Reflecting Upon My Personal Learning Network

RSS Feeds:

Using my blog, I created an RSS feed that subscribes to New York Times Education, Education Week, and Education Next alongside many news resources like BBC and NPR.  Each RSS feed shows the headlines of five news stories at a time and I can read through each and choose an article that interests me. RSS feeds keep me updated on new educational research and worldwide news quicker and require me to go to only one source (my blog) to view upcoming news.  I learned some pedagogical ideas about teaching including having high standards for students to reach, allowing high school students more time to sleep in the morning to increase cognition, and allowing students to create learning menus to personalize learning.  One of my favorite articles from Education Week was 'Learning Menus' Empower Students to Tailor Curriculum which discusses programs that allow students to choose different ways to meet core curriculum standards.  For example, while all students have to participate in note taking on a certain subject and complete an activity, students get to choose from a number of options about how their assessment should occur. They can do projects, puzzles, videos, etc. to show that they have mastered certain subject matter. These choices allow students to take responsibility for their own education and personalize learning in a way that maximizes progress and engagement. I would not have happened upon this article without the RSS feed from Education Week that fed directly to my blog. Of all the education feeds I subscribed to, I enjoyed Education Week the most, because the news stories featured there were more pedagogical and offered more insight on best teaching practices. The New York Times Education feed was broader in the education domain and included information as critical as educational policy and as frivolous as qualities appreciated in college dorm roommates.

Twitter:

For my twitter account I followed DML Research Hub, Edutopia, Education Nation, NEA today, EdWeek Teacher, Politics K-12,  and U.S. News Education. I really enjoyed using twitter in my personal learning network because the educational groups I followed offered great resources about the field of education. I especially enjoyed the fact that twitter only allows users 140 characters to share their ideas, so ideas are concise and straightforward. It made browsing much easier. I chose to follow these organizations because they offered a lot of resources and because I had already had some of the organizations in my RSS feed and knew they had great credibility. I followed discussion hashtags: #edtech, #education,  and #edreform. I learned some of the upcoming technology uses in the classroom and more about the implementation of iPads. In addition I learned about some of the reform policies and how certain organizations/people advocate for extreme reform policy (total personalized learning with little accountability of standardization) or reform in moderation.  I did not post any tweets myself.

Diigo:

Although diigo allows you to access your bookmarks from any computer, because I always have my laptop with me, I found it to be of little use in that regard.  However, I do think that it can be a great networking tool because it allows you to form groups with like-minded people and have access to their resources, which can give you a more wide array of material.  For example, upon doing a group project on up and coming educational video games, I networked with two classmates and we were all able to combine our resources and research onto one page.

Ning Group EDU PLN

I enjoyed this Ning group because it offered a variety of resources including blogs, discussions, education links, and videos. Like many blogs, the quality of each depended upon the user, but most of the blogs posted on EDU PLN were professional and helpful.  I really enjoyed reading some of the discussion forums because they were concise and provided insight on a number of topics in the education domain.  Many of the videos featured on the EDU PLN website discussed how to have appropriate netiquette and included topics like how quickly to respond to emails, how to protect yourself by using privacy settings, and what words and phrases to avoid during digital discussions that are disrespectful.

Overall Reflection on PLN

I think that the tools in my PLN would help me greatly in my career as a teacher because they provide networking opportunities for me and keep me updated on the latest resources and research. In regard to networking, I feel that the most helpful tool in my PLN was twitter because I could follow a number of educators, researchers, and education organizations. I also found that twitter, with its concise statements and hashtags, made searching for resources much quicker and easier.  I felt that although Diigo and EDU PLN also had networking options, that the networking possibilities were much more limiting because there were not as many members as Twitter.  My favorite tool in my Personal Learning Network is the RSS feeds which allow me to browse through the upcoming and current news and research quicker and without the hassle of visiting multiple sites. I really enjoyed being able to go to my blog and read the headlines of current new stories to decide which topics interested me.

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