In the class, Educational Technology and Design, we are learning how to expand our personal learning networks. In order to expand my personal learning networks, it is important that I take time to research and understand different forms of technology I can use to connect to others and my classroom!
Before taking this class, I drew a picture of what I thought was my current Personal Learning Network:
As you can see, most of my PLN includes people. While I have a little section for "media," it is not expanded with specific ideas. Throughout this class, my Personal Learning Network has expanded! Here's how:
1. Following on Twitter
To begin the process of expanding my Personal Learning Network, I created a twitter account. I had never had a Twitter account before, but I can recognize the value of using Twitter to connect to the educational world. I started by creating my account name, @missmoeller18.
My favorite use of Twitter, so far, has been following some of my favorite authors. In the future, it would be fun to help connect my students to one of their favorite authors. Here are what some of my favorite authors share with the twitter world:
Mo Willems: Mo Willems is one of my favorite children’s books author. On his account, he shares tips and drawings of his famous pigeon and other doodles. He also answers questions from fans. Here is an example of Mo Willems’ doodles he shares with his fans:
Malala :I also enjoy following Malala, a strong advocate for girls’ education. She shares stories from girls around the world earning an education. She is a strong promoter of education, and
young students can look up to her.
2. Posting on Twitter
Next, I decided to give tweeting a try! Twitter is not just useful to gain information, but it is also useful to share this information with others. I decided to tweet to share what I have learned with others. One of my tweets includes sharing a piece I found on the Malala Fund. Education helps girls live a more dignified life, so I tweeted that education is a right.
3. Pinterest Board
Next, I created a professional Pinterest board. Although I have used Pinterest in the past, I have never had a professional Pinterest account. Having a professional Pinterest board will help me search for lesson plans, classroom management strategies, and even fun crafts that other teachers have used in their classroom. This will be a good start in creating a classroom environment that is inclusive to all.
I decided to follow a few boards pertaining to information literacy. As a future teacher who will use technology in the classroom, it is important that I become more aware of how the presentation of words and images will affect the students. I found a particular board by Aysin Alp that is full of informative pins. Some of these pins lead to sources about finding facts vs fictions. These pins relate to finding reliable resources on the information, which will be important s a teacher and a student to make sure I am getting the most accurate and reliable information.
I was able to expand my personal learning network during Educational Technology and Design. I had never heard about this form of communication until we talked about it in class! When creating a Webquest project, which was a project using collaboration, I was able to use Zoom to have a meeting with my teammates and professor. Zoom allows people to meet with each other virtually in order to collaborate. Not only could I use zoom to discuss a project with fellow students, but it could also be a way to “bring in” a guest speaker for a classroom. Zoom allows the world to become a little bit smaller with access to people from all over the world!
5. Symbaloo
After learning about Symbaloo in class, I decided to create my own account. I decided to follow a board that had been created about elementary science. Symbaloo is a great way to have many reliable resources for students in an extremely organized way. When I created an elementary science board, many different subjects came up. I can search through the sources to become more specific. For example, if I want to learn about fossils, I can chose the “Everything Fossils” tab. If I want to study the sky, I can click on “Types of Clouds.” Symbaloo is a great tool for having many great resources in one place.
6. Podcast
Another way to help grow my personal learning network includes listening to educational podcasts. There are so many great podcasts that really dive deep into different educational topics. Podcasts help with personal learning networking because it allows me to gain new information. Additionally, it may connect me to specialists on a specific subject!
I listened to a podcast by “This American Life.” Although “This American Life” is not strictly an educational podcast, it does have stories on educational topics. I listened to an episode called “The Problem We All Live With.” This episode deals with discussions about reforming schools. Particularly, this looks at desegregation. This episode includes an interview with Nikole Hannah-Jones, a MacArthur Fellow who experienced attending a mostly white school as a black girl in Waterloo, Iowa. This podcast episode is extremely relevant, and it helped me understand how connected this issue of segregation and race in schools is in our educational system.
7. Following a Teacher’s Blog
After learning more about different blogs in Educational Technology and Design, I decided to research different teacher blogs. Since we were able to listen to a recorded lecture by teacher librarian Shannon Miller, I decided to start following her blog: The Library Voice. Shannon Miller’s blog can help keep me up to date on different activities to use in the classroom. Additionally, she also posts about different events, such as The Follett Challenge. The Follett Challenge is a contest for educators to create a video to share about something special that is occurring at their school. Keeping up to date with contests and opportunities like the Follet Challenge allows me, as a future educator, to learn more about events that will help the school I’m at succeed. This blog also has different ideas for student centered learning, so it is a valuable resource to use when creating lessons.
8. Edutopia
I decided to join Edutopia. Edutopia is a community that allows ongoing learners to “Connect, Collaborate, and share resources with people who are passionate about improving education.” I have heard about this great resource in a variety of education classes, so I thought that I should look into it more! This is a wonderful site with all sort of discussions being held over a wide variety of educational topics. Some of the topics even include how to better incorporate education into the classroom. As I was looking at different topics, I decided to read an article about solving real world problems in the classroom! This article looked at a school in Washington DC that focuses on problem based learning. In planning problem based learning, it is important for teachers to ask the big questions that students can solve in a variety of ways! I enjoyed reading this article, so I decided to comment on it. Reading and engaging in comments can help me expand my awareness and connections!
9. Reach out to an author
One of my favorite authors from childhood is Jan Brett. In Kindergarten, I remember having The Mitten read to me. We had a couple of her books in my house growing up, and I would always look for her newest books at the public library! I had always heard that she was an author who would take time to reply to her fans, so I thought I would finally give it a try and send her a message. Through Ed Tech and Design and a children’s literature class, I was inspired to get in touch with a favorite author. I sent her a message telling her a little about myself and asked her for advice about inspiring creativity to young students. I am hoping to get a response from her soon! Reaching out to authors can not only be beneficial to me as a teacher wanted to learn more information and gain new resources, but it could also be a very fun activity for a classroom of students. Reaching out and letting students contact and author can be an empowering experience. They may also gain a new excitement about reading and literacy.
10. Follow on Facebook
Just like Pinterest, I have known about and used Facebook for quite some time. However, as I take more and more education classes, I am recognizing the significance of using Facebook in a professional manner to follow and contribute to educational pages and sources. I looked over a few lists of teachers to follow on Facebook, and I decided to check them out to see what they are all about. One of my favorites so far has been “Clever Classroom.” This is a page that was created by a teacher in Australia, and it offers a space for teachers to share their experiences. Specifically, this page focuses on resources to use in the classroom. One of my favorite things about this page is that it offers a chance for fellow teachers to have input about a certain experience. This helps other teachers gain ideas for their classroom! I started following a recent post asking what daily routines teachers use that they are proud of. There are already some great ideas to develop routine in the classroom, such as having calendar time each day or meditation after lunch. For now, it is incredibly helpful to receive such suggestions so I can think how I can incorporate them in a future classroom environment. In the future, I hope to be able to contribute to conversations such as these!
After working to expand my PLN, I created my post map to show how it has expanded. While my pre-map appears to have a lot of circles, at a closer glance it can be obvious that most of those circles could be categorized under "people." Throughout the semester, I was able to expand my awareness of my PLN and include many more resources, such as web and media sources and social media. These, along with people I am in almost daily contact with, are great sources to continue to expand my education. I hope you can use some of these ideas to expand your knowledge, too!
*All images unless otherwise cited are screen captured by Catherine Moeller
