Creating Your Own Personal Learning Network

Creating Your Own Personal Learning Network Utilizing the Web for Personal and Professional Growth

1,407,724,920 Internet Users!

How Much Data is Flowing? 2-3 terabits per second move over the Internet (est. March, 2008) = 2,000 - 3,000 gigabits per second = 2 - 3 Petabits per second 172,800 – 259,200 Pitabits per day 63,115,200 – 94,672,800 Pitabits this year That is… The entire contents of the Library of Congress every 5 seconds! That is… The entire contents of the Library of Congress moving over the Internet more than 2,305,282,680 times this year!

And Guess What… That number is only the amount of information moving over the Internet. This number DOES NOT INCLUDE all of the countless times more information stored on all of the computers connected to the Internet! 1 Terabit networkable hard drives – holding about half the amount of information moving each second on the Internet – are becoming standard fixtures on HOME networks around the world!

A River of Data Flowing Past You! Let’s look at what can you do about it.

First… Four Stages of Learning DATA – The river flowing past you INFORMATION – The Data you pull from the river and assign relevance and purpose KNOWLEDGE – The Information that you actually keep, apply, and use personally and professionally WISDOM – Combining Knowledge with intuition and experience over time in a way that makes your personal and professional lives better

The Solution – Create a Personal Learning Network! Personal Learning Network – A group of people who can guide your learning, point you to learning opportunities, answer your questions, and give you the benefit of their own knowledge, experience, and wisdom.

Learning is Becoming an Open Source Project An Open Source project is a software product that is collaboratively built. Everyone has access to help build the product if they have something worthwhile to contribute. No one owns it. No one takes credit for it. Everyone gets to use the product… even those who did not help build it. The “Sage on the Stage” is dead! Most of us just don’t know it yet.

The Dark Side A PLN Can be a Tender Trap! It is estimated that a new Web 2.0 type application is released every 10 minutes! It’s easy to get so infatuated with the bells and whistles of Web 2.0 applications that you forget why you started to look for new applications in the first place… to make your personal and professional life better… not more complicated.

Be Smart. Refuse to Play the Game! It’s OK to be ignorant in the 21 st Century! Not a single human being on earth knows about all of the interactive applications on the Internet... Not one! Don’t be intimidated by those who try to make themselves feel important by constantly pointing out applications with which you are not familiar. Remember! It’s not about swallowing the River. It’s about gaining wisdom!

In the End… It’s All About the Network! By using the power inherent in many social-network-oriented web-based applications, you can ensure that the River flowing past you is made up of stuff that you want and need to make your life better. Once you’ve managed and channeled the River of data, your goal is to then choose wisely what is important and useful to you from your personalized stream… and let the water wash everything else away!

Before You Take the Plunge Develop a strategy for storing and organizing multiple URL’s, User names, and Passwords KeePass - Open Source Windows Software http://keepass.info/ Create a disposable email account specifically for registering on social-networking sites. Don’t use your main ISP account’s email. http://yahoo.com , http:// google.com Develop AND practice good password skills.

Join the DEN! Discovery Educator Network One of the best teacher resources I’ve found… ever! View Introductory Video Webinars, resources, and local, regional, and national events presented by leaders in technology-oriented education Signup today! http://community.discoveryeducation.com/

Blogs, Podcasts, and RSS If you think a blog is just a place to complain about your boyfriend, you’re wrong! Blogs are now one of the most important parts of a Personal Learning Network Podcasts are not just for kids either! In conjunction with the wise use of RSS feeds, blogs and podcasts can really help you control and direct the flow of the data River.

Some Good Educational Blogs http://cliotech.blogspot.com/ http://weblogg-ed.com/ http://www.teach42.com/ http://www.halldavidson.net/ http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/media_matters http://technorati.com/blogs/tag/education (start now… there are over 22,000 of them)

RSS – The World in Your Inbox Really Simple Syndication Find the RSS, HTML, or Xml logo Right-Click, Copy Link Location (PC) Paste link location into your RSS feed reader. Reader? Many Browsers read RSS. Google has Google Reader, and many third party feed aggregators are available.

Beyond Blogs There are a host of other tools you can use to manage the River and create your own Personal Learning Network You want to find tools that… Suit your own personal learning style Function well Integrate with other tools Don’t waste your time with frivolous content Let’s examine a few

Do you Tweet? http://www.twitter.com What are you doing now? Anything you can say in 140 characters or less! Automatically uses http://tinyurl.com/ to shrink long URLs Tweet from phone, IM, or browser Those you follow and those who follow you become your Personal Learning Network

Have you ever been caught Plurking? http:// www.plurk.com Verb. plurk (plüer-kh) - To chronicle the events of your always on, action-packed, storybook, semi-charmed kinda life. Similar to Twitter, but more robust. Also has an interesting “Karma” rating system that encourages worthwhile posting.

EdStreamTV http:// edstreamtv.wikispaces.com / Live Video Streaming from NECC (National Education Computing Conference) on WikiSpaces Your EdStreamTV Guide For NECC 2008 An example of what can be done! Could your class create a live video cast someday?

