As I get to work with more and more educators, I am somewhat surprised by the number of great teachers who keep to themselves. I'm not sure if this is a habit from days past, or if it is a personal choice, but I do know that this profession needs everyone to share. The easiest way to share (give and take) with as large a group as possible is through digital media. The power of developing a digital PLN is absolutely amazing!
What
is that power? As Michael Zimmer (one member of my PLN) states in his blog, "Imagine
for a minute teaching in a school where some of the most influential
educators all teach. Imagine teaching in a school where the
administrators encourage new and innovative ways to teach to your
students. Imagine teaching in a school where all those teachers share
their ideas and lessons openly without fear of being seen as 'that
teacher'. That is the experience of a PLN. Sharing ideas and
experiences with people who enjoy what you have to share and openly
share their personal experiences." (http://edutechintegration.blogspot.com/)
The only thing I would add to that is, imagine needing a lesson or
other resource and being able to ask hundreds of professionals for
assistance.
Now, how does one go about developing a
PLN? Well, I was first introduced to PLNs by a friend and former
colleague of mine through Twitter. Actually, it was Twitter through Tweetdeck,
a very nice way of organizing your social media accounts. In addition to Twitter, there are countless other digital media options. The most popular are Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, and Diigo. I also have connected with people on Classroom 2.0 and The Educator's PLN. In addition, I have there are great educator-created blogs, websites, and about a million other resources.
(A word of advice: Take your time in getting involved with the many sites designed to help build PLNs.)
Using Twitter can be a bit overwhelming, but there are some tips to make it a bit easier to figure out. The best tips I can recommend are to start out following a small, select group of individuals and to use educational hashtags
such as #edchat. (Basically, hashtags are a way for Twitter to collect
certain tweets and group them by those hashtags.) (I have a column on
my Tweetdeck for all messages tagged with #edchat so I get all of these
messages in one place.)
Google+, in my opinion, is a bit easier to manage. Thanks to "Circles", organizing your PLN is much smoother and user-friendly than many other social media options. This allows one account to easily separate your personal life from your professional life. (I use them to break down my professional life even further by creating a circle for people at my school, people I know personally, my MVPs, etc.) In addition to creating circles, you can join communities to help you connect with people who are doing similar things as you. (I just joined the "Chromebook EDU" community, and it has already played a large part in my knowledge of my new Chromebook.)
I've only shared a few of the options that are out there, but you can start to see just how impressive PLNs can be. (Feel free to add more in the comments.) So, you can make the choice,
keep using the same old resources and talking to the same few teachers
or develop your PLN and open up the world to you and your students.
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