I really connected to what Kelsey Rogers mentioned in her YouTube video on how to begin a PLN. She stated that “...as teachers it is importnat to teach in a way that is relevant to the world around us and to the generation of our students. We can do this by expanding our PLN; learning from them and with them...Being a teacher that is fluent in technology will organize your mind and your students.” I always felt that my attempts at staying current and learning how to use tech tools quickly were a few of my strengths but I have so many. I have a vast collection of resources through my personal use of Pinterest, my subsriptions to Discovery Education, Promethean Planet, Achieve 3000, AVID weekly, and the TOPSS (APA Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools). When I’m in need of a resource I usually default to using my favorite search engine to narrow my search to what I need specifically (i.e., a video clip on Hammurabi’s code or a rubric on marking text). Reading through these resources on Pinterest, Twitter, and on a PLN made me realize that I may be connected to a variety of sources, but I am not the one sharing! I usually help problem-solve many of the questions that arise on our school campus from maintaining our online grade book to giving ideas on instructional strategies, these resources gave me ideas on how to organize all the resources that I seemed to have hoarded virtually. The Ed-tech Pinterest boards gave me the idea to organize my Edu Tech Resources. I hope to take the time to make different boards for the different things that I am always needing (e.g., a presentation tools board, graphic organizers board, collaboration tools board, etc.) and of course a PLN board to enhance my educational resources and encourage me to collaborate and share these ideas. The first step has already been taken, as we have the blogger tool that we use in this course. I now need to extend my writing to include what I do and share what works. I think what keeps me from going “all out” is what first came into my mind when I watched the YouTube video on the Importance of a PLN in Education. Rogers mentioned how one could connect globally to express and share resources and opinions through an “online identity”. I value the inherent collaborative nature of online learning, but as soon as I heard, “online identity”, it made me recoil a bit as I have always stressed to students to be smart about their active digital footprint. As educators, we all stress the importance of managing our digital footprint by thinking before posting; we also know thaty once it’s online, it could be there forever. But of course, as we begin our own educational PLN, we can give our students an opportunity to learn how to use it properly. I will be learning from them and with them.
I also really liked the November Learning article on How Twitter Can Be Used as an Educational Tool. I thought, like everyone else, Twitter was merely a tool used to gossip and share useless pieces of information, such as Bieberhair and what may show up on an episode of TMZ. When it first came out, I immediately signed-on to share my useless ramblings and jokes. I stopped using it after I took on the task of teaching our freshmen about our digital footprint and started living our mantra of, “Think Before You Post”. I may have used Twitter to share my a-ha moments but what an a-ha moment I had as I learned that Twitter could be used so effectively and in an educational way. One could elicit realtime reactions and engage students in conversations about current events and possibly make historical connections! #aha
I also really liked the November Learning article on How Twitter Can Be Used as an Educational Tool. I thought, like everyone else, Twitter was merely a tool used to gossip and share useless pieces of information, such as Bieberhair and what may show up on an episode of TMZ. When it first came out, I immediately signed-on to share my useless ramblings and jokes. I stopped using it after I took on the task of teaching our freshmen about our digital footprint and started living our mantra of, “Think Before You Post”. I may have used Twitter to share my a-ha moments but what an a-ha moment I had as I learned that Twitter could be used so effectively and in an educational way. One could elicit realtime reactions and engage students in conversations about current events and possibly make historical connections! #aha
So will I use Twitter? The assumption is that all of my students will have to have Twitter accounts and we as a school will have to teach proper use of technology. I think I will work with our school to help us get to this point. I will begin by starting conversations in our PLCs about Digital Literacy and Digital Citizenship. My hope is to have a clear plan of action implemented incrementally. I will continue by teaching our 9th graders Digital Citizenship and with my 12th graders I will continue to allow them to use their various choices of online presentation tools and share with them the need to be responsible Digital Citizens.
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