I have done a lot of reading about PLNs. I find I can't just jump in without tons of knowledge first. I have connected with these: the FischBowl blog has been great and Jeff Utecht at the ThinkingStick and a personal account from a teacher of her students PLNs at JessiesBlog.
I have spent just over 4 hours here in cyberspace but I did accomplish a lot. After much searching this week today I did joined Twitter, WeTheTeachers, and Classroom 2.0. My network did consist of this class, my teaching partners at school, and NSTA biolist. I keep track of my updates on Google Reader (did that last week). I am now as busy as I think I want to be.
My one question- Will this benefit me in the classroom? If it does not benefit me for my students I don't know if I will keep it.
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You will need to put some time in to Twitter & the "blogosphere" this summer to see if it works for you. It is something that is growing and has huge potential for changing the ways that teachers and students share and collaborate.
ReplyDeleteIt seems with technology that there are jumper-iners and research, observe, strategize and then jumper-iners. I am of the later much like you. This week, I've been following many of the tweets, reading lots about PLN, but slow to expand my PLN at an exponential rate.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I've read the FischBowl blog, I haven't connected to it; reasoning? I'm still trying to figure out who should be in my PLN. My role as a science educator is inside a corporation. It's year-round, and incorporates a variety of science education to a variety of school settings. Therefore, I'm going to continue to define my PLN needs, explore and build from there...
One of the things I'm considering is the exchange of valuable information. I just returned from a Thermal Biology course at MSU. I will be posting videos I took (as soon as I learn how to download them from my camera to my computer) that may be helpful to your high school biology course. The videos cover mud volcanoes, geysers and a scientist explaining microorganisms. And then if they are useful to you, I'd love to know how/if you used them in your classroom. (Maybe this is something we'll tweet about...)
So here's to exploring the benefits of Web tools slowly together!
P.S. My blogspot is http://webbedscience.blogspot.com. I'll send a tweet when the videos are up.
Your role in teaching is different. I understand why you would be careful. I want only a network that I can learn from that will benefit my students. I expect my needs will change and so will my PLNs I wonder what happens to all those sites i have attached my name to, i feel like I am leaving refuse around the web when I am done with them. I am keeping track so I can un-network them. I will look forward to your videos.
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