspaces are proven to have positive effects on growth mindset (Vongkulluksn et al. 2021) which has been a focus in my classroom this year. I have found John Spencers website and Youtube channel to be an excellent resource on how to get a makerspace going and the pedagogy behind them. He states that makerspaces have many benefits for students living and working in the 21st century and should be part of every classroom.
B. Twitter
I am also interested in learning more about Twitter. I am not comfortable with Twitter yet and need to spend some time learning about it. Many sources (such as this post from CommonSense Media) consider Twitter an excellent way to connect teachers with other teachers all over the world.
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| Sylvia Duckworth |
Also, Nochumson (2018) found in their study that twitter was effective in teacher professional development. I found a beginners guide to Twitter to help get me started.
When I first began this blog post, I considered Twitter as a way to connect with educators and find ideas and resources. I had a consumer mindset. However, as Alec Courous points out in this video on how to use twitter effectively in education, Twitter isn't just for finding ideas, but for developing them too.
2) Growing My PLN
My current digital PLN is limited - I am a consumer not a creator or communicator, but I am hoping to work towards that. Some steps that I would like to take are:
A. Build My Twitter Feed
Edublogs has a good list of educators to follow on Twitter. The list is midway in the post.
B. Add to Feedly
Since beginning this course I have found and followed additional blogs that I have found while looking for information on my current interests. Makerspaces are a current interest of mine so I have added John Spencer's blog and YouTube channel. I recently found the Daring Librarian blog as well. I found a long list of teacher librarian blogs from Teach Thought to pursue, further diversifying my feed.
C. Share and Create
So while I follow and read lots of posts and articles, I am mostly a consumer within my digital PLN. I hope to move on and create content and communicate within my PLN. I made my first steps by sharing my reading progress log which incorporates ideas from growth mindset as well as commenting on some colleagues blogs recently.
3) Using My PLN
If I hope to maintain the PLN that I am currently building, I think I have to use it. I need to ask for recommendations on Twitter, retweet, reply, share and comment. Also, comment on the blog posts that resonate with me. The goal is to make using my PLN a habit so that it becomes part of my routine.
Your Turn
How can I further build my PLN? Do you have blogs or educators you can recommend for me to follow?
Works Cited:
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ReplyDeleteTina, thank you for sharing your learning journey with us. I have also tried to think of ways to connect to the global world and I love your ideas. The video on how to use twitter more efficiently and effectively as an educator was quite interesting. As for who I follow, I love Pernille Ripp and I follow psychologist Jody Carrington. Both of these ladies have helped me through this last year of pandemic and they are just awesome to read and listen to!
ReplyDeleteWell done overview and tour through your exisiting structures and feeds, as well as plans and goals going forward. You did a good job describing the current usage and "lurking" in your PLN and how you want to evolve that as you gather more knowledge and awareness and begin interacting more with your PLN. Twitter lists are a great way to find many like minded educators and T-Ls. I have a few lists on my twitter account you might find useful. https://twitter.com/aaronmueller/lists
ReplyDeleteOverall, a good tour and recommendations, as well as rationale and purpose of a PLN!
Hi Tina!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your learning process with me! I appreciate all of the externals links and tips and tricks that you have shared; looks like your PLN is off to a great start! I took a look at the list of people to follow that you suggested and followed a few; I was also pleased to see that I was already following one (Tony Vincent). A few that I follow are: Radio EDUtalk (@EDUtalkr), edutopia (@edutopia), TED-Ed (@TED-Ed), and may I also suggest your local school district and public library. For PEI, I follow Education PEI (@EducationPEI) and PEI Public Library (@PEILibrary).
-Chevon
DeleteThank you for your post. I had never thought of my Twitter use as either a consumer or a creator before I read your blog. I think there is a role for both of these ways of being on social media. If you share what you are doing you create conversation and hopefully inspire others, but as you follow more teachers you will inevitably benefit in the same way as you see ideas that are new to you. My favourite handles to follow can be found on my Blog post if you are interested in looking them up. Alternatively, you can always follow me at @llsuzll :)
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