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I have led professional development, and shaped a series of professional development classes, to assist teachers in the adoption of one to one laptop programs. Saying that, I couldn't agree with this blog post more. The dynamic change in resource for teachers, and the ever shifting landscape of technology, makes many teachers feel a sense of frustration in attempting to get a handle on what's "out there". This post articulates, and I believe my experience validates, that the answer to engaging these issues does not lie in more and more professional development, but rather, assisting teachers in the creation of their own learning networks for both support and guidance. PLN's are not only more effectual, professional development is expensive. I brought someone in to help our teachers establish personal PLN's, but I don't believe I properly considered how important this was to the process. As I'm quickly learning, PLN creation and engagement may well be at the foundation of any school transformation. ts

If I were to be honest (and I guess, why not), I would like to develop professional development that would assist learners toward meaningful understanding and engagement of PLN's. For me, the missing link is the PLE. I'm still grappling with that myself. What should my computer screen look like? I get your dingo's, the elephant head thing, tweetering, et al. I still struggle with a mental picture of how my new computer screen looks. What exactly is going on there? I think that is step one in this. Somehow. I'm going to figure this out. Somehow. And yes, I get the irony of posting a PD is dead reflection-and than wanting to create PD. Kind of not functionally getting it.....still missing something visually.....hmmmmm.....(love the process though:)..... ts

Timothy, I am confident that by the end of the term you will have a handle on this brave new world- including your computer screen.

WP Teacher is a plugin that allows teachers to use WordPress to their advantage by integrating course content into their personal website to enhance student learning. WP Teacher is built with easy-to-use features that will make his or her WordPress experience easier. WP Teacher functions like typical blog postings, but it provides additional features to maximize student learning. All the features work together. The plugin is maximized for customization, which makes it perfect for multi-site WordPress installation.

This is one of the fastest-rising educational social networks you should know about. Twiducate got me excited from the start with the unique approach to setting up your classroom online: the teacher does all the work and then students just get a simple code to punch in. Then, voila! They're all set up and have an account! Twiducate was started in 2009 and focuses on giving teachers more control than they'd typically expect to find in a free social network. Twiducate is all about creating a "safer online learning environment" and it shows. The site, even from the start as I mentioned, takes great care in putting the power of the tool in the hands of the teacher. Whether you agree with the tact or not, it's worth checking out Twiducate.

As an online 9-12 teacher and parent of three teenagers, I know that the majority of students have Facebook accounts and spend time each day socializing through this technology median. I have often accused Facebook as being a distraction from homework and "real socializing". This article helps me rethink the use of Facebook. The old adage comes to mind, "If you can't beat them, join them". I loved the practical suggestions this paper brings forth, such as making my own "Teacher Profile" that they can keep as a friend. Through this means, students will be able to chat with me about homework whenever we are online, as well as visit my page for useful resources. Sure we can introduce other software programs to provide these teacher interaction services to students such as e-mail, Moodle and Pronto, but why not work with a program they already know and love...In addition, the topic of Facebook profiles and postings can also provide "meaningful" classroom discussions about ethics and self dignity. Thank you, Amy Brown for putting this resource together.

When I first started using Facebook, I was determined to keep it exclusively made up of my real friends. I was living abroad at the time so it was a great way to stay in touch with friends. As it gained in popularity I started getting requests from students which, even though I primarily teach adults, I ignored out of a sense of professionalism. Eventually I did friend a few students who I considered actual friends and that opened the floodgates to friend requests from every student. I felt obligated to accept them and before long I couldn't use Facebook without second-guessing everything I posted and worrying about what my friends might post. I only used Facebook as an email alternative for a few years before I became confident in the privacy settings and once again felt comfortable that I really was only socializing with my friends and not also every student, distant relative and elementary school classmate I had ever had. I think the moral of the story is that instead of using Facebook as the One True Social Network, it's better to have smaller, more specialized social networks for different purposes, such as an EduBlog set up for one individual class.

John you bring up really good points. I share the same concerns and try not to accept every friend request I receive or offer friendship just because I recognize a name.

This blog is in response to the Lee County School District and their policy of use on Facebook with teachers and current students. The blog is well thought out with various views. The author, Karl, is a professor, consultant, speaker, scholar, and expert on the convergence of learning, technology and business operations. He seems to have a good knowledge base to make his argument.

You have to check out this YouTube video of a 7th grade student giving a tour of her personal learning environment. The project was conducted as part of dissertation research implementing the use of networked learning and construction of personal learning environments in a 7th grade life science class.

