What is a Personal Learning Network? According to this YouTube video, "A PLN is a group of people who will heighten your learning. They can point you to learning opportunities through sharing resources and experiences, and they can answer your questions." Networking has always been a valuable tool for educators, but 21st century networking is unlimited in its scope.
This week, our class was pointed to Pinterest and Twitter as PLN tools. I was surprised! I have accounts for both sites but I rarely accessed either after my initial encounter with them. Pinterest is fun, but an easy way to get caught in the Internet Black Hole--you get sucked in and end up somewhere entirely unexpected only to realize you've been traveling for way longer than you had planned on. My experience with Twitter was not pleasant. I just did not see the point of following everything my friends were eating, watching, or thinking at every moment of their lives.
However, "Five follow-worthy ed-tech Pinterest boards," and "How Twitter can be used as a powerful educational tool," explained how these sites can be used effectively. Basically, users need to know what they want and how to access that information. E-school News provides their list of five exceptional ed-tech Pinterest boards. Starting with one of those boards, I looked at some of the pins and I even re-pinned to my personal board. Every time I pinned, I was shown another board that pinned the same site, giving me access to another person who has the same interests. Although I ended up spending more time on Pinterest than I had planned, my browsing was focused and by the time I logged out I had found several sites that I plan to explore in greater detail.
The Twitter article was powerful because of the examples used. One teacher used Twitter to communicate in real time with people in Egypt during the political uprising a few years ago. He was even able to arrange a webcast with one of the Tweeters for his class. Amazing! Another teacher tweeted real-world math challenges to her students while she was at a baseball game--and her students responded! Again, amazing!
I am a person who has had little patience with social networking sites. However, I learned this week that social networks can be valuable when you know how to use them effectively to find what you are looking for. The Twitter article listed above is the third in a three-part series. In the first part, the authors warn educators that, "we must prepare our students to make meaning form the overwhelming amount of information at their fingertips." After reading the articles this week, I realize that we educators must ourselves be prepared to make meaning and find value in the informational tools that our at our fingertips.
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