EDUC W200 Week 11

PART I: PERSONAL LEARNING NETWORKS

EDUC W200 Week 11

PLN: WHAT IS A PLN?

• PLN is either a personal/pro-fessional learning network

• Function of a PLNo Allows learners to take control of

and manage their own learningo Set your own learning goalso Manage learningo Manage both content and the

processo Communicate with others in the

process of learning

Collabo-rate

Contribute

Connect

EDUC W200 Week 11

EDUCATOR’S USE OF PLNS

• Learn from content-area specialists • Locate free resources for your classroom • Websites | software | grants • Lesson plan ideas from master teachers • Learn about new technology and how to in-

tegrate it into your teaching • Find collaborative solutions • Find interesting links to education news

EDUC W200 Week 11

INSTANCES OF PLNS

• Professional/Personal Learning Network• Casts (Podcasts, Screencasts, Vidcasts)• Social Networks • Blogs, Microblogging, and Aggregator

EDUC W200 Week 11

REGIONAL PLN FOR EDUCATOREXAMPLE NY

• In March of 2010, TEDxNYED was held in NY to ex-amine the role of new media and technology in shaping the future of education.

• In addition to viewing the archived TEDxNYED talks, educators are now connect-ing through media such as:• TEDx's YouTube Channel.• TEDxNYED Reflections wiki• Facebook fan page• Follow TEDxNYED on Twitter 

EDUC W200 Week 11

INSTANCES OF PLN: VIDCASTS

• K12 online conference • SchoolTube• Various Webinars

o Elluminateo PBS Teachers Onlineo Classroom 2.0o ISTE Webinars

EDUC W200 Week 11

INSTANCES OF PLN: NING RE-SOURCES

• Art Education o http://arted20.ning.com/

• World Language o http://edupln.ning.com/group/languagelearners

• Math Education o http://edupln.ning.com/group/mathteachers

• Special Ed o http://tech-in-sped.ning.com/

• Science Ed o http://inspire-teachers.ning.com/

• Social Studies o http://iteachsocialstudies.ning.com/

• Elementary o http://edupln.ning.com/group/elementaryeducators

o http://elementaryteachersnetwork.ning.com/

EDUC W200 Week 11

INSTANCES OF PLN: MORE RE-SOURCES

o http://community.discoveryeducation.com/o http://www.google.com/educators/index.htmlo http://us.partnersinlearningnetwork.com/Pages/default.as

pxo http://www.pbs.org/teachers/

EDUC W200 Week 11

HOW TO GROW YOUR LEARNING NETWORKS

• View education feeds o http://education.alltop.co

m/

• Education related groupso Global Educationo Classroom 2.0o Library 2.0

• Attend K-12 confer-enceo K-12 Online Conference

• Set-up an aggregatoro iGoogleo Google Readero Netvibeso Feedly

• Blogs– Find a teacher who blogs in

your subject area and follow him/her

– School Related Blogs• Claudia Ceraso’s Network

– With over 400 fellow educators Ceraso’s Delicious is a one-stop for an educator in any grade level in any subject area

• Diigo• Cool tools from educators

• Podcasts• iTunes K-12

• Webinars- U-Stream Weblogg-ed TV

EDUC W200 Week 11

HOW TO GROW YOUR LEARNING NETWORKS – EDUCATION COMMU-NITY• TeacherShare

o Connect with other teachers as you share lesson plans on-line

• Teachers Connectingo This allows you to collaborate with other educators around

the globe for project-based activities

• PBS Teachers o Includes discussion boards, resource sharing, professional

development and communication with other teachers

EDUC W200 Week 11

A PLN IS NOT JUST LIMITED TO THIS

• You can also use:o iGoogle (and RSS – more on that next)o Facebook, Grouply, etc (social networking)o Twitter (microblogging)

• Any place people meet and ideas or re-sources are shared has the potential to become a PLN

• It is not about the tool – it is about the pur-pose