Well I am on my way to building a focused PLN... and I'm nervous about it. Putting myself out there to collaborate with other, inspiring professionals! What if I don't make the cut? What if my Tweet doesn't make any sense?
As a starting point, I have investigated four major PLN platforms to find one that will suit my needs as an educator and as a life-long learner:
Right away I knew the Apple Teacher PLN was not going to work for me. Although my school does have Ipads available for use, we are not very Mac friendly and I also don't personally own any Apple devices. So for now, I will let that one be.
The ISTE Professional Learning Networks really appealed to me as they have specific community pages for different goals. Personally I was attracted to the STEM Network. So I signed up, joined two different PLN's, and... nothing. It appears that this is a costly system to sign up for or I am not cut out for navigating the quite overwhelming platform. Until I become more PLN literate, I will also leave this one alone for now.
Both the Microsoft Educators Community and the Google Educators appeal to me a great deal. Finding communities to move forward with Skype collaboration is amazing (Microsoft) and my district is really pushing Google Apps for Education. Although Google Educators doesn't have a BC specific Network, I chose to move forward with that PLN as I feel it will be the most relevant at this point in my career to my teaching and learning. I joined the Alberta community for now, and already am blown away by the amazing work, collaboration, resource sharing and information to be found! I think that this is a great starting place for this very green networker...
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