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I’m sure you are coming to realize the awesome power of Twitter and your PLN. But you may be finding it a bit hard to keep up. Given the global nature of your PLN, you have information coming at you 24 hours a day. Not only that, but from several different programs. I have profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. I save myself time by streemlining all my inboxes to one nifty Social Media Dashboard. A Social Media Dashboard allows you to view all your incoming messages in one place, but also allows you to filter incoming messages and send messages to multiple social networks simultaneously. I personally selected TweetDeck (see the screencast below) for its ease of use, but there are other programs out there. HootSuite is another popular option. Select one that suites your needs and use it.

Remember, it’s all about baby steps. All this new information can be overwhelming. It may seem as impossible to conquer as climbing Mt. Everest at this point. DON’T give up! DO pick 5 tools to use consistently through the year.

Regardless if you choose to blog with your students as suggested above, reflection is a critical process in learning. Blogging is, in essence, a reflection: your inner thoughts about your experiences (and a great way to demonstrate your own digital literacy skills and expectations to your students).

The U.S. Department of Education has declared August Connected Educator Month, and since we’d be nothing without the teachers we’ve connected with over the years, we’re enthusiastically on board.To celebrate, we asked every educator who has written a guest post for us, been featured in a Reader Idea, or collaborated on one of our features to answer two simple questions:What is one important thing you’ve learned from someone in your Personal Learning Network (P.L.N.), however you define that network?What one person, group or organization would you recommend every educator add to his or her P.L.N.?Reading their responses, below, is a crash course in how to be a “connected educator.” By our count, together they’ve recommended more than 100 people, organizations, sites and other resources you can learn from right now, as well as shared insights on how to learn from them.