Documentation, Definition, & Development of a PLE/PLN

Week One: January 4 - 10, 2009

This was my first week in ECMP 455. I was excited to take this class because of my ECMP355 class. When we were given the assignment of developing a PLE/PLN, I was a bit wearybecause I did not have a full grasp of what it was. I remember in ECMP 355 we used areader program, similar to GoogleReader to track blogs and in a sense "follow people."However, after that class I did not use the reader again. I have set up a GoogleReader andadded the blogs of the people in our class. The thing I like most about GoogleReader is thatit is attached to my home page, so I am constantly reminded about all the new blog postswritten each day.

I also signed up for a wordpress account this week. I was in awe at how easy it was to setup an account and to add things, such as pictures, blog posts, etc. I can remember in ECMP355 when setting up our E-Portfolios through Dreamweaver took so much time to makesure everything was connected properly.

I set up a Twitter account and played around. I sent out my first tweet:

Week Two: January 11 - 17, 2009

I spent a lot of time this week on my E-Portfolio. A first impression is a lasting impression,so I wanted to make my E-Portfolio easy to navigate through with information thatportrayed me as the person/professional that I am. I made an about me video and I think

this would be a great thing to make as a teaser trailer at the beginning of each school yearfor your students. The only thing that made me a bit apprehensive about posting this videowas the idea that I had to upload it to YouTube in order to embed it into my blog. I triedmaking the video private, but when I did that people couldn't view it in my blog either. Thereason I was apprehensive was because it is a 3 minute video, about me. I have where Ilive, where I grew up, my interests, etc. However, when I think about the information thatis already in my digital dossier, this is all out there already. Now I have just made it into avideo.

I think the idea of an e-portfolio is going to revolutionize society. By using an e-portfoliowith your classes or to apply for a job we are turning into a society that is a lot more open.Using an e-portfolio with you class can allow for focus on process. Each student will have alltheir information documented with dates in one place that you can browse through to seetheir change over the course of the year.

It also creates an audience -- I made my first blog post about how technology has changedand posted it on Twitter. I had 14 comments and the majority of the comments came frompeople that were in my developing PLN. Having this audience really motivated me and madethe idea of blogging authentic. I think this will play true in the classroom too, that having anaudience such as parents, classmates, or other mentors, will help make my students workauthentic and meaningful.

I have been trying to figure out how to use Twitter to the best of my ability. I have foundthat it is a good resource, but when using the web version it is hard to keep thingsorganized and I found that I often missed important replies or tweets. I decided todownload TweetDeck and I have found it has helped me a great deal with organizing mytweets. Just working on finding a balance and how to use Twitter efficiently.

Week Three: January 18 - 24, 2009

This week I posted about an issue I had in one of my other classes. My PLN helped meclarify thoughts and ideas by commenting on my post. The people that commented on my

blog were mostly my followers on Twitter, but also followers of my followers. I was able toconnect with them through other people.

I have been viewing and responding to many blogs because I think part of being in aPersonal Learning Network is contributing as well as receiving. Through Twitter I have beentrying out websites of interest. I made a 12 seconds account.

12seconds is the best place online for video status updates. It's a super easy way toshare what you're doing with your friends and family using short video clips. You canuse your web cam or mobile phone. Show your friends where you are, share yourthoughts, or tell them how you're doing. We are building a video status platform thatwill help you keep up to date with your friends 12 seconds at a time.

I think this would be an interesting way to stay connected, but since I do not have the righttechnology to use with it via my cell phone or other camera, it would be hard to keep thingsupdated.

After our class with @lthumann I decided to explore GoogleApps in more detail. I decided Iwould make a Google Form and post it on my blog for people to fill out:

I watched this video from Karen Janowski’s blog. It explains why Twitter is so awesome! Iwas a bit of skeptic before using Twitter because I didn’t see how random people around theworld sharing their 140 character status updates would be useful to me. But I have foundthat through Twitter I am able to build my PLE/PLN. I read on a blog the other day, it is notthe technology, but the people. I totally agree, with Twitter I am able to collaborate withpeople and build my repertoire! Also the 140 character thing is awesome because it makesit manageable to follow people and makes people make their statement to the point!

