Project 12 Part A

Project #9

Blog post 5

What is Personal Learning Networks (PLN)?  -  Personal Learning Networks (PLN's) are money-making resources for teachers to grow skillfully. Individually PLN is created and personalized based on the professional interests and goals of an individual educator. This is a free means of professional development available 24/7 from anywhere.

How can they help us as teachers? As we carry on into 21st century education system, teachers must acquire new techniques and practices to better ourselves and to prepare our students for our constantly evolving world.  One way to do this is through a Personal Learning Network (PLN), a network of people, websites, blogs, and other resources. Vicki Davis best explains how PLNs can work in the classroom in her article "Personal Learning Networks Are Virtual Lockers for School kids": "A PLN becomes a student's virtual locker, and its content changes based on the student's current course work. When I assign them a term paper, the students comb the Web to sign up for information that will feed into their personalized Web page to construct a PLN for that topic. When they get a new project, they assemble another page."

How are they made? How can you create your own PLN?

Dr. Strange has stated before that Twitter is best way for him to connect with other educators and resources. He has also provided a list of many educators in Project 6 Fall of 2009. Once you discover new resources to include in your PLN, you can use websites like Symbaloo or Netvibes to form and keep track of your PLN resources. Symbaloo organizes different website icons by tile blocks, while Netvibes organizes RSS feeds of sites into block arrangements. Both are effective tools and easy to use.

Who will be the first additions to your PLN?

 I have little to have begin to build my own PLN, but I have planned to add Dr. Strange, friends and classmates to my network through Twitter when i do.