Networking Onlinefor Professional Development

Marian Thacher

mthacher@otan.us

How has the Web changed in the last 5 years?• Easy to create a Web site

• Anyone can have a blog

• Comment on each other’s blog posts, photos, videos, bookmarks

• “Watch” what other people are doing, thinking, reading, talking about

• Your network now includes “strangers”! (and strangers are not so strange)

What is a Social Networking Site?

• A Web site that allows users to connect, communicate and/or share information with each other

By Moonjazz, http://www.flickr.com/photos/moonjazz/651498439/

Examples of Social Networking

• Email Lists

• Blogs, Miniblogs, Microblogs

• Delicious, Diigo

• Facebook, MySpace. LinkedIn

• Google Groups, Ning

• Flickr, YouTube, TeacherTube

• RSS, Google Reader

• LibraryThing, ShelfariFrom premiardeigo, http://www.flickr.com/photos/9119028@N05/591163479/

Your Personal Learning Network

• Think about how you learn new things

– ?

– ?

• Think about how you learned things 10 yrs ago

– ?

– ?

• Any differences?

Your Personal Learning Network

• 235 million searches a day on Google

• 75% of people go to information directly from their search results, NOT from the home page of a site

Your Personal Learning Network• Example of Stephen Downes

www.downes.ca

– Saw references several years ago

– Followed him on Twitter and Facebook

– Received interesting links and references

– Went to his blog and signed up for his newsletter

– Posted on my blog about him and he responded

– Now he is definitely in my PLN, and he notes that he actually came up with the concept!

Your Personal Learning Network

“Information has always been a conversation, it’s just that most of us weren’t part of it, until the Internet.”

--Steve Hargadon

www.stevehargadon.com

David Warlick’s PLN

http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/

My PLN 10 Years ago

TeacherCoordinator

PresenterMom

Lesson Plans

Reports

Work-shops

Articles

Class Activities

Parenting

StudentsSupervisors

FriendsColleagues

Prof. Groups

JournalsBooksWeb Pages

ConferencesClassesSite Workshops

My PLN Now

Web site

ReportsWork-shops

ArticlesBlogs Grand-

parenting

Supervisors

Friends

ColleaguesProf. Groups

JournalsBooksWeb PagesConferencesClassesSite Workshops

AdministratorPresenterBlogger

Grandma

BlogsSocial NetworksListservsPodcastsAggregatorsTwitter

Online Network

Viral Professional Development

• We learn on our own with support from each other

• You don’t need a large training staff – just a few enthusiastic early adopters

• Build a network!

• Share everything – tape it, blog it, tag it, post it

• Celebrate and get the word out up and down the food chain

Viral Professional Development

• Jennifer Jones, Injenuity.com

• http://injenuity.com/archives/66

• A viral post on viral PD

Email Lists, or Listservs

PROs

• Easy to access

• Comes to you (push)

• Access to a wider community

• Get answers to your questions

CONs

• Too much email

• Not all of interest

• Public in ways you might not realize

Email Lists, or Listservs

• NIFL lists (ESL, Family Literacy, Tech, Assessment)

• Adult Numeracy Network

• National Literacy Advocacy

• Tech Mentor Network

• Start your own? Ask OTAN

Blogs• What is a blog?

• Go to the Wiki

Wikis

• What is a wiki?

• Go to the wiki

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/19490596/

Can you use these?

• Are you blogging?

• Are you using a wiki?

• How might you use either for professional development?

Bookmarking and Tagging

• How you save sites now

• Bookmarking

• Tagging

• Tag clouds

• Go to the wiki

(my Delicious account) (my diigo account)

When I say Social Networking…

• What’s the first thing that comes to mind?

“Traditional” Social Networking

• MySpace – OBT example

• Facebook – Becoming very popular with “older” users

– 500 groups related to ESL!

• Yahoo Groups

From mattkeefe - http://www.flickr.com/photos/fil/3151423/

New Social Networking• A list of social network sites for education

• English teachers in Mexico

• Classroom 2.0

• CATESOL State

Swap 2009

• Go to the wiki

Sharing Media

• Flickr

• YouTube

• TeacherTube

• Ustream

• Go to the wiki

Sharing Books

• Shelfari

• LibraryThing

From Phil Moore - http://www.flickr.com/photos/fil/3151423/

Keeping up with your network

• Aggregators, Feeds

• My Yahoo

• Google Reader

• Jaiku, Friendfeed, SocialThing

• Go to the wiki

GO FORTH AND CONNECT!