At the beginning of the class I had no idea what a PLN/PLE was and what meant. I thoughtthis would be difficult because where would I go to build my PLE? I decided to join Twitter

and from this I have been able to create and develop a PLE that helps me to collaboratewith other educators and learn as an educator.

I watched a slidecast courtesy of Graham Attwell, a colleague on Twitter, and I think itdescribes what a PLE is very well and why PLE’s help us as educators. He says the future ofeducation is PLE’s and I could not agree more.

The main points I got from the slidecast is how PLE’s will help us in our future education.From our PLE we want to be able to: access & search, aggregated & scaffold, manipulate,analyze, store, reflect, present, represent, and share.

I have found the PLE I have developed so far as been very beneficial in my growth as aneducator. I have been able to bounce ideas of of other educators, gather and find resources,etc. The fact that I am getting my information from someone who has tried this is veryreassuring. I think a PLE makes your own learning more personal than just trial and errorsearching.

I posted regarding Personal Learning Environments on my blog and these are some of theresponses I got:

3 Responses to “Personal Learning Environments”

1. Ann Oro Says:

January 28, 2009 at 4:12 pm eGood luck on your journey. I’ve found growing my own PLN to be invaluable overthe last few years. I taught about five years before stumbling onto this greatnetwork of educators.

2. Cindy Seibel Says:

January 28, 2009 at 4:21 pm eThanks for sharing the PLE/PLN objectives from your course. I am THRILLED to seethis immersive learning approach happening in a pre-service class. We expectteachers today to know how to teach in these environments when they haven’tlearned yet how to learn in them.As a former grad student of Dr. Couros, I am so not surprised!

3. Hiram Cuevas Says:

January 28, 2009 at 4:22 pm eKristina,You are right on the mark about PLE’s and I also have found twitter to be extremelyvaluable.I am participating in Powerful Learning Practice- http://plpnetwork.com/ and myPLN as a result of this international group of educators, provides me withexceptional information daily.

The career fair was this week and I had prepared business cards to hand out to my futureemployers. I really like the idea of an online portfolio as my future employers can get abetter picture of who I am by visiting.

Regarding our mentorship: I am really looking forward to our experience working withteachers in other classrooms around the world. I am excited to learn how they are usingtechnology in their classroom and I am also excited to mentor students and providing themwith feedback. What better motivation than that. I spent a couple hours after class browsingtheir blogs and I am really excited for this experience!

Week Five: February 1 - 7, 2009

I spent some time visiting other peoples blogs and I decided to write a post aboutCurriculum 2.0. I was a bit confused about what this was at the beginning of the semester,but my idea of Curriculum 2.0 has developed immensely in the past couple of weeks! I wasasked many times at the Career Fair about how I would use technology in the classroom. Ithink it is so important in this day in age to use technology to as an innovative tool in ourclassrooms! I posted my blog on Twitter and a colleague gave me a link to Brad Ovenell-Carter's blog called You're Never Too Old to Learn, But You May be Too Young. I made acomment of why I believe it is important to introduce technology at a young age.

I have been trying to browse other people's blogs often so that I can find things that peakmy interest and give me something authentic to blog about. I don't want to be one of thosepeople who just blog to blog. I want to make my blogging real, so that people visit my blogoften and provide insight that will increase my knowledge about teaching and life ingeneral.

I was so happy to learn about SmartBoards today in class. It is so important to know how touse SmartBoards effectively and efficiently in you classroom. I think Ben Hazzard reallycaptured that in his presentation. I visited his 'blog' and listened to some of the podcasts.This is my first experience with podcasts and I found them to be very useful. What a greatresource to have! I decided to join his network of Teachers Connecting . I did not pick up acollaboration project right now, just because I am too busy with all of my other classes, thisclass, and work on top; however, I am looking forward to joining a project in the nearfuture and using this as PD.

