Blog #5 Part 2

I had never heard the term Personal Learning Network (PLN) prior to entering EDM 310, but I am very glad that we learned about them at the beginning of the semester. I began to build my very own PLN a few months ago, and since then, it has grown and changed quite a bit.

I used Symbaloo to start building my PLN. The image below is a screenshot of my Symbaloo page. As you can see, I have collected quite a few websites that I find useful and have made them all available from one source. When I first created my Symbaloo account, almost all of my tiles were websites that interest me rather than websites that would benefit me professionally. Since then, I have created tiles for websites such as Discovery Education, BIE, and several other websites that I think will be useful to me as a future educator. All of the websites that we used frequently in EDM 310, such as Blogger and YouTube, are also included in my PLN. We have used so many different websites and tools that I definitely think will be good to use in my future classroom.

There are quite a few people that I have found to be valuable resources throughout the semester, and I have added them to my PLN as well. Current, college-level educators such as Dr. Strange and Mrs. Gaillard are people that I will definitely include in my PLN. These teachers have so much experience and have access to so much knowledge and so many resources. When I first began to build my PLN, I compiled a list of some of my past teachers that I believe would be valuable assets to my network. I find that lower-level teachers are good to include because they have experience working with the age group that I want to work with one day. I have also come in contact with other teachers during my time as an education major, such as the teacher for my interview movie or the teacher I observed with in EPY 351, that I have added to my network. Furthermore, I have found that there are so many teachers who blog and it is fairly easy to search for them. I think that these teachers, like the ones we have been assigned to for C4T, would be good to keep in mind as well.

I am so glad that we had the opportunity to learn about Personal Learning Networks. I have enjoyed building mine throughout the semester, and I know that it will only grow as I continue on in my journey to becoming an educator.