Now that we are almost halfway through the semester, I am able to reflect on my Personal Learning Network (PLN) to recognize its strengths, weaknesses, and the like.
Of course, I was overwhelmed at first. I found that constantly checking and maintaining certain websites like Twitter, and Google Reader was very tedious. However, as I practiced using them, I can find positive advantages and more practical uses of the various networks. For instance, I discontinued my use of Twitter because I found it to be slightly unhelpful. On the other hand, I have really embraced my blog as a way to organize and express all of my various thoughts on teaching and learning!
So, developing a PLN is incredibly important because it gives you introduces us to a broad range of resources. It is up to us how and if we want to continue using them. Some of my favorite uses of my PLN are collaborating with other future teachers, reading real-life stories of current teachers, and learning different ways to implement technology into my future classroom.
Maintaing a PLN can be slightly difficult, simply because one needs to be pro-active! You must seek out interesting teaching blogs, lesson plans, etc. You have to work the PLN, information seldom will just fall in your lap. I do not see any drawbacks to forming a PLN, I simply understand that it can be challenging to reap all of its benefits.
Overall, a rich PLN can immensely help prepare us to be great teachers.
Amanda Tyler's Blog 