Personal Learning Networks

Just as our students are busy with their studies, I have been working on some continuing education as well.  Administrators must earn one PLU (professional learning unit) per school year, and this year, I have chosen to study about Personal Learning Networks, or PLN's. 

Personal Learning Networks, or PLN's, are simply networks of people and resources who have information to share regarding similar issues.  A school administrator would want to develop a PLN with other school administrators to discuss, learn, and share information about common challenges they face on a daily basis. 

For my final project, I have been asked to reflect on how my personal learning network has changed and grown during the course of the workshop and discuss my plans for how I plan to continue to grow my learning network and how I hope to contribute to the professional learning of my administrative colleagues.

My PLN has definitely changed and grown over the last six weeks of this workshop.  I have learned to utilize many new technologies and Web 2.0 tools to find other school leaders who share their knowledge and experiences through these tools.  As all of you know, I use this blog to communicate with parents, students, faculty, and the community about important news and activities here at our school.  Many administrators share their professional knowledge on their blogs, and I have learned to use Google Reader to subscribe to RSS feeds to quickly and effectively access some of the blogs onto one readable site.  This allows me to use my time more effectively when searching for information.  I have also created a Twitter account for the first time!  I know, you're thinking that is strictly for social or entertainment purposes.  Through this course, I have seen Twitter used effectively as an information platform for educational issues.  I am still on the fence as to whether it would be useful for our school as I use our e-mail lists, blogs, web site, and SchoolCast for informing you of news and events.  One final tool that was used in this workshop was podcasting.  Podcasting is a voice recording that can be embedded into web sites or blogs to distribute information.  Our SchoolCast is a type of a podcast, and that will probably be what I stick with for the present time.

In the future, I plan to continue to utilize this blog for communications with our school stakeholders, and I also plan to begin blogging with our teachers for professional development.  To continue to grow my PLN, I will continue to subscribe to RSS feeds of blogs that have good, solid educational information.  I will also begin to experiment more with Twitter as an educational tool.  I hope to contribute to the professional learning of my administrative colleagues by sharing this information and encouraging other administrators to learn to utilize these Web 2.0 tools for increasing communication and collaboration within their schools.

I would encourage feedback from parents and other administrators on the use of these Web 2.0 tools, and how you think they would be useful (or not), for our school!