I love my PLN (Personal Learning Network)!

Recently I received a challenge from the Teacher Challenge blog (http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org) and because I benefitted so much from last month's challenges from the same blog, here goes.....! We have been asked to write a post about our PLNs. They mention the phrase 'What the heck is a PLN?'  The phrase I love is 'PD in your PJs' because that is when I spend time with my PLN!   A quote I came ac cross recently said, 'Technology is not the wave of the future, it is the tsunami of the present.' (by Janice Rolle) I am sure you may have seen a picture which has been circulating on emails showing the last minutes before the tsunami crashed - wish I knew its origin! Tho' it is a frightening image, for me it shows the rapid advance of technology.  I have two questions foremost in my mind currently - 'Where is this taking us?', and "How do we keep up?" That is where my PLN comes in. They are my network of professionals with whom I share knowledge and they are the people who help me to keep in touch with my learners' futures!...I LOVE MY PLN! To be honest,  I have learned more from my PLN than I have learned in a lifetime of teaching. So now, to summarise the make-up of my PLN I will briefly list how I connect to  them and will share three examples of each.

1. TWITTER
My Twitter PLN has led me to so many amazing sites. I think that if I saw any of them at a Conference I would embrace them as long last friends even though I had only met them virtually. I love what Josh Stumpenhorst’s says in his blogpost about Twitter.... He even made a video about his Twitter PLN which I will embed here. It just sums it up, doesn't it! Twitter to me is invaluable. You follow the people who add value to your passion...and you GROW! Three Twitter friends who have helped my learning enormously are....
Here is a good post on how to use twitter as a teacher - http://teacherstraining.com.au/how-teachers-can-use-twitter-to-maximise-their-professional-learning/

2. BLOGS
I remember a time in teaching when you tried to keep all your good ideas a secret so that someone wouldn't steal them. Now, in the Social Media Age teachers invite you to take a peek into their classrooms in your PJs! I have all the blogs I visit collected in my Google Reader, and I love paying them a visit in the dead of night! I could spend hours telling you of all the ideas I have gleaned because they have shared so freely. The thing about blogs is you can visit and see what they have shared TODAY. Everything is so current. Three educational resource blogs I love visiting are....
a) LARRY FERLAZZO - He is so many interesting blogspots, uear after year. Here is one on PLNs - http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2010/12/21/the-best-guides-for-helping-teachers-develop-personal-learning-networks/
b) RICHARD BYRNE'S FREE TECH4TEACHERS

3. WIKIS.
Whew, there are so many good wikis to explore. Wikis are such convenient places to do projects, summarize what you are doing, and they are so easy to use - no HTML needed. Three wikis that I just love are....

4. PERSONAL LEARNING NETWORKS
These are springing up all over and they are of enormous benefit. They connect people together and one can always pop in and look ariound - and find such amazing stuff! My three favourites are....

5. WEBINARS. This is a fantastic way to grow. One can listen to the Web2 giamts from around the world on all sorts of topics. My favourites right now are:
a)  Simple K12,
b) Classroom 2 close behind.

6. TUTORIALS ON YOU TUBEGenerally if I want to learn how to do something I go to You Tube. There are a number of good channels that you know will always have great stuff. My farourites are:

7. TEACHING WEBSITESGeneally websites seem to have faded into the diustance for me as far as a PLN goes, but there are still some amazing ones. My favourite of all time is...Richards...

8. SOCIAL BOOKMARKINGhttp://www.delicious.com/tag/pln

9. RSS FEEDS

10. PODCASTSTo be honest I haven't explored this avenue of a PLN but I want to start.

11. CONFERENCESOf course I love attending Tech conferences as you learn so much amazing stuff there. It is also a time to reunite with tech. friends from around the country.

12. FACEBOOK SITES

So, what should you do about your PLN? Get involved. Give in as much as you get out. Join, introduce yourself and make your presence known. Comment on good posts. Share your own perspectives. Spread what you have learned with others.  Join Google Reader to keep all the blogs and wikis you follow in one spot. One thing I suppose I should warn against - with so much AMAZING stuff so easily available to us, it is easy to get consumed and spend hours exploring. This could lead you astray from other parts of your life that need a lot of attention. So, set yourself a limit of time, and don't follow everyone. Just follow those who speak to your needs at this time. Be selective and don't succumb to information overload.  If there are days when you cannot get to Twitter or Google Reader, so be it.  Balance must become a priority as you endeavour to keep up with the tidal wave.

Well, I am going to be giving a conference presentation on 'PD in your PJ' s at a national Tech conference in South Africa next month - so this post has helped me summarise the value of my PLN. As I said....I LOVE MY PLN.

Get started with Twitter – a must for every teacher

 Nowadays, in the era of social networking,  it is vital for a teacher to get on to Twitter in order to find out what is happening in education. I have learned SO much from Twitter and am connected to fantastic educators all over the world because of using it.

