Professional Development : PLN and connections

These are my reflections on the second step of the course  about  PLN. 
You can find more materials and references online if you  follow the link Making connections  which is starting point for the ideas and reflections I am sharing in this post.

Here is the picture that  summarizes the ways we can learn about ideas and how online groups and communities can help us  develop.

                                        Image credit : edublogs teacherchallenge.edublogs.org

Today educators can  learn together and support each other.
Since the age of social network started we have had the development of many online communities. Educators  have used social media and modern web tools for connecting and learning together.
I remember the first Moocs which I did about five years ago. It was something  new to me but  I learnt a lot as I was guided into a community of learners  and people  were living all over the world.
I was asked to do some simple things:

1. starting  to write a blog for sharing my new learning  experiences
2. sharing  ideas in some social networks like  Twitter and  FB
3. using  images and  modern tools for  summarizing what I had learnt online
4. following  webinars online on YouTube and  commenting what had been discussed online
5. writing a learning  diary 
6. becoming a part of a community like  Google+ or groups in  FB
7. starting collaborating online while using  virtual boards
8. sharing documents and  also publishing  something online for sharing what we had learnt 

I had not been trained to do this but I learnt while working on  my own and thanks to the support of great educators  I wanted to continue learning and also wrote about my online experience. This is how I started : I was guided by people who were involved in education.

Facebook  is not the social network which I prefer but most people I know have been on FB for years.
My favourite social network is  Twitter: I remember when I first learnt about it as  I was doing a webinar online and I had started following a community of educators  who wanted to share about  new ways of  working and experiencing education.  They taught me how to use Twitter , it was in 2014 and I continued working on line and sharing ideas, posting links and learning while using  hashtags.

Thanks to many educators I have met new connected educators like me: it is my world and where I find ideas about  topics for my lessons and also for  Learning about new  events online:




This is the great webinar I could see online dealing with Twitter: I became a connected educator thanks to Alice Keeler!

It was  Classroom 2.0 Live that helped me to learn about this  wonderful tool.

Click here to open this binder in a new window.




I had to learn more and then I continued my  CPD by doing  a Mooc with Coursera- https://www.coursera.org/  about  Web 2.0 Tools and later about  Digital Storytelling. I had to realize that I was not  tech-savvy and  I needed to improve my ICT and Digital Skills.


If you  want to be a connected educator you need to know not only the people who are sharing ideas , you need to work on your favourite sources of information and ideas.  I have found tips for collecting my favourite bookmarks and for example I like sharing what I like by using  My Pearltrees  or
My bookmarks on Pinterest

 Italianteacher

Here are some boards which I have collected online thanks to Pinterest:

Sharing implies that you  are part of a network and follow educators online . I am a follower of some boards on Pinterest and also I like following some educators on Pearltrees.   

I also like Slideshare and follow some educators who publish their slides and resources online : Shelly Terrell is my favourite one  as I have followed her  webinars on Fridays.  She stopped them in August but  she shared a lot of  her ideas in her  slides :  Shelly Terrell. They are worth checking!!

Blogging and Blogs and  WebsitesI have bookmarked a lot of blogs and I regularly receive some updates from them:when I meet interesting speakers I usually bookmark them by using  Pocket.
https://ditchthattextbook.com/https://alicekeeler.com/https://www.sarahjanethomas.com/https://www.controlaltachieve.com/http://bergman-udl.blogspot.com/https://www.strobeleducation.com/blog/http://nellie-deutsch.com/
Some websites which I like are the ones shared online by many educators
https://cybraryman.com/https://shakeuplearning.com/https://hyperdocs.co/
I have also started sharing ideas in my blogs: once you are connected you will start sharing ideas.I love also making presentations and I have worked on some websites to present my ideas or what I have learnt online. My online course about teaching and teachers is in my blog:  I worked online under the supervision of Shelly Terrell and a good team of educators who made me feel engaged!!Blog about the course The goalminded teacher 2018
My website about  a European Mooc on Europeana which I took in 2018:Europeana Mooc course 2018 
My website about  creating ebooks  which I curated in 2018: I shared what I had learnt while working on a course online and while  doing some interesting webinars  dealing with  ebooks.Creating and reading ebooks my website 
Connecting is crucial when you start but once you have become a member of a community or many communities you like sharing and becoming more active. This is often done in your free time but you cannot but continue doing it. You start working in a different way and work together with similar goal-minded teachers.