Day 22: My PLN

Today for the blogging challenge I will be describing my Professional Learning Network.

A little over a year ago, before I began my graduate studies in Instructional Technologies and Digital Media Literacy, I could barely tell you what a PLN was.  I knew about them, but I was not very involved in them.  I used online research all the time to plan lessons, but I had very little interaction with other teachers while doing this.

Today, my PLN is growing every day.  I have finally become somewhat comfortable using Twitter to help grow my network.  Every week, I discover new blogs or people to follow.  I save resources for future reference and learn a great deal by interacting with others.

Despite this, I feel I am still at the beginning stages of truly developing my PLN.  I have not participated in Twitter chats, though I’ve been hearing about them for over a year.  I know I need to delve in, but am still trying to find the time.  I am still overwhelmed at the amount of information and am learning how to best manage it.

Of course, I do have an old-fashioned PLN of my colleagues in my district.  There are several colleagues I go to to discuss ideas and share resources.  It is great to have people close by who can meet face to face, but the learning that I can do by interacting with others online is just as valuable and has had an enormous effect on what I do in the classroom.

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