How ten minutes with Twitter can get your creativity soaring
For example I was looking through my Twitter stream and I saw a tweet from Julian Wood, a teacher in England whom I follow. It said:



Since I am attending a TeachMeet on Tuesday next week, this sounded interesting so I clicked on the shortened link which took me to http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2013/03/09/how-can-i-webstream-an-event/ where I can across an amazing Mentor Mob collection of articles on the topic created by Wesley Fryer.



Well, that was very interesting and then when I scrolled down I saw the Wesley Fryer had just delivered a workshop on creative writing so I opened that link which took me to Alan Levine’s wiki post http://5card.cogdogblog.com/play.php where he outlined a great writing idea using five photos. 



Very soon my mind was buzz, buzz, buzzing with new ideas for varied creative writing exercises that will inspire a student to write.

Another teacher’s post on what happened using TwitterIt All Started WIth A Little Tweet.....And Turned Into A Game of Jeopardy, Searching Together, Google Hangout, and Becoming Online Classmates in Edmodo http://vanmeterlibraryvoice.blogspot.com/2013/03/it-all-started-with-little-tweetand.html 

How to join Twitter1) A YouTube video showing the process of joining Twiitter

Getting started with Twitter (a five minute tutorial)

2) A SlideShare from Maggie Verster to show you how to join Twitter

Getting started with twitter from Maggie Verster

Twitter tips

• If your account is hacked, all you need to do is change the password immediately.
• Try to add a photo to your profile as "noone likes to follow an egg" (quote by Maggie Verster). An egg shape is the default icon.
• Start by following @Schoolnetsa, @PILNAfrica, @maggiev. @fibeal, @micheleb2011, @artpreston  and see who they follow or who follows them. 
• Try and send a tweet every day.
• Join our Twitter chat for South African teachers on Monday nights fromm 8:30 - 9:30pm. It is great fun to have a debate using 140 characters.

See you on Twitter!

Further reading
5 Baby-Steps for Using Twitter to Begin a Personal Learning Network

How to create a Twitter hashtag for an event

Twitter is definitely a very important tool for educators in the 21st Century. I have learned SO MUCH from fellow educators via Twitter, and if anyone asks me for my no. 1 website I always say Twitter! 

So, let’s say you want to create a hashtag for an event. This tag will group all the tweets about the same event together. This would then enable people to follow your event quite easily (and I’ll explain how afterwards). 

1. You can just make up your own hashtag for your own event. e.g. #ELEL. Write a message with that hashtag into the place where you compose your tweets. You’ll see it come up in your Twitter feed!

 

2. Notify others that you have this hashtag via Twitter and so your hashtag is borne! Note that you will have to write in it every couple of days or it will disappear and you will have to start from scratch. 

 

3. Every time you want to add a tweet about the event you created, you simply write your tweet as normal but add the hashtag afterwards. 

How to read your list of tweets in that hashtag

I would suggest two things here:

1. Install Tweetdeck on your computer (http://www.tweetdeck.com/).. This will enable you to add as many columns as you like, including your hashtag column.  I do this all the time – work from Tweetdeck instead of working from Twitter. These are all the different columns – you can hav as many or as few as you like.

For more details on using Tweetdeck I have written a comprehensive post about it:
http://schoolnetsa.blogspot.com/2012/03/why-not-install-and-use-tweetdeck-for.html

2. The other application is totally web-based and that is Tweetchat

The best application for following a twitter chat is Tweetchat. (http://tweetchat.com.) What you would do at an event that you are actually tweeting at – open Tweetchat, type in your hashtag and all the hashtags from that event appear. After that you just tweet in this application and you don’t have to add the hashtag each time.

Here is a screenshot of our #edchatsa chat that took place last night. I used Tweetchat to follow the event. http://schoolnetsa.blogspot.com/2012/07/30-days-of-web-tools-day-7-use.html

 

This particular hashtag #edchatsa has now become a means of conversation and passing on information daily. 

Other ways of findng your hashtag

In Google ask for search Twitter.com and it will take you to twitter search. Type in your hashtag and all the tweets will appear. However this won’t enable you to respond unfortunately.

 

 

Well, next time you have an event happening, try to create a Twitter hashtag!

Use Tweetchat to take part in Twitter discussions

All it took was a set date, a topic, and a hashtag, namely #edchatsa. SA teachers who were on Twitter were then notified that a tweetchat for SA teachers would take place every Monday night from 8:30pm – 9:30pm; and so our regular and popular tweetchat was born! Arthur Preston from Elkanah House put this all into motion. Very soon teachers told other teachers and so the news spread and the numbers are growing steadily. If you would like to know more, Arthur has set up a website http://edchatsa.co.za with all the necessary information. This website is also the place where we go during the week to vote from the choice of topics for the following Monday night’s chat. A new development is that the chats are being summarised each week by volunteers using Storify. You’ll notice these summaries on the website.

What is the point of a Twitter chat for teachers?

