Building a Professional Learning Network (Reflection)

Building my Professional Learning Network (PLN) has proven to be an interesting journey. I began this journey with little to no experience with social media. I wasn’t on Facebook, I had no idea what a hashtag was, and I prided myself on being a private person. Up until this point I had no interest in using social media since I viewed it as “gossip central station,” a place where people would talk about things that seemed trivial and not worthy of my time or attention. So as you can imagine, building a PLN seemed a little intimidating at first.

I faced many challenges. I had to learn how to communicate using text talk (abbreviated phrases), make screenshots, navigate multiple sites, and face my biggest fear of all which is publicly communicating with strangers. I believe this is due to the fact that publicly commenting/posting makes me feel vulnerable and puts me in a place to be judged by others. Two things which were hard to confront and move past. Being forced to create these networks made me face these fears… hesitantly, I must admit.

Joining Twitter was a “big” first step for me. I followed 48 people, tweeted 19 times, and had 11 followers. To get my feet wet, I tweeted about a NYSRA conference I was scheduled to attend. Of course, NYSRA “liked” my comment and retweeted it. Good publicity, Right? I also sent a tweet (a question) to a NYSRA presenter and she replied.  In addition, I retweeted two tweets which did not receive any response. The only other response I received was from google docs which “liked” my comment about “slide presentations made simple.”

Follow at least six people/groups on Twitter

Retweets: October 24, 2015

Tweet with an @reply

Tweet with an @mention

Tweet with a hashtag (#multimedialearning, #professionaldevelopment, #evernote, #tackk, #googledoc, #template)

I participated in an edchat referred to as #kinderchat. At first the people who signed on were making random comments which led me to post a comment asking what the topic for tonight’s discussion was. The facilitator replied stating the discussion was on assessment and documentation. I made a comment and instantly it was retweeted and I received notification that I had a new follower. I have to admit this made me feel uncomfortable. I was wondering what was so interesting about what I had tweeted that would make someone want to “retweet” it and then start “following” me. I thought… Should I start following them so I can see what type of person is following me? I guess this will take some time to get used to. During this chat someone mentioned that they used “Seesaw.” I wasn’t sure what this was so I posted a question about it. I was then invited to participate in another chat that would be taking place in a few days. Although I did not feel like the conversation was particularly focused on the given topic I would be willing to try edchat again. The discussion did however lead to a greater understanding of “Seesaw” because it peeked my interest to investigate it further.  

Twitter edchat  (#kinderchat on November 9, 2015 at 9 p.m.)

Next, I began to explore Google+. I truly appreciated the way the google communities were organized. It was helpful to be able to go to one spot to ask questions and share information on a particular interest such as the “Google Classroom” community. I can see were this would be a great resource for teachers who have just started using Google Classroom with their students. You could go to this one place and find answers to most of your questions because this community is filled with google classroom users who are willing to share what they have learned. I will definitely continue to participate in the Google+ communities I have joined.

Google+ Communities I’ve joined

Google+ users from the communities I’ve joined that are in my education circle

This is a screenshot of my comment to a post in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning (a Google+ public community).

My experience with Feedly/blogger was very positive. I enjoyed viewing multiple blogs on topics such as reading rotations, integrating technology, and digital citizenship. The blogs I read provided practical advice about various areas within education. There were two blogs that I followed that I felt were worthy of separate blog responses. The first blog discusses using real world experiences to motivate learners http://reflectionmoulton.blogspot.com/2015/11/real-world-experiences-motivate-learners.html and my second blog response highlights the shift in the teacher’s role in the classroom from lecturer to supporter. http://reflectionmoulton.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-role-of-technology-in-education.html

I especially liked the RSS feature in Feedly.com which allowed for a more productive approach to gaining access to the sites I was most interested in viewing. My least favorite part was commenting on the blogs. This does not come naturally to me. Hopefully I will get better at this over time.  

Subscribe to 5 active blogs in Feedly

Comment on blog in Feedly by Lisa Nielsen – “The Innovative Educator”

Comment on blog in Feedly by Stephanie - “Teaching in Room 6”

Comment on blog in Feedly by Natalie Kay – “What the Teacher Wants”

I have come to understand that social media can offer valuable collaboration opportunities to learn and grow. It provides us with options to attend to our own learning needs as well as reach out to others. Initially I felt very reluctant about creating a PLN, however, throughout this process I began to feel more empowered because I learned how to navigate multiple networks and realized that the extent of my participation was at my discretion. As an educator, I can appreciate the necessity to provide authentic experiences for my students to collaborate and problem-solve while sharing their learning with a wider audience. For this reason alone I am willing to face my fear of social media for the betterment of my students.

Overall, I did find value in creating a PLN. It has opened my eyes (and mind) to the idea of networking with people who have similar interests. I now see a professional networking side to these sites that I did not know previously existed. I will continue to immerse myself in this PLN community that I have created, in hopes that one day I will be able to publicly post/comment without trepidation.