I have always felt very strongly about teachers continuing with their professional development. However, it is not always easy to find something that your want and need to learn about locally. I really like the idea of developing your own personal learning network -- a group of people who can guide your learning, point you to learning opportunities, answer your questions, and give you the benefit of their own knowledge and experience.
The best example I can give for my PLN is my Skype and Twitter accounts. These accounts allows me to interact with teachers I know and work within my district as well as accessing other professional farther away. I am still developing my twitter account to be more that just a data collection system. I need to find ways of sorting through all of the data and finding the part of data that is relevant to my classroom.
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I agree with you about managing Twitter. Although a very useful tool, some days weeding through the information and zeroing in on what is most helpful is daunting.
ReplyDeleteGreat post...it's critical that we all continue to learn and support each other...learning is everything!
ReplyDeleteTwitter and Skype are where I get most of my information. I use Skype every day to talk to people across the district and catch up on Twitter at night. Twitter can be overwhelming sometimes, but I have found that you develop a method of paying closer attention to educators that post valuable information for you...I scan the profile pictures and can pick out the ones that I usually pay a little closer attention to what they are posting.
You can also explore the lists feature...this is found on the right hand side of your Twitter home page...you can set up lists to categorize Tweeters...helps organize the feeds a little.
Carol
I too like the idea of including professionals who are not local in your PLN. Sometimes you don't realize what other "locals" are doing with technology. So, branching out gives you a chance to see what others are up to.
ReplyDeleteYes.. an excellent post.
ReplyDeleteSkype and Twitter have no doubt, helped me build my PLN. They have allowed me to communicate and collaborate with others outside my classroom and/or district. Twitter, especially, has allowed me to get resources and information sent to my by professionals from all over the United States.
There is no doubt that a PLN can help us with Professional Development at a time where it seems that more and more PD will be left up to the individual educator.
Great Job..
David