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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Creating a Personal Learning Network including Twitter

Video on Twitter in the Classroom Web 2.0

I shared last week that creating a Personal Learning Network is an area which all educators are encouraged to pursue, not as part of their school day but as part of their professional development.  For many teachers, the web is a diverse and cluttered desk of multi layered papers and articles.  How do we declutter our desks, create varied and interesting collaboration and learn to share online?  Can we emerge from our chrysalis, and become leaders in the digital technology field?

  As a newbie to blogging, and Twitter I hope to share some of my joyful discoveries, with creating a personal learning network relevant to your needs and teaching.

Confident with my social media networking on Facebook, and recent blogging with Blogger, I completed my Twitter profile with FEAR and trepidation.  How was I going to make sense of all these names and links, and people to follow?  So maybe some folks were wanting to share what they had for dinner that night, BUT there could also be some great educators who were waiting to connect, engage and SHARE.  As you can gather I LOVE sharing, and collaboration is also something I enjoy doing.  Having searched Beyond Google for the past 6 years for my school, I am blessed when I find information that is pertinent to Christian worldview, educational technology and books.  So I waited and watched to see who would follow me...... well I waited a couple of days and nothing happened.  Then it dawned on me, "Duh Pippa!  YOU need to find people to follow and ask Twitter to help you."  As I started to add people to my profile, Twitter started to figure out who I liked, and before long it was finding me educators, Christians, and media tools.  I was hooked!  Now in the morning along with my cuppa J I read my newspaper online, and go to Twitter.  Thank you God!

Blogging is a huge blessing to me.  Not only can I share my ideas to be archived for years to come, but I can find numerous educators by going to my blogging dashboard and adding interesting blogs to follow on a regular basis.  Along with Google Reader, and Diigo, I now enjoy storing all kinds of educational and Christian articles in my large filing cabinet.


Here are some worthwhile Blogging and Facebook sites, that will help you make contact with other teachers.

1.  Classroom 2.0. 
This site has special interest groups, for instance I joined the Canadian Mashup group which is only Canadian educators.

2.  The Educator's PLN

3.  EdubloggerWorld

4.  Edutopia

5.  CEET Ning

6. CSI Bible Exchange

7.  Educational Technology for Christian Teachers

Searching online will also help you find people and websites that are perfect for your needs. I have several library sites and Nings which I belong to, where I find up to date professional news happening in my field.  Along with these I also love going to sites such as Buzzfeed where I can find news related articles from a wide variety of media including Christian media.  Once I sniff out a good authorative site I follow other links, and so Pippa the Library Hound finds another lead.  I love the chase, and the find and I hope you will come alongside of me and create your own personal learning network so that we can share together.  Grab your cuppa J and come Tweet, Blog, and create your PLN to further your professional development.

In Christ
Pippa.

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