My PLN - What Tools I've Used This Semester

MY PLN



Since we last talked about our PLN’s, here are some things I’ve done so far this semester:

I joined Pinterest and continue checking it regularly to see what others are liking, reading or learning about, or what they’re watching on YouTube. I’ve made some of my own boards to keep things organized. For starters, I’ve created a “technology” board, a “pets” board, and a “great sayings” board with a collection of things to inspire me.

Using Twitter, I started following Microsoft at Work, Office 365, and VMWare Knowledgebase to help me out at work, and LifeHacker, TechCrunch, and CNET News to keep up with what’s trending in technology.  To keep better track of things on Twitter, I downloaded and started using TweetDeck to keep everything organized into different sections.  In the last three weeks, Twitter has has helped me keep up with the latest news about the HeartBleed bug.

LinkedIn has become something I check frequently to connect with coworkers from past and present companies, as well as being maybe useful for future employment endeavors after graduation.

Using YouTube to search for ideas on technology in the classroom, I started following videos on EdModo, which basically takes social networking concepts, and makes them appropriate for the classroom.  It’s been around for a few years, but I thought it would be something I could present to my colleagues and/or teachers where I work.  The following video was interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz0hNJjFy-M

I’ve been adding my own bookmarks to two social bookmarking sites, Delicious and Digo, and I am continuing to learn more about both of these sites. I read about Digo on TechCrunch, and I originally heard about TechCrunch on Twitter – one thing lead to another.  I also found a content sharing/social insights web site called addthis.com, created an account for myself and added it to my Symbaloo. Using Delicious, I bookmarked a few sites including the two below:

http://mindmappingsoftwareblog.com/personal-learning-network/.

http://techcrunch.com/2006/08/02/diigo-is-a-research-tool-that-rocks/

When searching for personal learning networks that had to do with technology, I found a gentleman named Rob Mancabelli, who has his own web site about PLN’s that have a lot of good info about technology in education, and after reading about the interesting things he had to say, started following him on Twitter and Linked IN. http://www.mancabelli.com/