Professional+Learning+Networks

Professional Learning Networks (PLNs)
Where do you turn for content-related professional development? What blogs, websites, listservs, wikis, Nings and organizations help keep you informed?

Personal Learning Networks Simplified for Teachers A Simple Comprehensive Guide on The Use of Personal Learning Networks in Education 21st Century PLNs for School Leaders

Ready to network with like-minded educators and professionals? Here are a few you might consider...courtesy of Edutopia (and added to from other cited sources): >> ScotEduBlogs >> #ukedchat Information Wiki Site >> 21st Century Skills for Teachers >> Art Online Studio >> asantangelo82 >> Daring Tech Wiki >> Digitally Speaking. >> Ed Camp >> Educational Origami >> Flat Classroom Project >> Flugleflicks >> Greetings From The World >> ICT Magic Show >> iPad in Education >> METASAGA >> Mr Hanson’s Online Class
 * The Edutopia community (edutopia.org/groups) is the place to go for online conversations about everything from STEM education to green schools to project-based learning. Scroll through the community descriptions and join as many groups as you’d like—or suggest a new one to match your interests. Then jump into the conversations.
 * Edmodo (edmodo.com)
 * Classroom 2.0 (classroom20.com) appeals to both new users of Web 2.0 tools and more experienced practitioners.
 * Free Technology for Teachers (@http://www.freetech4teachers.com/) is one of my favorites for GREAT ideas in PK-12 classroom ideas and tools.
 * Tapped In (tappedin.org/tappedin) is an online community of educators that sponsors regular online forums.
 * Teachers Teaching Teachers (teachersteachingteachers.org/) produces a weekly webcast, which includes a back-channel discussion, and delivers exactly what the name promises.
 * A Beginner’s Guide to Twitter is from Read Write Web. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Beginning To Learn What Twitter Is All About. (courtesy of Larry Ferlazzo)
 * Edchats (edchat.pbworks.com) are regularly scheduled, tightly focused, global conversations about education that take place on Twitter(//#edchat)//. Participants typically vote on the topic for each chat and then weigh in during an hour-long event.
 * Comments typically fly by in Twitter, so you may find it easier to keep track with a tool like TweetDeck (tweetdeck.com).
 * In addition to the original Edchat, other regular events include:
 * Elemchat for elementary teachers (elemchat.wikispaces.com)
 * Scichat for science educators (teachingscience20.com/cichat)
 * Mathchat for the math crowd (mathschat.wikispaces.com/)
 * One of the first RSS feeds that I look at every morning is Tekzilla Daily. Tekzilla Daily provides quick tech tip videos.
 * Open Source Wikis to join (courtesy of Diigo's[| Web Tools for Educators] List posting by[| antonius3] on 2012-01-01 ). All wikis were nominated for the 2011 EduBlog Award.
 * @http://wiki.scotedublogs.org.uk/
 * http://ukedchat.wikispaces.com/
 * http://21stcenturyskillsnmteachercourse.wikispaces.com/home
 * @http://ibart.wetpaint.com/
 * http://asantangelo82.wikispaces.com/
 * http://thedaringlibrarian.wikispaces.com/
 * @http://digitallyspeaking.pbworks.com/w/page/17791568/FrontPage
 * http://edcamp.wikispaces.com/
 * http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/
 * @http://flatclassroomproject.org/
 * http://fugleflicks.wikispaces.com/
 * http://greetingsfromtheworld.wikispaces.com/
 * http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/
 * @http://palmbeachschooltalk.com/groups/ipadpilot/
 * http://metasaga.wikispaces.com/
 * @http://mrhanson.pbworks.com/

==How Do You Keep Up With All of This? == //(This post by Richard Byrne, originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers.)//

//How do you keep up with all of this?// That's a question I am often asked after giving a presentation or when I meet people at conferences. One of the ways I keep up and learn about new things is through Twitter. In a guest post last winter Steven Anderson offered some great advice about using Twitter. Google+ is increasingly becoming a good way to keep up with what the people in my circles are sharing. The other way, in fact the primary way, that I keep up is through my RSS reader.

I am currently subscribed to 273 blogs and websites in my RSS reader. Those 273 subscriptions account for more than 1,000 daily posts. If I had to visit each one of those sites individually I would never have time for anything else (like walking Morrison). So what is an RSS reader and how does it help me efficiently process 1,000 or more blog posts per day? Watch the Common Craft video below to find out.

If you're an iPad user or Android tablet user, there are some excellent apps that can improve your RSS viewing and reading experience. Not that there's anything wrong with reading the raw RSS feeds in Google Reader, I did it that way for a long time, I've just found that I move through my feeds quicker on a tablet than I do when using the vertical scroll in Google Reader.

The app that I'm currently using to read RSS feeds on my Samsung Galaxy Tablet is Feedly. Feedly is available as an Android app, as an iPad app, as a Google Chrome Web App, as a Firefox extension, and as a Safari extension. Feedly takes your RSS feeds and turns them into an easy-to-read magazine-like format. You can sync your Google Reader account to Feedly and it will retain all of the categories that you may have created in Google Reader. You can also sync Feedly to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Read It Later, and Instapaper. The video link below provides an overview of Feedly.
 * Feed Your Mind On The Go from Feedly on Vimeo.

A couple of other popular apps for reading RSS feeds on tablets are Google Currents and Flipboard.


 * Applications for Education **
 * You don't have to be trying to publish 100+ blog posts a month or be trying to keep up with 273 websites in order to benefit from using an RSS reader. Even before I was blogging I was using an RSS reader. I started using an RSS reader just to keep up with news from the BBC, CNN, and Reuters. I found it much easier to have the news come to me than for me to go to the news.
 * If you have a favorite education periodical, like the School Library Journal, chances are they have a web presence that you can follow in RSS. If your students are doing research they can create a Google Alert and add it to their RSS readers to get updates each time new information about that topic appears on the web.