Thursday, January 13, 2011

Personal Learning Networks

So unfortunately I was unable to attend the presentation on PLN's last week as I was sitting on the beach in Cuba smoking a Cohiba and sipping rums. I must admit, I don't feel guilty about it one bit. But it still would have been nice to attend the presentation and I have since been doing a little homework on PLN's.

Personal Learning Networks are an interesting topic that I knew nothing about until last year. I had no idea that I was already developing my PLN. I spent an hour or two playing around with the different PLN links that Mike provided for us and I found that there are a TON of sites out there that can be used to expand your PLN.

Some of the sites that I really enjoy are Diigo, TED Talks and Google Reader. These sites/podcasts/vodcasts/applications are great ways to learn about new ideas, innovations and concepts regarding education around the world. Forget about driving the 2 hours to Winnipeg to go to a SAG conference, I think you can get more out of sitting on your computer and watching some videos on TEDTalks.

That's all for now....

2 comments:

  1. I wouldn't feel one bit guilty either for sitting on a beach! The presentation was valuable, but you seem to have the basics of a PLN down. Unlike you I had not heard the term PLN until that presentation, and felt like I was awaken to the numerous possibilities available for us to continue our learning in many forms.
    I also enjoy Diigo and find it extremely valuable. And I keep hearing of this TED Talks, so I definitely need to take some time and explore these videos! So true that it is not as necessary to attend conferences in this digital age, as we are fortunate to have so many resources readily available to us.

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  2. Question? First things first, dark rum or white rum? Now that the important topic has been covered let us move on. I agree Blair, it is a great tool and learning about it and having it as a resource is extremely beneficial. It is amazing how many different facets there are to these PLNs as well. The connection we have through the internet will make us all more accountable, and at the same time should make all of us better teachers. Whenever we seem to be on the cusp where technology and resources are bound to taper, new surges of ideas appear.

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