PLN

My PLN has been created during Dr. Strange's EDM 31o class and I am always working on improving and adding to it. There are several different things that make up my PLN and ways in which I have aquired them-mostly through assignments given by Dr. Strange (ah-thank you!). As I have began to watch the videos by Michael Wesch, read the posts by W. Chamberlain and Mr. McClung, and following a blog by a three year old in Qatar named Kaia, I have pieced together a foundation for a digital learning network that I can always update and collaborate on.

By registering for Delicious, I have an online bookmarking database that not only keeps track of the websites that I want to remember, but can also generate other websites that are related to the ones I have saved. This is so useful, I have already gone onto my Delicious account in order to reference websites for information, projects, answers to questions, and suggestions for fellow students.

I have created two separate blogs at www.blogger.com one being my EDM 310 class blog which you are reading right now, the other being my professional blog at  

Dillon's Professional Blog . 

I use these blogs for different reasons. The class blog is less formal and more for research, collaboration, community growth, and virtual exploration/review. I can post videos I've seen that are useful in the educational community or for my personal interest. I can also post reactions to websites, reviews, articles, blogs, comments, and any other sources online.

The professional blog is more formal and is also for online collaboration between other educators. This blog is more like a digital RESUME for my profession as a teacher and my philosophy as an educator. It is centered around my idea of what a classroom should be like and includes resources I will use as a teacher. You can learn to create a professional blog the way I learned by viewing this video by Dr. Strange at How To Create A Professional Blog.

I have become a member of the Twitter network and am still learning to Tweet but I have been able to read and subscribe to others' Twitter networks and it is a great networking tool for the teaching community.

I have learned to Skype and am currently teaching my parents and long distance family members how to Skype as an approach to staying connected. I have done research on Skype and have had the opportunity through my class to speak with someone all the way across the world who teaches. This is real-time communication and learning and I have already begun to think of ways I can successfully incorporate it into a classroom setting. The possibilities are endless!

I have created videos on my Mac computer and posted them to a website I have been following 

Dear Kaia in which I read a book to a three year old little girl named Kaia from Qatar. She has responded, with the support from her parents, by reading a book to me and posting the video to her blog. I have established written, verbal, and video representation of a PLN in these ways and have learned so much from it. 

Having a PLN as a teacher in this Century is mandatory. It is the foundation to becoming technologically literate. It should not be an option. It is the equivalent to having an Educational Network through school but this way has much more options, less time constraints, and more possibilities. Like I said, The possibilities are endless!

* Name dropping in green