Journal 7 NETS-T 5

My Professional Learning Network

What is my PLN:
My PLN is my professional learning network. It is something that is web based (in the cloud) and is a resource I am creating by using tools that interest me and that I find helpful. By creating a web based PLN as a future teacher I will be able to access any of my tools anywhere I am, and I will so be able to share it easily with other people, teachers, parents, students and peers. Creating my PLN is something that I can constantly change and upgrade but it is a great place to start connecting with other teaching and educational professionals. Having a PLN is a great way to get ideas and resources from other people that have been working with kids for a while and also with people who are new to the field that may have fresh ideas. Having a digital PLN gives me the ability to learn about new resources and ask questions from people across the world. It is one of the best resources to have and update because it is such an accessible tool and will be so helpful when I join the professional field.

Twitter:
The people I am following on twitter now are

• calisafe
• A site for CA safe schools. Has interesting little topics that discuss school safety
• NatGeoSociety
• The National Geographic twitter account. I think it may have interesting updates and postings and is a great resource for fun information about things in nature.
• usedgov
• US department of education. This will be helpful as a national source of information on education
• MrWejr
• He's a high school principal, a great resource as someone who is in the field and may have great ideas and updates for educators.
• jheil65
• A wonderful twitter resource. Constantly giving updates for informational resources and interesting tools for educators.
• aba_behaviour
• speech therapy plus. I am interested in becoming a speech therapist so I thought this would be a great resource eventually.

On Twitter I followed the #edchat, for Tuesday November 2,2010 at 4 pm. The topic was about if teachers' observations should be more subjective. I think this is a great topic. There are teachers that need to remember how they are testing us, and it would be helpful if they took their own tests. Sometimes teachers present material in a way that is not testable. Teachers who for example show personal images or silent videos may believe they are giving students a break from lecture, but they then give a subjective test on information never presented.
Within the discuss someone responded posing another question asking if students are ever involved in pre and post observation meetings. This is something I would love to be involved in for some professors. There are professors that are horrible, just horrible that need to be pointed out and have a discussion. I have had horrible professors I have complained about at lengths only to discover they are chair of their department and therefore quite difficult to report. There are also professors who may be average teachers but their support and help outside the classroom in office hours and through helpful emails is where they need to be recognized and observed. These teachers spend timeless hours and bend over backwards to make the student understand the material. They should be recognized by their students.
Delicious:
The people I have added to my delicious network are

• Dan Serrato
• Dr. William Bauer
• Jefferey
• Mark Wagner, Ph.D
• Robert Petkus
• Will Richardson

Many of the people I have decided to have in my delicious network are people that I recognize that consistently post bookmarks for educational sites and tools. Many of these delicious users also have their own blogs and or wiki's where that present information, talk about their tools and resources they find helpful and also they discuss topics that interest them. I am not sure who all these people are, what they do, or where they live but I am eager to use their tools and resources to add to my PLN.
Some of the things I tagged in delicious were

• USGS Education-US Geologic Survey, information and resources with maps etc.
• ERIC- Education Resources Information Center
• US Department of Education
• EDU Blogs
• Kathy Schrock's ed tech blogs

I joinged Classroom 2.0. This website has so much information! I was looking at Steve Hargadon's blog. He is one of the people who started classroom 2.0 he also has connections with blackboard, he is on the chair for the global education conference, and many other things. His blog isn't about current topics, it is more an informative schedule of events and interviews taking place through classroom 2.0. I read a blog post by a man who is concerned about the future of text books. He was curious as to what is going to happen with them because history is happening so fast, will the old history be less relevant, and second will it all be digital. I thought it was an interesting question. I personally dislike reading on the computer. I don't feel like I comprehend the material as well if I can't physically read and take notes on the page. I also would understand though that if students start at a young age in elementary school and begin reading on a computer then they may be used to it and find it easier, less material to carry around, have internet access to it wherever they want etc.

Digital Discussion Forum:
I joined classroom 2.0.