Journal 7: My Personal Learning Network

 NETS-T 5


PLN In my words, it is the collection of all of my networks that I use to learn, and communicate with others. As days go by, my PLN grows. I have social networking sites such as Titter and Face book. Diigo lets me organize information that I find important or want to refer back to. Email is still my main way to communicate with others. A Google doc is a new and easy way to share documents with my classmates. I am sure I am missing some as well! These have already helped me in school. When I become a teacher, I will have saved web pages, and blogs that will help me put together and fun and educational lesson plan. A new addition to my PLN through Diigo is a math website for children called Math Chimp.
 Twitter for me has been difficult to get use to. This new social media is great for finding information for me as a teacher. It will allow me to lean and communicate with teacher through the discussions such as #mathchat, #artsed or and new teacher chat called #ntchat. I have chosen some people to fallow on Twitter, such as Stephanie Banchero. I have chosen this woman because she is a National Education Reporter. I will be able to keep myself fresh and up to date with the current buzz regarding education. Diane Dahl is another one I have chosen. In her introduction she explains herself to be an "enthusiastic 2nd grade teacher". This is how I hope to portray myself as when I become a teacher.  
            I participated in the lrnchat today and wow did it go fast. Pretty much they went back and forth on ways to change the time spent in the class room. One example was having class  for 12 weeks, or 6 months online. There was allot of discussion on learning just for the sake of learning. And that there is a difference in knowledge and learning. They also discussed the pros and cons of slow learning vs fast paced learning. Very interesting to see so many people so passionate about learning. And  also the fact that many are older and are so quick on twitter!
Diigo I think is my favorite new addition to my PLN. This one place allows me to store all that I find important. This is important because with 2 and half years left of school, and with an additional life time of learning, I can bookmark what I find to be interesting, and what to use later. Just today (October 26th) I added seven new sites and blogs to my PLN. One, like I mentioned before is the math site. Currently, the school I volunteer at sends the students to the computers and have them play cool math. I have yet to see ANY addition, subtraction or any math take place. This site have math incorporated with fun. Nikkie Robertson is someone I have added to help me familiarize myself with technology, and how to incorporate it into the classroom. I have chosen to follow Steve Anderson, because I viewed what he has book marked and i feel i gain allot from them.
I joined the Classroom 2.0 forum. This incredible site has all the information a new teacher needs to know about technology and how to use it! I read about the I pad and if it is a good or bad thing to have small children use it as a means of learning, verse physically touching and learning about an object. I myself am trying to balance out the use of technology, with keeping grounded. I think the I pad is a really neat tool, and hope one day I can afford a collection of Apple gadgets. But I think for down time, a computer, T.V or I pad would be ok, but there is no substitution for interaction with a young one!