PLN-Professional Learning Network Colin Matheson Carmel Unified School District First Year as a Full Time Technology Coach Taught Science for 7 years

PLN-Professional Learning Network Any group of people sharing the same profession or interests that share ideas This conference is an example of a PLN Your department is an example of a PLN

Frictionless Medium The internet allows us to form PLNs with more people and much more easily “A frictionless medium for communication”- some BBC reporter Keep the conference energy alive Why write a letter when you can ? Why when you can text/twitter?

PLN also Stands For Personal Learning Network Informal Learning “Just In Time” Learning Social Learning Theory: Bandura, Vygotsky Professional Learning Community-PLC

My PLN success stories Copyright law One to one computing-real people with real stories Teaching evolution discussion Canadian Math Teacher Moodle Site #edchat

The stages of PLN membership 1.Lurking/Skimming 2.Asking for help/opinions 3.Giving help/opinions 4.Starting something (group/discussion) 5.Joining every social network possible 6.Becoming overwhelmed and dropping the whole thing 7.Finding the right balance

Twitter The Human Search Engine/Your Personal Newsfeed Some Basic Terminology RT, DM, Shorten Urls Setting up your profile –Notifications Pick one username, use the same , and a consistent password for all of your PLN sites

Who to Follow? The people in this room – Other people’s followers Lists – – Manage it with a “client” –Tweetdeck, Hootsuite

Nings Smaller Social Networks (Usually Interest Based) –Profile, notifications/subsciptions

Social Bookmarking Diigo/Delicious –Diigo has a few more features (groups, sticky notes) –Accounts can be synced so you really are using both Use tags to classify –Your school, district, department, class could set up a tag to collect all of your finds Can install a toolbar to make it easy to maintain and share a single list of bookmarks from any computer

Many Other Ways to Connect… Google/Yahoo Groups –hs chem group – tmhttp:// tm Listservs –AP College Board – page/7173.htmlhttp://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/home page/7173.html

Many Other Ways to Connect… Curriki – –Share lesson plans Platform/Software specific discussions –

I have always relied on the kindness of strangers Great sites where: –teachers have shared their lessons –People/companies/universities have created and posted great animations/activities

PLN Extends That Tradition Now I can ask my network and get recommendations from other professionals. This makes it easier for me to find great resources. The cloud also makes sharing easier. Make the internet human again