I am quite humbled by this girl. Wow!

That was a great example of how good students can become at using new tools to construct and organize learning. I am impressed with both the student and the teacher. The teacher must be very dedicated and organized. The student claims that the class is basically paperless. I have never heard of the note taking program she referenced, and I think that can be helpful for me in this masters program! I also have never seen the digital poster application she used. The best part of this video is that it is proof that educational technology is being used well is some classrooms.

I just learned two valuable lessons…one write your work outside of the textboxes and save it because your computer may freeze and you'll lose your work…how many times have I told my online students this, yet I did the same mistake?! Secondly, develop a system of finding the same resource over again. Perhaps save it in your favorites or copy and paste the link somewhere… I spent 15 minutes trying to refind my resource. Grrr. Back to the purpose of this post...This video link provided a summary of how teachers can use a PLN such as Twitter to "stream" information for use in their classrooms. You can take what you like or let the information float by knowing that more information always comes down the stream. It provides a simple visual example of using PLN. Much of the information contained in the video has already been stated throughout our Diigo group, but I chose it because I liked how it summarized PLNs. I actually used my newly established Twitter account to find this resource. I typed "Personal Learning Networks" into the search field , scanned through the posts that were in English, found one with "teachers" in the title, which is my interest and reviewed the resource posted. I liked the resource and felt I should share it with my Boise peers. From this point, I can read further into the topic by clicking on related links or I can explore the person's profile that provided the link to get to know the source. However, I chose to take the information and move on in the interest of time. Perfect!

I love this video! I posted an article about Twitter before I watched this video, now I have even more information I can bring back to my principal to support the use of Twitter. Thanks for posting this!

I like the link. I like how descriptive it is, and it gives an interesting introduction. In my last class, (522) I did a web cast presentation on how to use twitter effectively for teaching purposes. This video validates a lot of my research on the use of twitter in education. There are so many cool social media outlets, I wonder what the next "biggest thing" will be? The presenter's English accent threw me at first, but then I envied his brogue.

This was an interesting blog post that essentially asks, is it better to remain uninformed? This is a very real question for the passionate educator. Once one connects in to best practices, it can become increasingly difficult to abide in the current practice of one's own school. As an example, my wife is a nationally board certified teacher, she works in a private school with great resources (her third grade classroom is one to one laptops) , but through fairly poor leadership, the technology largely remains outside the circle of meaningful practice in her school. Her peers largely rejected any thought of instructional transformation, and as a result, her school has essentially provided every student a laptop computer to utilize as a sixth textbook, or a word processor. Being a progressive educator, engaging in professional reading, and attending conferences, can be incredibly frustrating when one understands the possibilities and sees dynamic change occurring elsewhere. It's almost like you are standing outside the gate, seeing the party, but have no means of entering. This might seem like whining, and the comments in the post somewhat bear that out, but it is part of the burden one must assume in working to create change. So, is ignorance bliss? In all honesty, sometimes it can feel so.... ts

If I may... There just may be areas of life about which we are better off not knowing, but I'm not sure. Then again, I'm happy that many hostile biologists do not possess the sequence and the genetic code for the small pox virus. Your addition to this page does raise some interesting questions.

Whenever I read or hear "Ignorance is bliss" I can't help but see thee image of Cypher chomping down on a huge steak in the Matrix. While there are definitely areas in life where mankind should remain ignorant (nobody wants that seventh grader bringing a laser gun to class), teachers being more aware of better practices or what's happening in more technologically advanced schools is one of them. Seeing these new ideas can lead the teacher to ask, "How can I make that work in my classroom even if I don't have everything they have?" At least a passionate educator might. The dispassionate educator probably isn't even utilizing a PLN.

Here is another link to the ideas of Harry Wong.

Hey Dennis, Teachers.net looks like an interesting network, but I didn't understand how the specific link you've provided here informs us about social networks or PLCs, in particular.

The article is a good display of how to use social media in a school. I especially liked the first comment I highlighted because it states plainly what we already know that kids are accessing social media sites, we should move with them and teach them how to use those sites safely and for good purposes. The article goes on to explain about sites that can be used for free that are kid and school friendly like edmodo, edublogs and kidblog.org. The article also offers teacher input from those teachers willing to try social media in their class and the results it produced. I think Elizabeth Delmatoff made a strong case for using and keeping her pilot social media program. I couldn't agree more with the concluding statement, "The teachers and parents who embrace social media say the best way to keep kids safe, online or offline, is to teach them."