WOW - Jing is amazing! After class when me and Sarah were talking with you and Dean Iwas quite amazed at the features of Jing. After seeing that my mind couldn't stop thinkingabout how I could use Jing in my classroom. So excited to experiment what that!

I spent some time trying to make my blog more user friendly. I was having trouble withgetting a different homepage for my blog. Luckily I have Twitter, I sent out a cry for helpand I got a response. I am so happy with the way my PLE / PLN is growing and developing.I have had the chance to connect with some very amazing and intelligent people out there.People I would have never thought about approaching or even talking too. This has enabledme to develop as a professional and a person!

I spent some time posting about the final project. I was hoping by making a GoogleFormand posting about it we could get some people's inputs about what to make our How to Wikiabout. I want to make this project as authentic as possible so that it would be useful in thefuture!

Week Six: February 8 - 14, 2009

I had the chance to Skype with @mrmayo to discuss the mentorship project. I had neverused Skype before, but what an amazing tool! I am looking forward to adding some morecontacts and finding a way to use this in the classroom. I created a separate blogmissdimini.wordpress.com. This will be the blog where I connect with my students from mymentorship. I am also hoping to us this blog in my future classrooms. I tried to make itmore kid friendly. I am looking forward to connecting with my mentorship classes! I alsohad the chance to fool around with Wordle. I think Wordle has so much potential for theclassroom when it comes to reading and literacy.

This is what my blogs have been about thus far:

I tried to get on EdTech Talk, but there must have been a time difference. I will try again inthe future. I am now following EdTech Talk on Twitter, so I think that will help!

I spent some time on Twitter trying to find something that peaked my interest to postabout. I have always had trouble with writing, etc. That is why my first version of documention was in a spreadsheet rather than a diary form. However, I wanted to post I just need tofind something that will really peak my interest! I am thinking that once I get in my ownclassroom it will be easier to post and use this PLE / PLN as a giving and receiving type ofnetwork.

After our class about visual presentations I went back on slideshare and looked at somemore slideshows. I started building my own personal philosophy of what I thinkpresentations should look like. I like the idea of having an image to capture the attentionand one that pertains to what you are talking about and then using minimal words to get

your point across. I have always used minimal words in my slideshows, since ECMP 355, butI never thought of using an actual photo to get the attention and explain. I really like theidea of creative commons and flickr to get pictures.

I wrote a blog about life long learning. I have found that I am always really busy withschool, work, volunteering, etc. At the same time I really enjoy being busy with everythingbecause with all of these experiences I am able to learn new things whether it affects mepersonally or professionally I am still developing as a person.

I had a group meeting with a group for my ELNG class: Teaching English as a SecondLanguage. I had thrown out the idea of using Google Docs to compile our information andthen we met as a group to discuss and formulate our presentation. Wow - Google Docs hasallowed us to collaborate without having to find a time for all of us to meet at the sametime. I was happy I had this experience because having the chance to use the technology Ilearned about in class in a real situation and it actually work was very encouraging! I cansee myself using GoogleDocs often in the future for collaborative projects in my classroomand with my colleagues.

Week Seven: February 15 - 21, 2009

Spring Break has finally arrived! I had planned on getting a lot of homework done thisweek. Surprisingly enough I have not found ECMP 455 'homework'. I think this is becausethe assignments in this class are authentic and relate to me as a teacher. The things I amworking towards are for my professional development.

I spent a lot of time browsing through different peoples blogs, posted items on twitter,delicious, etc. I was trying to find something to inspire me to write something. I wasinspired to write a post on Delicious. I was at my aunties house, so I was using hercomputer. I found out the great things Delicious can do for you. As I was there I foundsome really beneficial sites that I could use professionally for growth or in my classroom. Iwent to visit them and I thought, “Man, I wish I could bookmark this on my computer.”Then the light bulb went off. I can! I went to my delicious account and saved my bookmark.When it came to bookmarking them it was so easy because I was able to sign in and justadd them to my Delicious account and not have to worry about loosing them. It was great!

