Assignment #5 TEACHING AND LEARNING IN A NETWORKED WORLD

How do you currently network and learn about teaching resources?

As a long-time educator and teacher, I've been trying to find strategies to improve my skills on technologies. Not just how to set them up, but how to use them in the classroom. Taking EDCS 480 I had hopes this course would be it. I am fortunate to take this course it explained what each of the technologies (and many others) different ideas of how to use the technology. This course give excess of wonderful websites and provide online web resource for practicing the technologies such as, Blogs, Wikis, Prezi, You tube and other powerful web tools for classrooms.

Some of the popular social networking tools on the Internet are Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and social bookmarking such as Diigo.  I currently use Facebook only for close friends and family, but I can see why schools and businesses are starting to use Facebook to connect to their communities.  Instead of maintaining an old one directional webpage with Facebook  I  can contribute by asking questions and posting comments. Taking EDCS 480 I have started posting to a shared blogger not only with other teachers but with my friends as well.  I definitely have favorite blogs that I like to regularly read for new ideas and updates.

What have you learned from reading and watching the resource provided? 

Watching the resource provided becomes more extreme as platforms of connection and collaboration, the need for creating and maintaining a PLN (Professional Learning Network) becomes more pressing. As teachers and educators we are expected to be on top of the latest trends that can inform and enhance our classroom teaching as well as our professional growth. We are also expected to know the web tools that our students use and the new ones we can use with them in the future; but this is not always possible and because not all of our time constraints it becomes difficult to keep up the new releases. It is at times like these that we can call upon our PLN.

 What will you do to expand your PLN?

First I need to realize that I already have a PLN (everyone does). I have colleagues, teachers and Dr. Martin in EDCS to go to for advice or just to talk about an “idea” I am thinking about. Moreover, gaining knowledge and understanding from EDCS 480 class with Dr. Martin indicates that there are tools on the Internet that will help expand my PLN and increase the power of resources I have access to. I'd like for my students to have a PLN (Personal Learning Network) of their own within our classroom. We are living in an age where "sharing" is becoming more popular than "privacy". My students are eager to share their thoughts, their work, and their life stories.