How do I find resources for my PLN?

 We have talked a little about what a PLN is now the next question is, “how do I find people and resources for my PLN?” As I looked into this I was pleasantly surprised at how many resources there are.  I am offering some examples and guides for these resources and have broken them into categories.  Hope this helps!

Social networking (personal contacts)

Facebook

Myspace

Microblogging (where professionals share best practices and resources in shorten version)

            Twitter

            My Guide to Twitter

Plurk-free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send updates (plurks) through short messages or links.          

Professional Profiles (where you connect with other professionals and experts in your field)

LinkedIn-A professional network that allows you to be introduced to and collaborate with other professionals.

            Ecademy –A business network for creating contacts and sharing knowledge.

Fast Pitch – A business network where professionals can market their business and make connections.

Networking for Professionals – A business network that combines online business networking and real-life events

Ryze – A business networking community that allows users to organize themselves by interests, location, and current and past employers.

Blogs (great source of info.  Blogs monitor the heartbeat of new trends in education and a source for great ideas and relationships)

WordPress- free and open-source blogging tool and a content management system and includes a plugin architecture and a template system.

Blogger-blog-publishing service that allows multi-user blogs with time-stamped entries. The blogs are hosted by Google at a subdomain of blogspot.com. A user can have up to 100 blogs per account.

Alltop-Collect headlines of the latest stories from the best sites and blogs that cover a topic and then group the collections into individual web pages.  They are like a magazine rack of the web and augment your online reading by displaying stories from sources that you’re already visiting plus helping you discover sources that you didn’t know existed.

Technorati-Real-time search for user-generated media (including weblogs) by tag or keyword. Also provides popularity indexes.

Nings (communities of people interested in similar topics with forums and messaging)

Classroom 2.0-Classroom 2.0 is a free, community-supported network and a great place for beginners.  It is a social network for those interested in Web 2.0, Social Media, and Participative Technologies in the classroom.

Good morning.  In our class we are talking about PLN's.  Exactly what is a PLN I asked myself and why would I want one?  I started doing a little researach about PLN's and found out it is probably a good thing to have.

What is a PLN you ask?  Let me explain a little. It stands for Personal Learning Network.  This is our own personally developed network of resources in a field we are looking at.  With more and more opportunities to develop our skills beyond the traditional routes establishing our own PLN is an important step toward increasing our knowlege and skills. In the past, we were able to connect with teaching resources through journals, conferences, professional development, and other activities. These are still valuable ways to broaden our knowledge and skills base but they all require us to physically be there which is becoming more and more difficult these days.  

A PLN offers additional benefits that traditional personal development cannot. First, a PLN allows us to personalizeour learning because we can adapt our network to provide the information we need. We are not just absorbing information from others:we are sharing. We are not gaining what we need from some impersonal source: we are building relationships.  

How is a PLN developed?  A PLN is developed primarily through social media sources, such as Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. Through this media we can read and post immediate responses to articles, research or discoveries.   We can connect ourselvesf to those resources across the world that will provide us with what we need to grow.

Let me introduce myself....

           I am Kathy Walker.  I have six children with 3 children-in-law, 15 grandchildren, 4 step children with one son-in-law and the first grandchild on the way from this family.  I love spending time with my family and most especiall my grandchildren.  Family is what makes this life worth it.  They are another reason I have chosen to change careers.
         I have a BS in psychology from Utah State University and worked in the field for many years working with the mentally ill and the developmentally delayed.  I love Special Olympics!!  (just had to throw that in).  I worked that for most of 13 years with a brief break as the District Director of the American Red Cross Disaster Services, during Katrina no less.  Exciting times and love helping people.  However after so many years of helping people burn-out set in.  In the fall of 2012 I went Idaho State University to start a new career.
         In May of 2014, I graduated from ISU with a degree in Technical/professional writing.  A far cry from what I had done in the past....no I am not a genius able to graduate in 2 years, I just had so many credits transferred from USU that is all it took.    I found that I love writing and I love the time I have to myself to do my work, but I still need interaction with people, just in smaller doses.
        After graduation, I joined AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) and was assigned to the Student Success Center as the Service Learning coordinator at ISU.  I worked with the First Year Seminar students and found that was something I really loved.  I really enjoy teaching the college classes and I love to see these students grow and progress. I was transferred to a new assignment last week, not exactly what I was planning it wasn't suppose to happen until August so it will be very interesting starting a new job with all the learning curves there and two summer classes.  I am now working in the College of Technology as a technical writer for the ABE/START program.  I will be creating a procedures manual as well as a retention plan.
        I am currently enrolled in the Masters of Organizational and Learning program at Idaho State University.  I am very much enjoying this program and it fits my future plans so well.  It gives me the option to work with people and still gives me the space to work on my own in the development process.  So graduate school full time and working full time along with family obligations makes life quite interesting but my motto is...it may be difficult, but it will be worth it in the end.
         I am starting this blog to share some ideas and information that I have and hope to get new ideas, thoughts and suggestions from others.  I have always loved the idea of social learning and all the "new" social media happening is very exciting to me, especially as an upcoming trainer.  Social media and instructional technology has opened a whole new world for trainers allowing us to reach many people simultaneously.  It will save companies much time and money by having the training reach all of their offices at the same time and without the trainer having to travel.
         I hope to be able to create an exceptional Professional Learning Network from this program and the Instructional Tech class focusing on social media I am taking this semester.