Using a tool such as delicious is another way to use your PLN and contribute to a PLNbecause you can have friends in your network. Delicious is kind of like filtered version ofGoogle because you can visit find sites that people in your network have bookmarked.

I had the chance to visit EdTech Talk and participate in a seminar of Parents as Partners. Iwas bit hesitant when it first began, but everyone was very welcoming and I might somenew colleagues that I have added to Twitter and my PLE / PLN. I even met some peoplefrom Calgary who are working in the public and catholic school divisions. I was very happyto meet these people as I now have some extra support when I move to Calgary. I alsolearned about using parents as partners in your school and classroom and how to usetechnology to foster this. Overall, I found this seminar very beneficial and I am lookingforward to attending more.

I sometimes struggle when it comes to writing my blogs. I am very intentional when I blog,I don't like blogging just to blog. As with when I do reading and writing with my studentsthere has to be a purpose behind your reading and writing and I believe this pertains toblogging as well. I decided to do a review of ECMP 455 thus far, and it gets two thumbs upand a toothy grin.. hehe

Twitter is becoming a part of my lifestyle. I find myself checking Twitter on a daily basis justto catch up on what everyone is doing and getting some good resources and sharing andresources I find.

Week Eight: February 22 - 28, 2009

I worked on my blogs for my mentorship classes. I wanted to create two different sectionsfor the students, so it could be a bit more personal. Mr. Mayo has assigned me to a specificstudent for me to visit her blog and comment because she is an EAL student and has justarrived from Jamaica. I have been commenting on her blog. I am hoping she will come tomy blog as well. I also added a video to my About Me section for my mentorship students.

I was busy working on the computer doing homework for other classes. I love Twitter. Ithink it helps keep me on task in a way because it gives me brain breaks as I am working

on other assignments. Today alone I have book marked 10 new sites that are going to bevery valuable to me as a teacher and it wasn't time consuming or strenuous. I would justvisit the sites people tweeted about and from there I would bookmark them if they wererelevant to me.

I would consider myself someone who works best when multi-tasking and Twitter allowsjust that. I think the concept of backchanelling is important for our students and societytoday. We are used to having a lot of stimulus and I think Twitter helps with that.

Week Nine: March 1 - 7, 2009

I met with Sarah and we started working on our Major project. I came up with the idea of"Twitter in the Classroom". I have found Twitter to be very helpful to me as anundergraduate student, so I was thinking is there a way we can adapt this to ourclassrooms. We began searching if anyone had any resources on Twitter in the Classroom.We found a few and one in particular by @thecleversheep. I decided to add him on Twitterto ask some questions and share resources. As discussed we contemplated doing our finalproject as a joint project with @thecleversheep. I think this would be a good thing to do;however, I think it is important to also make our own project. We will then share ourresource with @thecleversheep. As we were searching we found some examples aboutTwitter and low and behold, who do we see an example about @courosa. You are almost agrandfather of Twitter in Western Canada. The fact that this was an assignment in ourUndergrad class has helped me immensely as a professional.

Before my ELNG (Teaching English as a Second Language) class presentation of my FlannelBoard story I decided I wanted to video tape it. I wanted to post it to my blog for all my PLNto see. I thought this story would be a great idea starter for using in their classrooms.Although it does not specifically contain a lot of technology usage in the flannel board itself Ithink there is a place for it in the classroom.

Today I wrote a post pertaining to our Final project. I used what I have learned through myPLN to try and wrap my mind around Twitter and how to use it in the classroom. I havebeen able to develop my PLN through ... What makes a good post great?

