1. My Personal Learning Network is comprised of professionals that I follow (#slpeeps and #edchat on Twitter) and those who contribute to my information-sharing network (Delicious). As a future speech-language pathologist, I need to keep up with latest in therapy techniques, technology applications, research and more. The speech pathology community is rapidly growing and there is an ever-expanding network of journals, websites and blogs that are applicable to the field. My PLN helps keep me current by bringing these new resources directly to my fingertips. Twitter and Delicious funnel topic-specific posts directly onto my homepage - it doesn’t get much simpler than that.
2. I was hesitant to get involved in Twitter, admittedly because I did not fully understand it. Fortunately some of the journal articles that I analyzed for ED422 were helpful in decoding the mystery of retweets, followers and hashtags. By the time I joined a live chat (#edchat) I felt confident enough to pose a few comments and second others’ ideas. I noticed that most of my time during the #edchat was either spent keeping up with the pace of tweets or thinking to myself, “That’s a good point!” each time the page refreshed.
The main topic during that session was the real and imaginary dangers of using technology in the classroom. The most intriguing ‘real danger’ that I saw was the the fact that students need to be taught how to use technology responsibly (which fit in great with NETS-T 4). Many people mentioned the widespread misconception that, since this generation knows how to operate technology, they must understand how to use it for good. Participants echoed similar responses to this real danger: Like a hammer or a knife, technology can be used to help or to harm. The chat quickly moved to other topics, but this concept really stuck with me. I so see the value in communicating with other professionals who clearly care about their profession. The resources and ideas that are shared so quickly and easily make Twitter a great tool.
I joined several speech pathology groups on Twitter with the hope that one of them had a weekly chat (like #slpeeps and #ASHA). There was not a published time for any group, but I did end up following several professionals in the field. I am following: SpeechBob, SpeechTechie, ASHAWeb, speechtx9, and SlpKelsey. SpeechBob is the user who started #slpeeps, and I find that he often shares very insightful resources. It’s great to see that I’m entering a field that freely shares thoughtful tips and invites new questions.
This assignment forced me to get out of my comfort zone by contributing to #edchat and following a new set of people. I am still somewhat intimidated by Twitter (especially when participating in live chats) but I know that practice makes perfect!
3. Given my interest in speech pathology, I tracked down several Delicious users and articles that connected speech therapy with digital tools. I tagged these articles with the keywords: slp, pln, education, ipad, speechtherapy, etc. Other PLN articles I tagged were more educational technology-specific, specifically related to the iPad. I am very interested in how educators are incorporating iPads in the classroom, so two of the articles I saved were about tablet applications in general education. Speech pathologists are also finding ways to utilize the iPad in therapy sessions, so I included an article on an articulation app that a speech pathologist recommended.
These articles (and the others I saved) all contribute to my PLN because they are specifically related to topics I care about. Now my Delicious homepage automatically pulls these tags from the Delicious network and shares them with me. This is a powerful research tool that enhances my knowledge and understanding of the field without spending a lot of time searching online.
4. The article I read on Classroom 2.0 was “Should teachers and students be ‘friends’ on social networking sites?” The original post asked readers to review an article on the topic. This article did not pose a clear opinion, but rather challenged educators to consider the pros and cons of ‘friending’ students online. The clear pros are connection with students in their real lives, the ability to drop a quick note or say hello, and to be reminded of events like birthdays. The cons are just as obvious and far more reaching: inappropriate relationships, private conversations, compromising pictures or posts about your social life, and more. Some contributors to the article even suggested that teachers shouldn’t be on Facebook at all. In my opinion, teachers can responsibly participate on social network sites, but they need to understand their public persona and make their profiles private. I do not think they should ‘friend’ students until the students have been out of the classroom for several years. Many of the Classroom 2.0 contributors had similar responses. The general consensus is that Facebook is not inherently wrong, but teachers need to exercise extreme caution when using it.
**This PLN assignment modeled digital-age learning because of the intense involvement in the online tools of Twitter and Delicious. I was stretched as an educator and, by establishing a PLN, I have a direct resource to continue my professional development.
No comments:
Post a Comment