This guest post is written by 6th grade teacher Shawn Avery. This is post #10 in the “30 Days to a Whole New PLN” challenge!

So now that you’ve started building your PLN, we’re going to look at how to connect with more educators and build relationships.

Objective

In this activity, you will explore:

1. What you can gain from connecting with other classroom teachers.
2. Tips for connecting with different educators from around the globe.
3. Your challenge task to help you continue building your PLN.

Overview

Making connections with other classroom teachers has provided so many learning opportunities for myself as well as my students.  My teaching world was relatively sheltered up until this past year.  I would often collaborate with other educators within my school.  However, my collaboration was confined to that.  I hadn’t yet seen the vast potential in flattening my classroom walls and connecting with teachers from around the globe.

A couple of the ways that I made connections with educators have already been tackled in previous posts.  Using blogs as part of a PLN and using Twitter were really how I started out.  I started my class blog in December of 2010.  In researching other class blogs I stumbled across the Edublog awards.  I started commenting on some of the different blogs that I came across there and as I started posting interesting content on our blog, those comments started to become reciprocated.  Around that same time, I started out on Twitter.    I started talking to some of those other teachers that I blogged with, posting interesting sites that I came across, as well as whenever our blog had a new post.  My PLN slowly started to build.

As the year progressed, I found many new ways to connect with others.  We quad-blogged. Quad blogging is where four different classes, four different blogs, connect for a four week period. Each week the focus is on one of those blogs. The other three classes all visit and comment on that blog. That blog will take the week to post information about the school, their location, and any other interesting information they’d like to share. We were able to connect with a class from California, British Columbia, and Australia. It allowed for my students to learn information with others from around the world and I was able to connect with three other amazing educators.

On Twitter, grade level chats such as #4thchat, #5thchat, and #6thchat started popping up. Each week, we discuss a different topic that is voted on by peers. It may range from integrating technology into the classroom to back to school ideas. It’s an amazing way to connect with others. I’ve gained so many wonderful ideas just from these hour long chats.

I’ve also joined educator communities such as Edutopia, Classroom 2.0, and Teacher 2.0. All have great forums that really foster discussion amongst educators. The Teacher Challenge from Edublogs is also a great way to meet educators who have similar goals. Check it out next time it rolls around!

5 Tips to Develop Relationships

1. Put Yourself Out There!

The more you share, the more you’ll find you receive in return.  Whether it be sharing resources through blogging, bookmarking sites such as Diigo, Twitter, Google+, or Facebook, educators love hearing about great resources.  You’ll find that if you’re sharing quality content, you’ll make connections quickly!

2. Find What Works Best for You

I know all of this sounds daunting.  There are so many places to go to help grow your PLN.  You don’t have to sign up for every educator site or every social network.  Try them out though.  Find what you feel best fits what you’d like to accomplish and then dedicate yourselves to those.  I spend the majority of my time connecting between Twitter and blogging.  I’ll peak my head in to some of the other sites sometimes though just to see if there’s anything I find useful and to comment on a forum or two.

3. Always Follow Up

If someone comments on your blog, make sure you comment back.  If someone mentions you on Twitter, make sure you respond or at least thank them for the mention.  Having a PLN is all about the conversation.  Making sure that you respond back to others is a great way to get that conversation going.

4. Look for Innovative Ways to Connect

I’ve seen tools such as Skype used to connect with classes from around the world.  Instead of just a straight forward chat though, try Mystery Skyping or Family Feud Skyping.  Those will certainly get conversation going!  Or, try creating a chat on Twitter based upon an area of teaching you love.  You could do a weekly hour chat based upon botany in the classroom and create the hashtag #classbot.  Just an idea.  Be creative!

5. Be Prepared to Collaborate

In growing your PLN, you’ll find that it opens so many doors to new activities in the classroom.  Use these connections to collaborate with teachers and students from around the world.  I’ve seen amazing projects develop from these connections.  A great example is the Ugandan Global Project which was put together by Linda Yollis (California), Jonah Salsich (Connecticut), Kathleen Morris and Kelly Jordan (Australia), as well as Sarah Toa (China). Through the joint efforts of these classes around the world, they raised close to $20,000 (USD) to help build a play area next to a school in Uganda. I’ve also made great connections through the Kites Around the World Project created by Jonah Salsich and the Student Math Movie wiki. Or, if you have a PLN as wonderful as mine, maybe you’ll even have a chance to collaborate on a project such as this at some point in the future. Just know that collaborative projects will definitely help grow your PLN.