I had the opportunity to Skype with Kelly Hines’ class. It was the kick off for their school-wide read-in time. I shared a Mexican Folktale with my Flannel board over Skype. I was abit scared at first because I didn’t think the students would be able to see the board, hearmy expressions, or see the expression in my face. However, it worked out very well! Thestudents were able to find the problem of the story and the solution. They were also able topick out the moral of the story and made a connect to their Dr. Seuss unit they had beenstudying. Overall, I really enjoyed my experience Skyping this morning and I am lookingforward to doing it again in the near future! To further this I think the idea of having a PLNprovides the opportunity to connect with other educators and opens the door to skypingwith other classes around the world. This allows you to take the learning out of the 4 wallsof the classroom.

This week I had an experience in the 'online world' that I did not agree with. I wasn't goingto respond at first, but with my EFDN class I felt as if I had to respond. I felt as if myresponses were posted without offending anyone (or at least it wasn't my intention tooffend anyone). I just wanted provide my insight on the topic and I felt strongly about itbecause I think often things such as name calling, especially online or during sportingactivities often just get pushed aside, but these small things often lead to some very badthings for the victims. After commenting a couple of times I thought, where should I drawthe line without 'giving up'. After talking with Alec, I decided I have said what I wanted tosay and they will either change or continue on being and acting how they are.

I didn't want this to happen:

Week Ten: March 8 - 14, 2009

Well it was kind of an unexpected week for me. My mom went in for emergency surgery inSaskatoon, so I haven't had as much focus on school. Something I noticed tho is that I had

the urge to let me PLN know about this. I tweeted it out and got tweets of support back. Itwas kind of nice that my PLN provided me with that support.

Week Eleven: March 15 - 21, 2009

This week I think I contributed to my PLN more than I took from it. I posted what I think isa valuable resource using digital storytelling to tell a First Nation oral story. I searched theinternet to see if there were any out there and I found that there was a lack of this type ofresource on the internet as well. So I made a my own version of the story using powerpoint,clipart, and voicethread. You can view my Dene Story called the Snowman here.

Some of the replies I got were:

4 Responses to “The Snowman - Dene Story”

1. Alec Couros Says:

March 16, 2009 at 1:35 pm eThere used to be a resource called “Stories in Season” that was developed in SK. Ibelieve it took stories, and had translations in Dene, Dakota, Cree, Saulteaux, etc. Iwill see if I can find it for you. It may be useful. I can find a reference to it online,but can’t find the CD.Thanks for this work you are doing. Excellent use of Voicethread!

2. Brunsell Says:

March 16, 2009 at 3:23 pm eThis is a great application of VoiceThread. I am looking forward to showing this tomy Ed Tech students in at the University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh.We are about 30 miles north of Fon du Lac (Wisconsin) and Yatth Dene hasn’t leftyet…

3. SKing Says:

March 18, 2009 at 8:44 pm eI shared your idea with a grade 8 teacher and she is very anxious to try it herself tohelp her struggling readers.I also thought of two other books that might help you that were put together by thestudents of Ducharme Elementary in La Loche. One is call Byron and his Balloon andthe other is Byron Through the Seasons.Good luck in your search for Dene material.

4. Robin Howell Says:

March 19, 2009 at 9:15 am e

Wow Kristina,Great story, I’m glad you had this ‘Aha!’ moment. *saves it in delicious*-Robin

Week Twelve: March 22 - 28, 2009

To start of this week I got to meet all of the people in my Personal Learning Network at theIT Summit. This was such an amazing experience! To be able to meet with the people whoinfluence me professionally on a daily basis was surreal. I felt like I had a relationship withsome of these people because of their input and insights I get to read about daily. I was sothankful that I got to attend this conference as it has had a huge influence on me as aneducator!

Being able to present, even for just 5 minutes, was an honour. It was hard to believe I wastalking to such innovative people.

As I have said in many of my previous posts, this class has truly prepared me for myupcoming career as a facilitator of learning (teacher). The reason I say this is becauseI am now a critical thinker of open source learning. I have seen it work for me andmany of my other classmates. The fact that we have had experts come in to talk to usabout a variety of innovative tools has made me think, I can do this in my classroom.The concept of a classroom being 4 walls is no longer restricting my students toknowing just the information I pass along to them.

