Developing a Personal Learning Nework

In this class we have done a lot to develop our PLN or personal learning network. The tools we have used to do this so far are twitter, blogging, our RSS feed, and social bookmarking. So far, I think that these tools could be pretty useful. They each offer their own strengths and weakness that can be reflected upon.

Twitter allows tor immediate updates. It can be useful to get a small point across in the most efficient way. The tweet deck allows for constant updates on when someone just "tweeted." That way I can keep track of when my students or colleagues update their twitter. It is the best form to use if you want a fast response for something short. The draw back is that it only allows for so much writing. There is a word limit, so that you can't post an elaborate idea. This makes it hard to share some things at a quick way. Some ideas can't be condensed enough to fit within the word count.

This is where blogging comes in. I have really come to enjoy blogging. It is a great way to get an elaborate idea across and even get feedback. I found that I like to write my ideas or thoughts and see what other people think. It allows for constructive criticism so that others could help make your thoughts better. It can provide the opportunity for different points of view to be heard. This can help a misunderstanding or confusing topic, as if a bunch of people have other ideas, it can be pieced together. Reading blogs is also very beneficial to me. I like to see what other projects people are working on and what other people are thinking. It's cool to see the different blog topics and it even inspires some of my writing. Therefore, blogging ultimately helps the process of reading and writing, since that's essentially what it is. Although, there are drawbacks. One would be that it does not receive immediate feedback. Someone may be on at the same time and comment write away, but most of the time it takes a while. It can take days before someone notices and comments. Which is another drawback. It is hard to sift through all of the blogs and find some interesting enough to read. Although once they are added to the RSS feed it can make things much easier.

Ah, RSS feed, where would I be without you? Honestly this saves me with my ideas for my blogs. Whenever I feel like writing a blog, I head to my RSS feed to see what's new and interesting. The RSS is very beneficial as it is a great way to organize blogs you want to follow. It shows the most recent updates between all of the blogs in the feed. You can even click on each individual blog page to see their updates. It's great that it is all on one page, so I dont have to spend a majority of my time searching for ideas. It organizes the blogs very well, so that all you have to do is look through the feed. This can help update you with colleagues ideas, what the students are bloggin about, or any other topic of interest in the blog feed. The only drawback is actually building the RSS feed. To go and find blogs that will be updated enough and have interesting topics was harder than I thought. I spent hours trying to find blogs to put on my RSS, but once I added them, my life was so much easier.

One other PLN device we used is the social bookmarking through Delicious. To be honest, I haven't had to use this yet. BUT I know that when I do get the opportunity it will prove to be very beneficial. My bookmarks on my computer save me. They make it so much easier to access websites I use a lot. I havent had to use delicious yet becaue it really is the only computer I use. I use my work computer be we are only allow to do so much that isn't work related, so I never need other websites. But to have an account where I can open all my bookmarks on any computer makes me feel safe. I don't have to worry about going somewhere because I would have to search for websites. Instead I can just open My Delicious and have my bookmarks right in front of me. Drawbacks are that you have to update it. If I add a bookmark to my bookmarks now, then I have to go to my delicious account and add it there if I want to use it on another computer.

Overall, I think that PLN's are very beneficial. They allow for organization and to present ideas to receive feedback. We can use them to tell those in our networks what we are thinking and see their ideas. We can also organize our blogs or bookmarks, so no time is wasted. I think with all of them the drawbacks are the effort and time to start them and update them. At the beginning it doesn't see worth it because it does take a lot of effort to build the PLN. Yet, once it's built, it is very beneficial to keep updated!