The field of professional Education has no shortage of acronyms. IEP, PARCC, SLO, STROM… (Confession: I made that last one up. But you thought about Googling it for a split second, didn’t you?) This week’s acronym is “PLN”, which depending on the source stands for Professional Learning Network, or Personal Learning Network. For me, it stands for both. Your PLN typically refers to others within your professional field with whom you are connected on social media. I rely on my network of professional educators on Twitter, Google+, and even occasionally Facebook as a professional resource. But since it’s MY network, chosen for my own learning, that makes it personalized. And isn’t "personalized" the kind of learning and professional development most teachers want?
I’ve been on Twitter for about 6 years, but I honestly didn’t use it for much beyond entertainment until early 2015. When I attended my first ICE Conference I set up a separate “professional” account on Twitter and started tweeting with the conference hashtag. By the end of my two days there my number of followers had already surpassed the number on my personal account that I’d been using for four years!
But the moment I truly realized the power of Twitter as a professional development and networking tool was when I participated in my first Twitter Chat. [For those of you not familiar with the format, a pre-assigned moderator posts a series of questions (usually 10 over the course of one hour), and all participants respond using a “Q1/A1” format. The important thing to remember when participating in a Twitter chat is that all Tweets must include the assigned hashtag, for example #iledchat.] Twitter chats are a great place to share and receive ideas, strategies, and resources with fellow educators from around the globe. Probably half of the people I follow--and those who follow me--are teachers I've met in scheduled Twitter chats. A very detailed list of popular education hashtags, along with a schedule of regular chats, can be found at Cybrary Man’s website.
For the Twitter novice, figuring out those #hashtags and ‘@’ symbols can seem overwhelming. But once you get used to the navigation and format, Twitter is a goldmine of ideas and resources.
If you want your posts to contain more substance (no 140-character limit), and your content more easily organized by topics of interest to you, Google+ is worth exploring. You can create or join groups focused around a specific grade-level, subject, learning style, or technology. ILEdChat is a great place to start, especially for my fellow Illinois residents.
I have found ideas and resources on social networks to improve and enhance my teaching and coaching. But perhaps more significantly, I owe my job as an Instructional Technology Coach to my active participation in these networks. Job postings often appear on both Twitter and Google+, and I secured more interviews through my online connections than I ever did through Applitrack postings alone. Talk to your friendly neighborhood technology coach to find out how to make your PLN work for you and your students!
I’ve been on Twitter for about 6 years, but I honestly didn’t use it for much beyond entertainment until early 2015. When I attended my first ICE Conference I set up a separate “professional” account on Twitter and started tweeting with the conference hashtag. By the end of my two days there my number of followers had already surpassed the number on my personal account that I’d been using for four years!
But the moment I truly realized the power of Twitter as a professional development and networking tool was when I participated in my first Twitter Chat. [For those of you not familiar with the format, a pre-assigned moderator posts a series of questions (usually 10 over the course of one hour), and all participants respond using a “Q1/A1” format. The important thing to remember when participating in a Twitter chat is that all Tweets must include the assigned hashtag, for example #iledchat.] Twitter chats are a great place to share and receive ideas, strategies, and resources with fellow educators from around the globe. Probably half of the people I follow--and those who follow me--are teachers I've met in scheduled Twitter chats. A very detailed list of popular education hashtags, along with a schedule of regular chats, can be found at Cybrary Man’s website.
For the Twitter novice, figuring out those #hashtags and ‘@’ symbols can seem overwhelming. But once you get used to the navigation and format, Twitter is a goldmine of ideas and resources.
If you want your posts to contain more substance (no 140-character limit), and your content more easily organized by topics of interest to you, Google+ is worth exploring. You can create or join groups focused around a specific grade-level, subject, learning style, or technology. ILEdChat is a great place to start, especially for my fellow Illinois residents.
I have found ideas and resources on social networks to improve and enhance my teaching and coaching. But perhaps more significantly, I owe my job as an Instructional Technology Coach to my active participation in these networks. Job postings often appear on both Twitter and Google+, and I secured more interviews through my online connections than I ever did through Applitrack postings alone. Talk to your friendly neighborhood technology coach to find out how to make your PLN work for you and your students!