I am truly excited about the creation of my PLN (Personal Learning Network). It is my personally selected community of professionals whom I can share information with digitally at any time. There are so many professionals online who are always ready, willing, and able to help you expand your field of knowledge. I feel like I've tapped into a goldmine!
I created my PLN by using Twitter, Diigo, and Classroom 2.0. These are social networking sites used often by professionals as a way to share ideas and enhance your professional journey.
On Twitter, I am following a few classmates who are in the same process of building their own PLNs. Many of my classmates are pursuing a career in education, like me, so adding them to my PLN allows me to gain not only from my experiences, but from theirs as well. I also found a handful of educators who have tagged various education sites with hints, tips, and great ideas that are now within my reach. Equally exciting to me are the people I added in my network who are SLPs (speech language pathologists), which is the profession I am pursuing. These are SLPeeps, OnSpecEd, ASHAweb, RCSLT, and kidslanguage.
I followed a chat in Twitter: "How can Web 2.0 tools (including blogs) be used effectively with elementary students?" on #elemchat 4/9/11 where a question was posed, "What is your favorite Web 2.0 tool used in the classroom?" Within the 20 minutes I followed, I was introduced to quite a few tools I had not yet heard of. I was intrigued. Here are a few: Kidlblog.org, Glogster, Tagxedo, Voicethread, ReadWriteThink, Voki, StoryBird, Blabberize. I saved the discussion so I can look into these tools later. Some comments on these tools in the discussion: "My D.O. blocks Glogster," "Voicethread is easier than typing," "ReadWriteThink has great activities for kids," "Voki is good for kids who struggle with writing," "My 2nd graders love StoryBird!" The comments that stood out most for me were about blogging: "Blogging for an audience really makes a difference," "Blogging allows quiet students to be heard," "My shyest student is my most enthusiastic blogger." What a powerful tool!
In Diigo I added a few educators to my PLN who have an impressive compilation of resources. I wanted to add them because they've been doing this for a long time, and I'm sure I will benefit from what they have to share. These are Nicole Lakusta, Natalie Lafferty, Samantha Fecich, David Warlick, Dave Truss, and Jeff Heil. I also added a few people who specifically laid out the best process for you to create your own PLN. These are The Educator's PLN, Building a PLN, and PLN Yourself! I tagged all of these PLN so I can learn the best way to fine-tune my PLN.
I joined Classroom 2.0, a digital discussion forum, and watched a very interesting video: "Recording audio in Audacity - Technical glossary." It was a short introductory to a sound editing program, Audacity, that is available at audacity.sourceforge.net as a free download. (There are more in-depth tutorials available on their website.) With Audacity, you can easily record, edit, and fine tune your work for publication. (Great for creating audio podcasts.) The recording appears as a waveform and timeline. You can add and/or delete whole sections, or move them around. You can also save your tracks for future editing. Exporting the file as an MP3 works best, but you need to first download and install the special plug-in. I think I'm going to have some fun with this!
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