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Connected Educators Growing Your PLN

Becoming a connected educator has been an interesting road for me.  Over the past few years, I've dabbled in reading blogs, following other educators on Twitter and Pinterest, and listening to podcasts.  Somehow, over the course of the last few years, my Personal Learning Network has grown into a fairly large group of educators with similar goals.  This video describes exactly what happened in my journey, but may also help you in seeing the "why" behind what intrigues educators to social media:

Find more videos like this on The Educator's PLN

Currently, these social networking tools are part of my informal professional growth plan. None of them takes up a lot of time, but the wealth of information that others are sharing is incredible.  I love what this blog said about being a connected educator... "it can also provide you with ongoing inspiration and support."


There are so many tools, I do recognize that you need to choose what works for you.  However, I want to share the tool, Twitter, because I found that many educators are using it to share ideas and I've found that it works really well for me.  I love reading short snippets of information, then deciding if I want to read more by clicking the provided link to a blog, photo, weblink, etc. To get started, create an account here.  The basics of twitter can be found on their Getting Started with Twitter help page.  View the image below to understand the various parts of a tweet.  It may seem like a lot at first, but it gets easier as you explore while reading others' tweets or you begin tweeting yourself. Remember these basic rules:

Connecting Faith Christian

To help you get started, I've shared my list of educational technology users here.  Click the user names, read the user profile found in the PROFILE SUMMARY window and click the FOLLOW if what they have to say sounds interesting.  As you follow more Twitter users, your Personal Learning Network will expand.

Also, to help Faith Christian get connected, enter your information here once you have established a Twitter account.  Our school can follow each other this way.

Other Twitter Resources
Jackson County ISD's Twitter for Teachers
Cybrary Man's Twitter for Beginners
Video - Twitter for Educators:  To Tweet or Not to Tweet
Twitter for Educators Beginner's Guide
40 Educational Tweeters Every Teacher Should Follow
 Labels: connected educators, network, PLN, twitter