You Always Wanted to Be a Star http://www.mogulus.com/ Watch 26 channels simultaneously on the Mogulus Grid Start your own live broadcast using content from around the web or your own webcam Spread your channel all over the internet by embedding it on your blog or Facebook profile

More Video… USTREAM.TV http://www.ustream.tv/ Ustream.tv quickly and easily allows anyone with a camera to broadcast to the world. All you need to stream is a computer, internet connection, a microphone and a webcam or video camera. Our system will auto detect your camera type.

Second Life http://www.secondlife.com It’s a place … NOT a game! Fantastic opportunities for networking Must be 18+ to be on Adult Grid Teen Grid inaccessible without FBI clearance Must download and install client Resource intensive! Includes x-rated content on adult grid, but it is easy to steer clear of it

Second Life… Get Started! http://www.secondlife.com Skip the “Join a Community” step Choose a name carefully! You may be stuck with it for a long time. Keep your SL name SHORT and easy to type! You won’t regret it. Choose a name that reflects your professional position! Provide real information about yourself… they may check.

Second Life… Get Started! First, master Orientation Island. Then, thoroughly investigate Help Island. Learn to move around, change your appearance, and fly before you go exploring on the main grid Act the way you would normally act when on the streets of any large city, and you’ll be fine. Remember, you can always just close the client if you get lost or flustered!

Second Life… Get Started! Expect to spend up to ten hours in world before you are comfortable with the interface! Second Life vocabulary … Avatar – Your person in Second Life In World – logged into Second Life SL/RL – Second Life / Real Life Rezzing – the process of graphics resolving Rez Day – The day you created your avatar Rolling Restart – Normal server maintenance Public Sand Box – A place where you can try your building skills

del.icio.us http://del.icio.us/ Social Bookmarking Bookmark, tag, organize, and share internet sites Makes your bookmarks browser/computer independent! Browser tool bar makes use a snap

Slideshare.net http://www.slideshare.net Upload, find, and share presentations Great for publicly posting copies of a presentation you give. Don’t reinvent the wheel! Presentations available on just about any subject. Can be slow to load Distinct URLs for linking

Diigo.com http://www.diigo.com Highlight, annotate, bookmark, tag web pages, and share them Create and share specific bookmark lists Create workgroups! View the annotations of other users on a page

Vimeo.com http://www.vimeo.com Video Sharing Easy to use 500 Meg Storage per week EMBEDD code generated Direct URLs

Ning http://www.ning.com Create your own collaborative workspace or join the spaces of others http://wcsdcollaborate.ning.com http://discoveryeducation.ning.com/

PageFlakes http://teacher.pageflakes.com/ Add, Delete, Flakes or Widgets to create a composite page that can be made publicly viewable. Create a networking center for you and your class Pull in feeds from all over the web

VoiceThread http:// ed.voicethread.com /#home Hold a conversation/discussion centered around some a number of media types Submit comments by computer, phone, text, or drawing Participate in any public VoiceThread Create asynchronous mini courses/webinars Link directly to a specific VoiceThread

Dandelife http://dandelife.com Your Lifecast Web 2.0 site activity aggregator and mini blogging site. Pull in streams from sites like del.icio.us, Twitter, Fickr, You Tube, Facebook, RSS feeds, Amazon, and Live Journal View as timeline, blog, photo timeline, or embed as a widget

Flickr http://flickr.com One of the most popular image sharing sites on the Internet Requires a free Yahoo ID It’s a good idea to make a Yahoo ID anyway so that you can use the email account for your networking registrations.

Slideflickr http://slideflickr.com/ Create a slide show from files in your Flickr account and share them Customize your presentation

Tools for Creativity http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools Creating videos, animations, etc. takes tools Check out this site for a great list of Web 2.0 tools you can use to create content This link alone will keep you playing for weeks!

Tons of WEB 2.0! http://del.icio.us/tag/web2_smackdown http://www.polleverywhere.com/ https://www.chacha.com/ http://animoto.com/ http://www.piclens.com/ http://www.coveritlive.com/ http://qik.com/ http://www.handipoints.com/ http://webcastacademy.net/

More Tons of WEB 2.0! http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ http://www.ajaxim.com/ http://www.doodle.ch/main.html http://www.timebridge.com/home.php http://summize.com/ http://taggalaxy.de/ http://www.exalead.com/search http://www.voki.com/

Final Thoughts I’ve seen slide backgrounds from a presentation I gave at PETE&C show up in a professional development presentation in a Mexican school system. I recently saw pictures of me presenting in Second Life in promotional media for a presentation given at the National Educators Computer Conference on using Second Life to Create a Personal Learning Network.

Final Thoughts Remember! No matter where you go or what you do on the Internet, you leave footprints. Anyone following those tracks should always find a professional educator at the end of the trail! Since you never know where or when people will pick up your tracks, you only have one recourse. REMAIN A PROFESSIONAL EDUCATOR AT ALL TIMES WHEN ONLINE!

Creating Your Own Personal Learning Network

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