Journal 6: "Grow Your Personal Learning Network" NETS-T 3,4,5

Warlick, D. (2009). Grow your personal learning network. Learning and Leading with Technology, 36(6), Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/200904?pg=15&pm=1&fs=1#pg14

Summary: In this article the author, David Warlick, explains the importance of maintaining a Personal Learning Network to establish life long learning. He writes that, "Technology has inspired a shift from a hunting-and-gathering information economy to the domestication of the information landscape"(Warlick, 2009). This refers to the vast amount of information available to educators who have established a network of peers to collaborate and gain information, without aimlessly searching in textbooks and other sources.
Warlick identifies 3 types of PLN's used to establish collaboration with others. The first is a personally maintained synchronous connection. This is the traditional network which is like attending a meeting with out the restrictions of being in the same room. The second is referred to as, personally and socially maintained semi synchronous connection. This refers to the conversations you can have through your PLN's with out the constraint of time, so people can respond when it is convenient for them. The final category is referred to as dynamically maintained asynchronous connections. In comparison to the first two categories which connect you to other people, this branch connects you with useful content sources such as education blogs and social bookmarking tools. This will be useful to you when you are searching for information because rather than getting ALL the information that has been posted on the internet about a particular subject to search through, you will only be given the sources that others have found useful, and are pre-recommended for that subjects use. All of your many PLN paths, through both new and old technology, lead to the same goal of reflecting and knowledge building and will assist you with your life long learning.

Question 1: What resources will you include in your PLN?

So far, I have already found many helpful resources to use to build a strong PLN. This includes, twitter and educational #tags, Diigo’s social bookmarking, TaskStream, and Skype. I hope that through these sources I will be able to expand my PLN by collaborating with others and learning of great new sources.

Question 2: What is one advantage to establishing a PLN?

A PLN allows me to expand my learning by collaborating with others who have similar interests. Through resources like Twitter, I can connect with fellow educator and we can share helpful links, and new ways of thinking with one another. This allows me to gain support from people all over the globe in which we can discuss educational tools and discover new techniques. My PLN will also separate useful resources from non-useful sources which will save me time and effort in the long run.