PLN+and+Twitter

Twitter and Personal Learning Network (PLN) **__PLN __**  I first heard this term about six years ago at a workshop I was a part of. The speaker was education technology guru David Warlick. This conversation was before many of the web 2.0 tools that I use today were popular or even invented and I wasn’t sure how this was going to work. According to Wikipedia, a “ **//Personal Learning Networks//** //consist of the people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from in a [|Personal Learning Environment]. An important part of this concept is the theory of [|connectivism] developed by [|George Siemens] and [|Stephen Downes]. Learners create connections and develop a network that contributes to their professional development and knowledge.[|[1]] The learner does not have to know these people personally or ever meet them in person// “.

In my job as a library media specialist my PLN is very important. In our building I don’t have any peers to consult with on a daily basis, but through Blogs and Twitter I can connect with other media specialist across Georgia and across the country. The idea for this course came about from “talking” to people in my PLN and from finding other web 2.0 course that colleagues had created. I have met some of my PLN at conferences, but many of my PLN I have never met (and maybe, never will) but I don’t know that I could do my job without them. I “follow” my PLN mostly by reading (and commenting) on blogs and using Twitter (my twitter is @kathyfs24).

Watch the following slideshare presentation media type="custom" key="9659976" Read the following article in Edutopia about why educators should Twitter []

If you want to find out more, check out this presentation from a Florida Educator conference (FETC). []

Although it is blocked at school, take a look at Twitter. It is a great way (in 140 characters) to connect with other educators. I follow teachers and media specialists and technology teachers. I also follow authors and publishers and book review bloggers. I also follow lots of Atlanta area people and places. I even follow Gwinnet County schools!

Here is an example of how I have used Twitter in my teaching – I put out a tweet out there about finding good readers theater scripts (I was working with the 4th grade focus class on this). An author tweeted back and directed me to her webpage where she had two great scripts based on her non-fiction picture books. I used these scripts with the class and we created a slide show of the finished reader’s theater. I put this up on my blog and I tweeted the link. The author found my tweet, she looked at our students work and she wrote about it on her blog. When I showed the students that they were mentioned on the AUTHORS blog – well they thought it was the coolest thing. I kept in contact with the author via Twitter and we ended up doing a SKYPE author visit with my students this year.

This year I have connected and collaborated with at 5 different teachers (one retired!) and schools in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, New Hamshire and New York. My students have loved sharing lessons and other things with their new “friends” in these areas and I can’t wait to continue the collaborations next year.

**Assignment #4 **: <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;">Write a blog post about how you think you could use a PLN and what tools you could use to create one.