There are quite a few educational Twitter chats that take place around the world, the two most well-known (to me) being #edchat and #ukedchat. Basically educationists get together to air their views and opinions on matters of education. Education world-wide is going through a major revamp and rethink! It is vital to cross-pollinate with teachers from other locations and share ideas and is so worthwhile when teachers prioritize and make time for this valuable interaction. 

How does one follow a Twitter chat using Tweetchat.com?

The best application for following a twitter chat is Tweetchat. (http://tweetchat.com.)
Sean Hampton-Cole, one of the #edchatsa tweeters kindly sent me a PowerPoint on how to use Tweetchat which I am embedding below.

How to use Tweetchat for a twitter discussion

View more presentations from Schoolnet SA .

Benefits of using Tweetchat

• You can tweet to the chat without typing the hashtag, as well as retweet, reply to and favour others’ tweets as you chat.
• You can adjust the refresh speed to 5 seconds which is the minimum available
• You can keep everything on one screen easily so as to focus on the discussion that is taking place.

Join us on a Monday night

So why not open up Tweetchat on a Monday night, type in the hashtag #edchatsa and join the conversation?

Why not install and use Tweetdeck for Twitter group chats?

Last Monday night from 8:30pm – 9:30pm one of our social media in education activitists in South Africa, Arthur Preston, Head at Elkanah House Primary School in Cape Town, introduced a Twitter chat for South African teachers on the #edchatsa hashtag. It was a wonderfully stimulating chat with many teachers from around the country participating. Teachers only got to know about it via Twitter and had a great chat about the topic, “If there was one piece of technology that could change South African education what would it be?”  You can log in to Arthur Prestons's blog http://headthoughts.co.za/edchatsa/ to vote for the topic for this coming Monday night. Here is the list of topics:

To be able to participate properly in this type of Twitter chat one needs to use an application like Tweetdeck where you can see a number of columns of Twitter at the same time. So this post is about Tweetdeck. It is a fantastic application to use. Here is a view of my Tweetdeck interface. This illustrates the columns.

Getting started

Search for Tweetdeck on the Internet and download the free application to your desktop (http://www.tweetdeck.com/). It will ask you to set up a Tweetdeck account. One can use the same username and password as one’s Twitter account to simplify matters. Once installed, Tweetdeck looks like you see above arranged in columns. You can now add as many columns as you like.

The columns

The columns work like this.
a) On the very left is your Home section where you receive the tweets of all the people you are following. This is the same as your timeline in Twitter.

b) Next to that you will get your Mentions column where you are notified if anyone retweets one of your tweets or sends you a message.

c)  Next is your Inbox which shows the tweets or direct messages you have just sent to others. In fact this default column (Inbox) could be called the Direct Messages column since it records the direct messages that you send or receive. These do not show up in your All Friends/Home column because they are to or from you personally.

d) After that you can add your favourite # columns. I have #edchatsa, #edtechconf,  #SAipaded,  #ict4champions and #sateachers. That reminds me to mention that your Tweetdeck interface shows five columns but at the top is a little icon – it's a horizontal scrollbar - where you move across to the next lot of columns. I guess you can have as many columns as you like, with five displaying at a time.

To add a column click on the Add column button and write in your choice of # hashtag.

You can move the columns around

To move a column just check on the little wheel on the top right of each column and a box comes up giving you the arrows to move the column left or right.

For the purposes of the #edchatsa on a Monday night I have moved my #edchatsa column right next to my Mentions columns so that I can write easily and receive any @fibeal messages.

How to create and send a message

To create a message click on the little blue pen icon on the top of the interface.

This will open the box to write and send your messages. When the writing box opens write your message making sure it doesn’t exceed 140 characters, and press Tweet.

How to send a direct message to someone

Hover your mouse over the avatar of the person and the word More will appear on the top right.  click on More and it will take you to another icon with a little dropdown arrow. Click on that and a box will open that says “Send a direct message”.

How to reply or retweet

Hover your mouse over the avatar of the person and a bar comes up containing an arrow, a group of arrows a star and the word more. The single arrow is for Reply and the group of arrows is for Retweet. 

So, why not give Tweetdeck a try?

The world map of social networks

Don't you just love these infographics? Facebook is just everywhere! Click on the picture to be taken to the original website.

Developing a PLN (Personal Learning Network)

One of the things that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE about social networking is my PLN (Personal Learning Network). PLNs are all about using Web2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, twitter, facebook groups and online tutorials etc. to create connections and extend our learning. We end up learning together and it is SUCH an empowering feeling. My PLN comes in the form of networked colleagues, virtual friends, blogs I look up all the time, my twitter network and endless tutorials, to name a few. Of course my Google Reader RSS keeps it all together for me. Every day I embrace a new member. For example, I have only just discovered Mark Barnes’ LearnitN5 channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/LearnitN5

Richard Byrne from Teaching with Technology has provided a great online tutorial on developing a Personal Learning Network. Here it is:

Constructing a PLN

View more presentations from Richard Byrne.

I love being part of the global community – how else would I keep up with the growth in technology?