Do you <heart> your PLN?

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Permalink Reply by David Kapuler on February 10, 2010 at 6:59am

I'll be presenting at the biggest conference in WI on PLN and Web 2.0 technologies perhaps my course wiki will help...

http://cutting-edge-technology.wikispaces.com/

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Permalink Reply by Frank, Divergent Learner on February 10, 2010 at 7:28am

Maybe my graphic will be useful .. since you are connecting heart with PLN as I did/do.

Under Creative Commons license, you are free to use this graphic. Since the URL is included in the graphic, credit is already attributed.

And twitter & Nings are important Web tools that keep my PLN alive and fruitful. I use Facebook for family & friends in addition to some of my PLN buddies .... so it helps too, but in a different way.

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Permalink Reply by Frank, Divergent Learner on February 10, 2010 at 7:55am

Oh, I forgot to point out that my Get Connected graphic (above) was made exactly for those starting a new PLN ... because looking at other people's PLNs can be threatening ... the size and number etc. So this graphics ... says, "All PLNs start with a single connected." This is less threatening and gives comforting permission and power to go ahead and get started with that 1st connection, as we all did.

Enjoy, Frank

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Permalink Reply by Elfin on February 10, 2010 at 3:24pm

Thanks for sharing the graphic with us. I will us it for building the PLN session and will give the attribution.

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Permalink Reply by Jeanette Parham on February 10, 2010 at 10:55am

What I love most is connecting with like minds from different parts of the globe. The greatest tool is the forum which allows for the interaction - Asking questions and getting answers (collective intelligence).

I use the PLN also in face to face sessions where as a group we go back to look at particular parts of the Ning to analyze and discuss what we find there further improving what the Ning does for us.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Garcia on February 10, 2010 at 11:40am

I love that no matter when I log on to my twitter account or go into Diigo, I come away with fantastic ideas and resources. Twitter has got to be my greatest tool. I have been neglecting my RSS Feeds for so long because the learning I get out of twitter is constant, immediate and very rich. My own blog is mostly for my own reflection about things I don't want to forget, so it is not really a main part of my pln. I belong to too many Nings now to make it manageable...wouldn't it be great to be able to aggregate them all into one Ning? That said I use Classroom 2.0 the most, sometimes for the conversation but more than not for the webinars. I hope this helps.

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Permalink Reply by Frank, Divergent Learner on February 10, 2010 at 1:14pm

Jennifer ... I hear ya about the Nings. I think I now belong to over 100. I have used RSS Graffiti to aggregate many of them related to English teaching inside of a Facebook group. Works nicely. You can see an example at: Mexico English Teachers' Alliance (META) facebook group. The nice thing is that with RSS Graffiti (a FB app) you can add as many RSS feeds as you like. Then when you click on an entry, it takes you directly to the representative Ning. Since I can't aggregate many Nings into a single Ning like you suggest ... I can at least do it in FB where I also spend considerable networking time.

:) Frank

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Garcia on February 10, 2010 at 2:00pm

What a great idea Frank. Another use for Facebook! I will be sure to try it out.

:-)

Jen

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Permalink Reply by Elfin on February 10, 2010 at 3:23pm

The greatest tool for my PLN is Twitter and Ning now. Same reason as Jennifer, Twitter is quick and easier to get the latest news. I also have my own RSS on my Google Reader page but I may need more time to catch up what's on.

Nevertheless, I would like to raise another issue on PLN. As a librarian, I know which ning and follow who on Twitter for my own PLN. Same as you Ben, I am going to organize a series of workshops to introduce teaching staff the new technologies and how to use them in the classrooms. Beyond that, I would like to help them build up the PLN. Say for example, I will suggest English teachers to follow English Companion Ning. Hence, they can start building the PLN through EC Ning and getting to know more people and move on to use Twitter. But what about other subjects like Maths, Science, and social science teachers? Any suggestions here?

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Permalink Reply by Benjamin Stewart on February 10, 2010 at 6:03pm

What do you love most about your PLN?

That it's always changing, developing, growing, etc.

What's the greatest tool in your PLN (forums such as classroom2.0, twitter, your own blog???)

It's a combination of tools: Twitter (bnleez), Blog, Wikieducator (http://wikieducator.org/User:Bnleez), and Moodle (http://bnleez.moodlehub.com/) - open courses , various Nings, and Educators 2.0

Any thing else you'd like to share about your PLN?

PLNs are about finding the most efficient ways of integrating technologies that afford one to interact with others.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Grundy on February 10, 2010 at 6:27pm

Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed so far. If there's anyone else out there with something to add, please feel free to. I will link this page to the resources site that I'm providing participants, so they can continue to see your thoughts after the session.

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Permalink Reply by Frank, Divergent Learner on February 11, 2010 at 4:24am

This voicethread from Alec Couros and his network might be helpful for new PLNers.

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