Challenge

1.  Write a post or comment about how you plan to connect with other educators.  What sites do you prefer to use to make connections.  Why?

2. Write a post or comment about how you currently or how you hope to collaborate with other educators.  What’s your favorite collaborative project that you feel helped you make connections with other educators?

3.  If you have any questions, please ask!  Again, growing a PLN is all about the conversation!

About the Author

Shawn Avery is a sixth grade teacher at Dennett Elementary, in Plympton, Massachusetts.  He has a passion for teaching and trying to find new ways to engage students by integrating technology into the classroom.  You can find his class blog at mravery.edublogs.org. You can also visit his wikis, Student Math Movies and #6thchat. He can be found on Twitter, @mr_avery and Google+.

This guest post is written by Anne Mirtschin a teacher who is  passionate about immersing technology in the classroom, eLearning, global and rural education. This is post #10 in the “30 Days to a Whole New PLN” challenge! Now that you’ve started building your PLN,  get even more globally connected by joining one of the biggest classrooms in the world.

Things were getting frantic – with just two hours until interested grade prep to 6  parents were to assemble in  our school library for our Technology Showcase,  videos would not display on our new iPod touches. One excited class had been busy making videos and they were to show them using the iPod touches.

Urgent messages for help were sent out to all and any email lists.  In sheer desperation, a discussion item was also placed on Classroom2.0. Within 10 minutes, we had the answer – not from anyone in Australia or our emailing lists, but from Matthew Needleman, in the USA. Following his instructions the videos displayed to a library overflowing with parents, grandparents and students.  The showcase was a great success!

This was my first taste of the power of networking and its ability to provide information NOW from anywhere across the globe! (It needs to be noted that I teach at Hawkesdale P12 College,  a small rural, geographically and culturally isolated prep to year 12 school, in South Eastern Australia.)

Four years ago, I joined classroom2.0 a ning set up by Steve Hargadon of USA. At that stage there were 3,000 members from all levels and tiers of education, all passionate about the use of technology in education.  Today there are more than 466,000 members and I am proud to be a welcoming host on this ning.

Wordle from current classroom2.0 page

Why join Classroom 2.0?:-

• It is free
• It is a space to make global connections and friends
• Empowers teaching and learning
• Allows discussions/forums. There are many active discussions over the years, many still applicable today.
• Keep up to date with the latest developments in education
•  Share learning and join in conversations
• Publish and read members’ blog posts
• Search for discussions, tags etc on tools, subjects, areas of personal interest
• Mailing list updates on upcoming free webinars and events
• Share and peruse photos and videos
• create or join in collaborative global projects
•  There is are easy search features on previous discussion topics, technology tools, subjects, areas etc

Where can such membership lead? Here follows some memorable stories  of classroom2.0 friends, connections and just some of the rather amazing  outcomes for my classes.

1. Chrissy Hellyer from New Zealand  taught us how to create a wiki, sharing the power that interactivity, connectedness and collaboration can bring. See anzacconnection
2. Lorraine Leo of USA,  introduced me to the power of  virtual classrooms using discoverE. Over the years, we have taught each others’ classes despite teaching at different age levels and living in different time zones. We have shared colleagues, photos, videos, experiences, festivals, celebrations and cultures. Lorraine has brought the following virtually to our school: a research scientist from her tent in Antarctica and Rich Wilson, a US sailor and his quest in sailing solo around the world. (Listen to Skipper Rich). Her  grade 6 student  spoke about Halloween to my fascinated students and Lorraine organised a  student of Dean Shareski from the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada,  to speak to  my accounting students and much, much more. We have been part of exciting pioneering three to five way linkups, connecting a classroom in the Phillipines with mine plus teachers from three other continents, all in the one classroom.  We have worked on voicethreads together – a  firm favourite being “My question of you” where Lorraine’s  grade two students asked a question and my year 7s replied to them. Teaching and Learning Across the Globe is a recorded joint presentation for the online Global Education Conference 2010.
3. Ekaterina from Russia:- We have videoconferenced together using skype  (our classes were televised on Russian television as a result), shared student surveys eg Climate Change Questionaire, developed an  Across the World wiki together etc.
4. Govinda Panthy- an amazing educator from Nepal who has become e-connected and painstakingly, patiently and with great determination brought global awareness to the plight of his school and students in Nepal. Govinda would awake at 4:30am in order to skype because his power is frequently cut off during daytime working hours. With the aid of friends made on classroom 2.0, Our Open World Project is now raising funds to bring several computers to SAV school and much needed physical library requisites. Make sure you visit the Open World Project site to see the real power, empathy and learning that can extend from membership.
5. Alison Saylor -  We worked on google docs together and co-surveyed our students on their ownership of personal gadgets. Students in a school from Jerusalem were also surveyed. Students from each school  mapped the results in a spreadsheet for comparison.  The project  raised extensive local classroom discussion and provided many teachable moments.

