adrianbruce.com
- Computers
- Your Personal Learning Network
.
Newsgroups – The Oz-Teachers Newsgroup is a collection of educators who help teachers use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the classroom. There is an amazing wealth of knowledge and experience in this group. If you have a question about ICT and education you simply email your request to the group and someone will help you out. Or, if they can’t help out they will point you towards someone who can.
Again there are many, many newsgroups out there and once you get your PLN happening you can ask people what other groups they belong to.
So there is just a snapshot of some of the growing and evolving tools that are available online at the moment that can be harnessed to help you build your own quality PLN. It needs to be said though, that the tools outlined here are merely the ones that work for me today. As I’ve been putting together this article new tools are being developed and rather then lament the passing of older tools we need to embrace the constant improvement in these technologies as it is a fact of life. In the end it is not the tool itself that is of importance, it is how we use these tools to aid the learning of ourselves and that of our students. It is how we demonstrate to students what it is to be a lifelong learner and most importantly, how we transfer our learning into the classroom.
Now if you’ve made it this far through the article you probably feel like your brain is about to explode and it probably will if you try and digest this all in one sitting. What you need to do is to set yourself one goal that is achievable. ‘This term I will investigate (insert name of tool) and implement it into my classroom and my teaching’. If you break any task down to small achievable tasks it will not overwhelm you. If you try and do it all at once you will probably just give up. Once that goal is achieved you need to reflect on weather you bit off too much or too little and then set your next professional development goal. Before you know it your Teacher Toolbox will be brimming with new useful stuff.
Reflection - So to all those who speak the rhetoric of lifelong learning, do your actions betray you? Are you an advocate of professionals developing or are you an obstacle? Are you an agent of change or on closer examination are you a saboteur?
If you are a classroom teacher you need to work out how you will use and espouse the virtues of these tools. If you are an executive you need to be encouraging the professional development of your staff and working out strategies for introducing these tools to your staff. If you are a systems administrator worth your salt you already know that the network exists to serve education and that you too will be making educators aware of new and exciting tools.
So in closing, always remember that you are preparing your students for their now and their future, not your past. How will you rise to the challenge?
Adrian Bruce
PS A huge thank you has to go to all the people in my PLN. Without you I could have never amassed the knowledge I currently have that has enabled me to write this article. See you online soon.