PLN

I found this class to be incredibly helpful in developing ideas to add to my personal learning network.  I wouldn't have even known what a PLN was if it had not been for this course.  I liked the fact that we could experiment with different forms of media, and then apply those to our own classrooms.  Personally, I think some of the most useful web 2.0 tools have been:

• Blogs (an excellent way to connect your classroom to parents and the community, as well as an unique idea for allowing students to express themselves)
• RSS Feeds (a convenient way to keep up to date on updates to my favorite blogs and sites)
• Wikis (a digital way for students to collaborate and a solution to my overcrowded hard drive!)
• Concept Mapping (a way to for students to organize and graphically represent their ideas)
• Image/Video Sharing (students are able to bring visual elements to learning)
• Online Polling (a great way to seek input from students, parents, colleagues, etc)
• Googleeverything! (Google is pretty much blowing my mind... the possibilities for incorporating these applications into our classrooms is endless - from googledocs to googlemaps...)

There were some Web 2.0 tools that weren't as useful in my opinion, but I'm really glad I had the chance to try them out.  I think Twitter was actually one of the programs that I liked least.  I saw a lot of overlap between Twitter and Facebook, and I'm much more involved in and interested in Facebook.  I also thought Twitter was essentially an RSS feed but with the added struggle of deciphering the symbols and responses.  I did make an effort to find people to add to my network, and found that local teachers/colleagues were really the best people to get information from.  I followed "educationweek" and didn't really find that I could connect the material to my daily life/classroom.

I was also not convinced of the value of Delicious as much as some of the other web 2.0 tools.  I understand how bookmarking favorite sites may come in handy, but I don't think that I'd make use of the site enough to warrant keeping the page up to date.  If I'm looking for a specific kind of site, I usually use a search engine and am easily able to find something along the lines of what I was searching for within a few minutes.  Again, this tool just seems like it overlaps a bit too much with some of the other tools.  I liked how "iGoogle" could keep track of my favorite sites, although I thought Delicious did a better job of helping me find useful sites by keeping track of how many users subscribed to each site.

I think that my district is making some good attempts at helping teachers add to their PLN's by constantly communicating new and exciting ideas for how to use technology in the classroom.  Every Tuesday, we get a short and easy-to-implement idea in "Tuesday's Technology Tip" via email.  Our district technology staff are always giving us resources to help incorporate technology in our classroom.  They even have a blog set up to keep track of their ideas and resources.  I feel that after this class, I have a new appreciation for how much work my district has put into helping staff develop PLN's, and I will definitely keep adding to my list of tools.

I think one of the best pieces of advice that I came across regarding PLN's came from the "20 tips to Define & Manage Your Social Networks" article.  I didn't know that password managers existed - but I think I'll definitely make use of them!  One of the hardest things about joining all these web 2.0 tools is that I had a large variety of usernames, emails, and passwords to keep track of.  I can use a password manager to store that information, so that I don't have to create duplicate accounts.