Cultivating a PLN

When I first began learning about a PLN, I was worried.  Not because of I’m afraid of technology but because I feared I would get sucked in and lose track of time.  After playing and getting more comfortable with Diigo, Twitter, and YouTube, I had to make the conscious decision to learn the art of time balance.  While I do see that these components of my PLN can be used to learn more about my work, they could not take priority to preparing my proposal and completing the many tasks of a school administrator.

Don’t get me wrong, I very much see the value is using a PLN.  I am hooked and I will continue to use it.  As a matter of fact, at last month’s staff meeting, I showed all  of my teachers how to use twitter, tweetdeck, diigo, and igoogle.  I also shared Jeff’s idea that he has learned more since using his PLN than the time prior to his PLN use.  This quote resonates with me because I can easily see how this can be the case. There is so much valuable information being directed to you. In addition, you can take an active role and share your knowledge with others.

I took the initiative to start a #homelessEd hashtag because I saw this focus missing on twitter.  I am hopeful that with proper cultivation, that hashtag can become a rich source of information for educators serving students experiencing homelessness.

Another area of personal growth has come from the exploration of the world of Google.  I am seeing that google is the key to the world.  There are some many applications that I started using because of this class: docs and forms, YouTube, calendar, music, igoogle, and google+.  The beauty is that every single one of these has an application of for my workplace.  I can directly use each of these in my role as a school leader.  Moreover, teachers could certainly integrate these applications with their more direct work with students.

I’m excited to see how technology will evolved in the next coming years and decades.  As an educator, the key will be to continue to stay up to date, dedicate time, and learn from and teach others.