There are so many more wonderful stories that could be shared.

And now for the long tail!:

1. In 2010, I was proud to be  the Australasian mentor for the innovative online Global Education Conference which connected educators from across the globe in a free three day online conference – a direct result of my membership at classroom 2.0.
2. Through the resultant friendship with Steve Hargadon, he encouraged me to be a co-moderator and organiser of eT@lking, online webinars using Blackboard Collaborate for the  Australia Series. This has led to even further connections and networks.

Tips for successful membership of Classroom2.0 or other similar networks

1. Ensure your profile has enough information to encourage others to consider and add you as a friend
2. Lurk, lurk and lurk! Watch the discussions, search the tools, subjects or areas that you may be into help,  network and share existing knowledge.
3. Introduce yourself on the  Introductions  discussion.
4. Watch the discussion thread on “Introductions” and befriend some of the others who may be like-minded across a number of countries.
5. Make friends where possible.
6. When confident actively join in the conversations and discussions.
7. Add your own discussion topic
8. Write some blog posts (these can be cross posted from your existing blog).
9. Set up an RSS feed for the discussions you are interested in.
10. Return regularly

In 2011, Anne teaches accounting and information technology to senior classes at Hawkesdale P12 College, a small rural prep to year 12 school, although in previous years she has taught prep through to year 12 students.   One day a week, Anne is a web conference coach for the Innovations and Next Practise division of the Victorian Education Department. Anne is a welcoming host for classroom2.0 and co- organizes and co-moderates two weekly educational webinars (which are free) – Tech Talk Tuesdays and eT@lking

This guest post was written by Sarah Poling who is passionate about finding and using technology as a motivator and time saver. This is post #4 in the “30 Days to a Whole New PLN” challenge!

Now you know what a PLN is, and how people use Twitter to build one, we’re going to discuss ways of making time to build your PLN.

In this activity you will explore:

1. How PLN development can be overwhelming.
2. Get some tips for building your PLN and avoiding being overwhelmed
3. Challenge task start your PLN: take your own baby steps and share them…

Overview

For the past six months, I’ve been learning best practices in educational technology to share with pre-service elementary teachers.

When I started, I just wanted to quit!

It was completely overwhelming to know where and how to start.

A family member and fellow educator said the most important thing to teach new teachers is to create a PLN.

So as any good educator does, I set out to figure out the best ways to create a PLN. Even that was overwhelming, so many choices, and all seemed so new, I started with twitter, perhaps the livefeed was part of my problem- my first tweet, tweets came so fast I couldn’t follow ANY threads of conversation.

Every time I started, I quickly found myself overwhelmed and closing my laptop. In some ways it felt like reading in a foreign language.

But as a lifelong learner, I knew I couldn’t just throw in the towel. I decided I needed a better plan to cope with being a digital immigrant who will be teaching digital natives.

I remembered reading, if you do anything for 15 minutes a day, you will be a leading expert in a few years. So I decided that would be my approach. (Perhaps my inner teenager remembered the movie “What about Bob?” and the ‘babysteps’ theory)

I started with what I knew!

I emailed the one educational blog author that I had been reading in my daily inbox for one month, and asked her for help. She told me NOT to be overwhelmed that the information was coming at me like a firehose of information, and that no one can keep up with it, so just jump in and enjoy what I can gain, use and share. She also told me that twitter had hashtag chats, invited me to join #edchat or #ntchat, and to try and attend an online conference that weekend.

I attended a session on twitter and the presenter said he’s only been an active tweeter for 6 months, thus confirming my suspicion. I could do this in small bites and I could even know enough in a few months to TEACH it. I think that was my real fear, that not only did I want to develop my own PLN, but I wanted to be able to train others in all things social media. But as I took small steps, I was hooked. I would just do a few minutes a few times a week when I could find the time. I also wasn’t going to let anything new intimidate me.

From there I just took one tool at a time. I started by reading more blogs and looking for people to follow on twitter. These went hand in hand, many great bloggers, tweet!.

Through my twitter friends and chats, I learned about edublog and the 30 day challenges. I also found the list of the top blogs from 2010, and saw when I tried to set up my own blog, I could see how new other people were to blogging.

