What do you hope to learn more about with respect to your PLN in the coming weeks?
Actually I hope that I will continue building my PLN and get some help being more consistent in staying tuned in on Twitter and reading interesting blogs. I would like to make it a habit, that won't take to much time each day. I hope to get better at staying in touch and also I hope to make connections to start up some global collaboration projects for this fall semester (starting in August 2011). I will be teaching Mathematics, English, German and Science (8th-10th grade at a norwegian school) and I would love to be able to find collaboration partners.
So, my questions are:
- how do I keep up with things on Twitter without having to read everything in the main stream at the "home" page?
- how do I choose who I follow on Twitter and through Reader?
- how do I find partners in global projects?
Hi Anna,
ReplyDeleteI too am part of the Edublogs PLN Challenge, and have pondered the same questions you asked. With Twitter, I just read about what's happening at the time, and not worry about what I missed. I figure, if it's important enough, someone will retweet it.
I also follow Kathleen Morris' advice, and I only follow about 150ish people. So, I periodically go back and delete those who I don't recognize or haven't made connections with.
http://primarytech.global2.vic.edu.au/2011/04/04/top-10-twitter-tips/
What global projects were you thinking about? I know many 8th-10th grade teachers, and depending on what type of collaborative project it is, I might be able to arrange something.
Kind regards,
Tracy Watanabe
Hi Anna, I started using twitter four years ago. It was a smaller group then. Now I find that I follow and are followed by many. There is no way I can keep up with everyone. So, I have downloaded tweetdeck onto my computer and added columns for the topics that I am really interested in eg #edchat #globaleducation #accounting #ksyb These columns feed in all the people's tweets who use those hashtags. As to finding people for global project, the edublogger has a page for skype linkups, skype has an education site now, Lucy Gray has a globaleducation ning at http://globaleducation.ning.com/ I am about to write a blog post on where I have found global projects and will return to let you know where it is when complete. Over the last couple of weeks I have been correcting work, writing exams and reports.
ReplyDeleteHi Anna! I am also participating in the PLN Challenge! My questions and curiosities are similar to yours...how to manage time, how to manage information, and the hope of finding others globally to connect with. I absolutely agree with the above posters: I've identified Twitter as my professional development account and I don't really follow anyone who isn't part of that. I also do a lot of searches by hash tag and using a platform like Tweetdeck means you can leave the searches open. I like to follow #eltchat and #elemchat. Both of these hash tags also represent actual "chats" scheduled on Twitter which are quite fun and interesting to participate in. Here is the link to the #elemchat info. There is actually one tonight (Saturday) http://elemchat.wikispaces.com
ReplyDeleteThere is probably a live #edchat too.
I look forward to following you as you build your PLN!
@sarah_wg
http://newschoolelt.wordpress.com/
Hi Anna, the key with twitter is as the number of people you follow on twitter increases you change from trying to keep up with everything people are tweeting and you look at strategies that make it easier.
ReplyDeleteFor example, creating lists of the main people you like to check up to date with helps. If you use TweetDeck this is really easy to achieve. If you have an iPad then FlipBoard makes it easy to check through the links being shared by your twitter network and also share with everyone.
Who you follow is very personal. My recommendation for new people on Twitter is to choose people who you can see willingly interact with other people and have conversations - who are always happy to help. Michael Graffin (@mgraffin), Kathleen Morris (@kathleen_morris, Sue Wyatt (@tasteach), Anne (@murcha), @philhart and @johart are all good choices and can help you connect with others that willing will help.
Choosing which blogs to read is hard as it is personal choice. I'd suggest you check out some of the participant blogs and perhaps some of those recommended in the Edublog Awards ( http://edublogawards.com/ )
Anne is definitely the person for advice on Global Projects!
Hope some of this information has helped!
Hi Anna! One limit I've found helpful in keeping me from being overwhelmed by Twitter is that any time I log on, I don't look at any Tweets more than an hour old. This way I can get a little context for what's been going on, but I don't spend a lot of time worrying about what I've missed.
ReplyDeleteHi everybody and thanks for commenting!
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the good advice and I really like the idea of not reading tweets from more than an hour ago Kimberly!
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