Personal Learning Network (PLN)

PLN

1.                  PLN stands for Personal Learning Networks, these learning networks help you get the information you need from various sources online. In today’s growing technology world, everybody needs to get familiar with technology to help us get through the working days. PLN’s can help me as a future educator because I can communicate with as many people as I run into depending which Network I use. So If I have a question about a certain topic, I can turn to my PLN’s for assistance.

RSS

2.          RSS Feeds really surprised me! I have always heard of them and have always seen them on sites, but never have I imagined I’d be using them one day. I was doing what I thought I was never going to do: Hesitation. Maybe because I didn’t quite understand them, or because I was a little scared of trying it out. Now I must say I really enjoy them because they are quick links for news that catch my attention. One of the feeds I subscribed to was North Count Transit District because I ride the bus everyday to school and I definitely want to know of any major changes to routes in my area. Another RSS feed I subscribed to was Channel 10 news. I always watch the news every single night because I like to be aware of what is going on in my world, and the RSS feed really helps with bringing breaking news fast. The third is Newgrounds, this is a site I use solely for entertainment with music. Music is my life and whenever there is a new uploaded song, I can immediately get the latest audio on my blog.

Twitter

3.                  Twitter is by far my most favorite tool of them all. I have had a twitter for about 2 years now and I have met so many great and fun individuals. I use my twitter to post quotes and lyrics and other stuff that ppl can relate too. I have over 2,000 followers and still growing. I also like twitter the most because I learn about news worthy information on Twitter than I do in almost any other site, whenever an event happens, it immediately goes to the “trending topics” or “TT” for short. Along with this, I can also interact with strangers easily about the issues and other subjects. Overall twitter is my #1 tool. People I follow include news Anchors, some of my favorite celebrities, and my schools as well, in case they announce something that I need to know.

Diigo

4.                  Diigo is a new tool for me and I really like it so far. I love the idea that you can highlight and book mark pages easily, which saves a lot of space because I have so many bookmarks saved on my computer and I am always going through each of them to find what I am looking for. Diigo helps me because I can use it mainly for educational purposes, also I can add people into my group that match my interest in education. In my Diigo bookmarks, I have a lot of things having to do with elementary school, from science, to games, and videos, all with educational purposes of course. This will really come in handy because I can go back whenever I need ideas and see what I can use to incorporate into my classroom.

Digital Discussion

5.                  There were many forums out there dealing with education, one I really looked into was Classroom 2.0, I really loved that you can find discussions based on topics, like “Google” & “Mapping” & “Presentation”. This site also has groups of individuals who are interested in certain topics, like Math and Testing. I will definitely look into it more to see what I can learn about music and see if there are other teachers who teach music. Another site I checked out was “Art Hobby Craft Creative Network” (http://arthobbycrafts.ning.com/) I am really interested in arts & crafts because I think children learn best with hands-on activities, and I am definitely a creative individual who wants to bring fun into the classroom. I found really good tutorials for painting acrylic art with kids, and making necklaces with seasonal holiday themes. I cannot wait to see what else I uncover and to input my own creative ideas.

PLN Experience

6.         Overall I really enjoyed discovering different networks that can help me in the future as an educator, and I am really going to need the help, mainly because I am an open minded individual who always wants to get  to know more information out there as much as possible. From all the PLN’s, I really liked Diigo because I was able to bookmark a lot of great sites that can help me incorporate many different lessons and ideas into the classroom that I know will benefit my students educationally. Another that I really liked were the RSS feed, even though I was intimidated at first, in the end I came to really like this feature because it brings everything I need to know to one location where I can easily access it. The third PLN I enjoyed was Twitter, mainly because I have had great experiences with it. I know that not many people will like twitter at first , but that is because they are just starting out, when I first started with Twitter, I too was pretty bored with it because I didn’t really knew much about it, but in given time, it because a really fun and addictive Tool I use everyday.