I also had a theory that if I could just find people that have time to specialize in different areas and follow them, I would save myself tons of time, by finding people, like I do in real life who are kindred spirits but also ‘experts’ in things I can’t claim to be an expert in. I was amazed at how many experts there are out there, how fast I learned lingo, and how helpful everyone was.

This perhaps was my best ‘aha’ moment. I want to be the best at all that I do, but in this area, I could just look for the best, and use their ideas until I’m ready to share something great, I’m okay learning from others and appreciating their work.

My Tips for Building your PLN

Here are some tips for building your PLN while avoiding being overwhelmed:

#1 Learning styles and personal preferences

Think about your learning styles, your natural preferences or comforts in the options of social media, and start with what you know. You already have parts of a PLN both in face to face life and on the Internet. Look for similar people, styles on the cloud.

#2 Set a goal

I wrote myself a note and sent it to myself at the close of my academic semester using futureme.org. I included my goals and my game-plan to accomplish them.

#3 Set a routine

Choose a time to do this daily or a few times a week. For me it was after the kids were in bed while DH and I were watching DVR and I could multitask where if I became absorbed in the media on the cloud, I could focus and if it was too much, I could just stop for the day and go back to watching my show.

#4 Find Resources that Help

Find resources to help you organize and that will help you stretch. I joined the edublog 30 day challenge, on my newly created blog, I listed my reasons for blogging and my ed tech goals. I found livebinder and put the button in my toolbar to save resources I loved and wanted to be able to use. I also started a googlereader file and learned I could ‘google’ just in my reader so I never had to be afraid of not finding a great blog again. I didn these as they were comfortable to me, I did not overcommit, I jumped in little by little.

#5 Decide what works best for you!

Realize not everything is going to work for you at once.I joined the blog challenge, but my blog is not one that I use yet, instead I focused on finding other established blogs, and trying to determine a niche or angle for my blog that will be helpful to me and others in my PLN. I admitted I’m not going to be the foremost resource on free tech for teachers, or which apps are the best for the ipad. I also realized that I don’t need to be. I have expertise to offer in different ways. Use trial and error to find the tools that fit you and help you grow.

#6 Don’t force it

Be grateful for the help you are finding, don’t try and give back at first, just thank those who are sharing with you with a comment on their blog, a reply tweet, or an email complimenting their work. Soon enough you will be able to add to the conversation with strength, but don’t force it.

Your Challenge

Leave a comment below and answer one (or more) of the following:

1. Stop and think what type of PLN do you already have, for me it was money saving blogs and christian life blogs that I ‘went to’ automatically every day. I already had a facebook feed that showcased some of the people I wanted to learn from. Figure out which areas are you drawn to: following the person on twitter, reading a facebook status, looking at a blog each day, or reading email every day.
2. Choose one or two ways that are natural to you like reading statuses, or linking to livebinders, twitter, and then look for new blogs, people, or groups to follow in your favorite mode.
3. As you build habits of reading and sharing via your favorite tools, add in a new resources to test like twitter or an e-zine. Learn about the new tools in your comfort zone. Set a goal.
4. Figure out what is the best time to commit to your PLN development. I learned that I couldn’t do my late night research on twitter and things that were brand new to me. I had to try the new stuff when I wasn’t dead tired. New things I tackled for 15-30 minutes first thing in the morning or as a mid day break.
5. Share what ideas you have for taking to grow or start your PLN. What are your top tips that helps you not be overwhelmed and get you going?

Even better than leaving a comment would be to write your response in a blog post and leave a link to it in the comments

Challenge on!

About the Author

Sarah Poling is a lifelong learner and new idea person. She loves to read, and is passionate about finding and using technology as a motivator and time saver. She is a Christ follower and is passionate about educating kids in ALL areas of their lives.

Teaching Bio: Teacher trainer at Emmaus Bible College, Dubuque, Iowa. Her main responsibilities include : supervising student teachers and teaching about: assessment, management, technology use, children’s’ ministry, and special needs.

@sarahpoling

A few days ago, we launched the latest challenge in our free professional development series here on the Teacher Challenge blog. If you haven’t yet, make sure to check out, What the heck is a PLN?

We have many great posts and activities lined up to share over the coming month or so, but wanted to first take the opportunity to do a little bit of informal pre-assessment with everyone participating.

So, this particular activity might be the shortest in the series, but it also might just be the most important.

