Journal #6 MS

Warlick, David (March/April 2009). Growing Your Personal Learning Network. Learning and Leading with technology, Retrieved 04/09/2009, from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Publications/LL/LLIssues/Volume3620082009/MarchAprilNo6/36612w.pdf

David Warlick article was interesting in that it talked about different types of Personal Learning Networks or PLNs for short. Most people if asked about PLNs most likely would not know what you were talking about but once you explained what it is they would site example after example on how they use PLNs. There are different types of PLNs from family, friends, colleagues, books, journals, textbooks, TV and radio that are used by the everyday person.
Educators as well use PLNs in their ever day life as well, using the list above and using things suck as mailing lists, Skype, Google, Delicious, Google Talk, Wiki’s and Blogs. These PLNs for educators can help find sources for lesson plans, potential collaboration on work, locate current events as well as answers and solutions.
Warlick has described a few specific types of PLNs. First we have Personal maintained synchronous connections; these are used in the “real time”. Examples would include, Ichat, Skype, Ustream, Instant Messaging, Text messaging and Twittering. The next type is Semisynchronous which is used in a “ non- real time “ such as using Google Docs, Twitter, Group discussions and Blogs. This is a very good tool since the people working on the same project can contribute to the paper or discussion in different geographic areas, as well as the person can do it on their own time. And lastly Asynchronous which is an RSS aggregator that streams the information directly to you for an individual to do their job. An example of such is Social Bookmarking, pod casting, and journals.

Questions #1

What would be some pitfalls for a new teacher that is trying to put together PLNs?

Answer: I believe the one major pitfall would be having a new teacher trying to hard to make everything fit in the box. The internet was not made in a day so I would imagine that creating ones own PLN will take time and putting to much together at once may eventually be more harmful than helpful.

Question #2
How can PLNs be used within your classroom?

Answer: I think the way this could work is to have the students come up collectively with what they use the most on the internet and then with that information as a whole we could use the most well known PLN. This way the class could have discussions online, could post information to help other students, and could build their own network with one they initially started in class.