Personal Learning Network, or PLN

Since networking is one of the most important things in any profession, it was no surprise that developing my own Personal Learning Network, or PLN, was an assignment for my Integrating Technology into the Curriculum class.

The concept of using Twitter as a PLN tool in education was new to me. My experience with Twitter up to this point was either reading Twitter headlines on my smart phone, or tweeting marketing announcements in my prior business life.

Since I don't have a classroom of my own yet, I am of "new teacher" status and want to pick up any tips and tricks I can. When I searched #ntchat (new teacher chat) I found a post by Jessica Lahey who wrote about Three Things Students Wish Teachers Knew, for the New Yrok Times. Jessica summarizes the result of her poll:

"... So there you have it teachers of America: Be fair, consider your homework assignments carefully and with an eye to utility, and treat sutdents like people ..."

Next, I was ready to tackle participating in an #edchat. A edchat is a weekly scheduled conversation (chat), via Twitter that focuses on the topic of education. The chat I joined was #nt2t (new teacher to Twitter). I participated using TWUBS. I have no idea what it stands for. TWitter U Be Smart? Not really, but that's how I remember it. The best part of using TWUBS is that the chat stream can be slowed down or sped up. Try a #chat yourself and you'll see exactly why this is important.

The contributors shared many useful insights and links. When something looked interesting to me I "favorited" it, which saves the original tweet for future reference. There were several questions about how to use Twitter, so I posted a link to Dummies Twitter Cheat Sheet and it was favorited! Since I used Google link shortener I can see that, to date, that link was clicked 17 times. How's that for positive reinforcement?

Of the many education resources I found on Twitter, I found a post on the chat, #sped, that caught my attention from Linda Lighter @LisaLightnerll who is an advocate for special needs. She addressed the issue of students being sent home for behavior. In special ed, behavior is of special interest to me, so I'm glad I found her blog from #sped as a resource.

#sped chat on TWUBS

There is so much information out there, it takes awareness and intention when developing and using a PLN. Otherwise, you may find yourself quoting actress Betty White from Saturday Night Live in 2010. She was talking about Facebook, but any social media can be inserted here:

“I really have to thank Facebook. When I first heard about the campaign to get me to host Saturday Night Live, I didn’t know what facebook was and now that I do know what it is, I have to say it sounds like a huge waste of time” -Betty White

Betty White has been on Twitter since 2012 and her last post was May 30th: The Official Twitter Page of Betty White. I think it's important to keep a sense of humor in life. So here is a link to some fun Betty White quotes.