This article describes what social networking is and why teachers should use it in schools. It brings up a lot of good questions about how social networking can be used in the classroom. The article also addresses a lot of the issues involved in bringing this type of technology into the classroom.

Check out http://academia.edu/

I am now a member and follower! Looks like a great place to network and find jobs.

This article was useful to me because I have recently started to use Twitter in my own classroom as a way to get information out to other teachers as well as a tool for me to find other resources. The questions that this article presented for me are how many teachers out there use Twitter? I am constantly trying to find data to support my use, just in case the principal gets a nasty email or phone call about it. I have had nothing but positive thoughts from parents on the use of Twitter, but that could change is the wrong person found out. I have actually became a little more at ease since reading this article. I now have a good resource to finding other links on Twitter and this is something that I can show my principal to support the use of Twitter.

Keefe, This article was useful because it demystified the Personal Learning Network (PLN) usefulness for educational purposes. Some of the questions that the article prompted for me was how to utilize Twitter. I especially enjoyed reading about how Twitter was used for professional research networking. I feel that short tweets can lead to ground breaking theories that have not been presented on the internet. I also noted that there were 38 blog posts for this article. Thanks for sharing your insights. Brenda Janot

Andy Carvin is the host of this PBS blog that covers everything from the extent to which teachers are obligated to police the social networks to a student nearly being expelled for administering a facebook study group for his college course. The posts were thought provoking as were some of the responses.

This is a great resource for finding great tools found in Google for educators. A lot of great things are out there and the teachers in this group are great at filling you in! I liked Google templates in particular. It's a great resource for history teachers. The time line template would be a great activity for my art history students. http://diigo.com/0d2vd

Similar to parts of Edutopia and the WordPress Buddypress plugin, TeachAde hosts a number of useful discussion groups and offers plenty of free education resources. Billing itslef as "the first social networking website designed specifically for educators that is completely free and easy to use," TeachAde promises a host of activities, nearly 60,000 resources, core materials, a daily digital planner, and even a 'find a colleague' feature that I personally find the most compelling reason to try out the site. After all, isn't connected learning all about actually, you know, connecting with your fellow learners? TeachAde holds great promise and all the parts are there. Now it just needs your help and input. I've been tinkering with TeachAde for a few weeks now and it's proven to be very useful for finding peer-reviewed resources.

I liked this article because it relates social media to both formal and informal learning. The first comment that intrigued me by Quinn, "The recognition that learning is 80% informal suggests that we need to support natural connections between people who can help one another". As teachers/trainers we should be trying to access all the tools in our tool belt to accomplish the greatest amount of learning. He goes on to say that social media can be a huge payoff in formal settings. By accessing informal learning methods of social media we can access 80% of the learning that is going to happen. It may even accelerate the learning experiences because drawing upon personal experiences allows the learner to apply it to other problems to solve. This leads to Quinn's assertion, "Having one place to go for additional resources around the topic, and to have that portal incorporated into the learning, anchors the learning in the real world, and provides scaffolding both in the task and to performance beyond the task."

Thanks Lora, this article really provides a rich summary of the topic. It would be interesting to try to document all of the informal learning that occurs in a day.... my brother helps me with my portfolio web site, I give my sister the answer to a health-related question, the list goes on and on. Just think how much could be accomplished with the addition of social media tools.

This article in the First Coast News is about how the Lee County School District is limiting teachers use of Facebook with current students. It is a very interesting take on how to use a social network site and learning.

As a teacher of English to non-natives I was curious to see if there were any existing social networks for language learners. I found this one, called KanTalk, that uses Skype to allow people to connect and practice their English. Users can select a topic and they will be directed to a page with a relevant video clip from YouTube, a few discussion questions, a short reading text and a few vocabulary words. When they are ready to practice speaking, they can choose a partner from a list of registered users and invite them to chat on Skype. If the partner accepts, the two can then use the discussion questions as prompts for a conversation. The users can also record themselves speaking and listen to/comment on other learners recordings. Learners can form and join groups based on interests, culture, exams or any other criteria they choose. KanTalk seems to be a clever way to add a social network framework to an existing technology for educational purposes

Very interesting concept, I love how the platform makes learning connections not only through its portal but by utilizing Skype. I heard today that there are more people that have Skype accounts than gmail accounts. I'm using Skype a lot more in my work lately, how about you?

That is a very cool site an idea! I may have to check that one out because I am moving to Germany soon, maybe our family could benefit from this site to learn German!