It turns out LinkedIn wasn't as useless as I thought! I was approved for the Science Math Primary/Secondary Education group, and I've been getting the occasional email about discussions in the group. Nothing exciting, except I saw a link for the "PLN ning" on the right side of the page. "Great!" I thought, "I can use that for Thing 6!" I figured it had something to do with math and science.
Only sort of.
After following a few links and reading some blogs, I learned that PLN stands for "personal learning network". (I've also learned I need to bookmark those pages as soon as I find them. Otherwise, I can't find them again!) The idea, as I understand it, is to take day-to-day responsibility for our professional development. Don't wait for the traditional workshops to become available, don't sit in a classroom or a conference room collecting handouts, don't go home and try to implement some new idea without on-going support. Instead, connect to people through Web 2.0 tools, go to those workshops when they are available and connect with the people there, spend some time each day or week learning about new practices or old practices you weren't aware of. Let people who live far away from you support you as you try new things in your classroom.
It sounds great!
The tough part is learning to use the Web 2.0 tools. I'm slowly finding my way around the PLN ning, trying to figure out how to get the best use out of it. I've joined the PLN newbies group on the ning, so I should be able to ask questions there, once I figure out what questions I need to ask! I can see the use of having a blog on the PLN ning, since there are 5,816 members right there. It's a good way to get followers for your blog! But since I already have this one, I will be using this ning to find blogs I want to follow. I'll list "Hammy's Weblet" in my profile, and maybe someone will use thing ning to find my blog!
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