Your Challenge

Leave a comment below and answer one (or both) of the following:

1. What do you hope to learn more about with respect to your PLN in the coming weeks?

2. What have you learned with creating your PLN that you wish that someone had told you before and what tips do you have to share?

Even better than leaving a comment would be to write your response in a blog post and leave a link to it in the comments

Challenge on!

Welcome to the Teacher Challenge!

• Are you a new teacher, feeling isolated and alone?
• Are you an experienced teacher looking for new ideas and inspiration?
• Are you interested in sharing ideas and collaborating with other teachers?
• Are you tired of falling asleep in boring professional learning seminars?
• Have you heard about Personal Learning Networks or PLNs? Feeling lost, confused, wondering where to start?

If you’ve answered YES to any of these questions, then read on!

The “30 Days to a Whole New PLN” challenge is for YOU!

Challenge Overview

Over the next month or so, we’ll be publishing a new post about setting up, enhancing, and participating in your very own personal learning network.

We’ll have 2 or 3 posts each week – and we encourage as much collaboration, participation, and fun as you can possibly have!

Make sure that you have either subscribed to this blog (form on the left), liked Edublogs on Facebook, or follow Edublogs on Twitter to keep up with each new post as they are published.

Want to contribute a guest post to the series, contact us and let us know! You don’t need to be an edublogs user to participate!

This guest post was written by Michael Graffin, a second year relief/substitute teacher and blogger from Western Australia. This is post #1 in the “30 Days to a Whole New PLN” challenge!

So, what is a PLN?

The word “PLN” stands for “Personal Learning Network”, and it has its origins in connectivism theory (Siemens, G. & Downes, S., 2005).

Why you should begin your own PLN —Ashley Azzopardi (@ashleyazzopardi)

Let’s take this a little further…

The Personal:
Having a PLN is about making connections and building personal relationships with teachers, school administrators, university professors, and experts around the world. No matter where you are in the world, there’s always someone online available to answer questions, share their expertise, and simply chat about what’s happening in their lives and classrooms.

The Learning:
Having a PLN is about sharing ideas and resources, collaboration, and learning. We may share our learning, ideas and expertise in different ways; using different media and tools, but the essence is the same: the PLN is simply the best professional development you will ever participate in – and it’s available 24/7.

The Network:
The defining feature of the PLN is that it is a global learning network, enabling people to tap into and share diverse, global perspectives on teaching strategies, educational issues, and technologies. If takes time and effort to build these connections, but it’s well worth the effort.

Why a PLN? – “From little things, big things grow”

I’m a second year teacher, and a relative newcomer to the online education community. When I become an active social-media (Twitter™) user late last year, one of the first questions I asked myself was “What the heck is a PLN?”

Now, a mere six months later, I have come to realise that developing a Personal Learning Network is an empowering, transformational process, which fundamentally transforms your professional learning and teaching approach. And my experience is hardly unique…

Real People, Real Teachers – Why we have a PLN

How can I get started?

Well, this is what the Teacher Challenge is all about. Over the next four weeks, the Teacher Challenge team, and a wide variety of guest bloggers will be exploring the various tools and media which you can use to build, expand, and improve your very own PLN.

For now, here’s an introduction to some of the topics we’ll be covering:

You can also check out my original “What the heck is a PLN” post here.

Your Task Challenge – Join the Conversation!

Personal Learning Networks are all about sharing, collaborating, and learning from each-other. So here’s your chance to ask a question, comment, and get involved!

We’d like you to add your voice and ideas to our ongoing conversation about PLNs by undertaking one or more of these challenges:

1. Leave a comment on the “Real People, Real Teachers” Voicethread (You might like to watch the embedded “We Connect Video” by Shelly Terrell first).
2. Write a blog post sharing your experiences with building and engaging with your Personal Learning Network (don’t forget to leave a link in the comments below).
3. Leave a comment on this post! Ask us a question. Join the conversation!
4. If you know of a good website, blog post, or wiki about PLNs, please add a link to the “Building a PLN – Essential Reading” Google Doc.

About the Author

Michael Graffin is a second year relief / substitute teacher working in Perth, Western Australia.

Michael is a reflective edublogger, and an active member of the online teacher community on Twitter. He is passionately interested in literacy teaching, ICT integration, and forging authentic global connections through the use of Web 2.0 tools in education.

He is consistently amazed and inspired by the people in his Personal Learning Network, and enjoys connecting with new and experienced educators around the world.

Blog: A Relief Teacher’s Journey
Twitter: @mgraffin
Wikis: My Web 2.0 Adventures & Global Classroom 2011
LinkedIn: Michael Graffin