I have also had the opportunity to build a PLN. Through my PLN I am able to connectwith a variety of professionals on a daily basis to learn and share resources, thoughtsand ideas. I guess it is kind of like having a professional development course that isalways there. Every day I learn something new from my PLN and this would not beavailable without the concept of open source learning.

I thought the conversation regarding online learning was very interesting as I havethoroughly enjoyed every minute of this online class. Before taking this class I was a bitweary because I had never taken an online class before. I am a very personable person andenjoy F2F interaction. Thus, I thought I wouldn’t like this class because this interactionwould be missing. However, this was totally opposite. I have developed some of my bestprofessional relationships through this course. Plus it is not restricted to just the 20 peopletaking my class. I have been able to gain relationships with many other professionalsthrough the world.

I have found that with this course I have had the most access to support. The best thingabout my support team is that it comes from experts of the topic. I was able to build this‘network of experts’ through Twitter. I think Twitter is a great application that has helpedme build my PLN, but it is not about the application that makes my PLN, it is the people! Ihave found with other courses I have to wait for answers, but with this course I am able toconnect with people when I need help and I am able to help others when they need help.

I have actually for the first time in a while been able to truthfully focus on the process, notthe product. I had always said that this is important, as in education it was drilled into ourheads (in a traditional classroom), but I never knew what it meant or felt like. Thissemester and this class has helped me a great deal to focus on the process and in the endthe product does turn out much better. I do think it is important to have structure in our

classrooms; however, the use of a dynamic curriculum is so important. We need tocapitalize on those serendipitous moments our students encounter.

This class has helped me become a Networked Teacher:

Week Thirteen: March 29 - April 4, 2009

Well, I have talked about Twitter and my PLN a lot in my previous posts:

The best thing about my support team is that it comes from experts of thetopic. I was able to build this ‘network of experts’ through Twitter. I thinkTwitter is a great application that has helped me build my PLN, but it is notabout the application that makes my PLN, it is the people!

Today, on Twitter I came across a post called: Nine great reasons why teachers should useTwitter. When I was reading this post I couldn’t help but think, YES! YES! YES! Twitter hasgreatly impacted me as a teacher. I have seen so much growth in myself as a professionalover the past few months and I have to attribute part of that to my PLN. I have grown somuch that when I looked back at my philosophy of teaching I realized, I need to updatethat!

My PLN consists of so many intelligent, engaging, and innovative people! The people Iaspire to be someday. I think the following quote will help you build your PLN:

Remember, your experience on Twitter is only as highquality as the people who you follow and the informationyou share.

I am following high quality people and I feel privaleged when these high quality peoplefollow me in return. The people you follow and the people that follow you are what makeTwitter the great resource that it is. I know now the importance of filling in your bio of yourTwitter account. A lot of educators won’t follow you unless they see you as an asset to theirPLN. I have a commitment to my PLN that I will contribute thoughtful, relevant, andinteresting information.The world is a big place, but it seems that we are able to know more about the world andcollaborate with so many more people because of technology, in this case, Twitter. I wasreading a blog by Jeff Utecht called I don’t like learning alone and I have to admit, I too donot like learning alone.

So what does this all mean?

At the beginning of this course I never really understood what a PLN was or why it isimportant. Now I can't picture my professional career without one. Twitter and my PLN hastaken away the ‘4 walls’ and has allowed me to use open education to the best of my ability.Twitter allows me to grow and learn with many other educators around the world. Mynetwork has constantly grown, every day, which means my bank of knowledge andresources are growing every day. Twitter is such a valuable resource! Once you have yourPLN you have a variety of resources at your fingertips. These resources will guide you inyour professional development.

I would be interested to see how my PLN will change in the next year. I have a fairly smallnetwork, but a quality one.

In a mere 4 months I have created a network that helps define who I am as a professional.

I can't believe that I have had visitors from all over the world on my blog and a total of1,841 hits!