Creating Your OwnPersonal Learning Network

Utilizing the Web for Personal and Professional Growth

1,407,724,920 Internet Users!

How Much Data is Flowing?

2-3 terabits per second move over the Internet * (est. March, 2008)= 2,000 - 3,000 gigabits per second= 2 - 3 Petabits per second

172,800 – 259,200 Pitabits per day 63,115,200 – 94,672,800 Pitabits this year That is… The entire contents of the Library of

Congress every 5 seconds! That is… The entire contents of the Library of

Congress moving over the Internet more than 2,305,282,680 times this year!

And Guess What…

That number is only the amount of information moving over the Internet.

This number DOES NOT INCLUDE all of the countless times more information stored on all of the computers connected to the Internet!

1 Terabit networkable hard drives – holding about half the amount of information moving each second on the Internet – are becoming standard fixtures on HOME networks around the world!

A River of Data Flowing Past You!

Let’s look at what can you do about it.

First… Four Stages of Learning

DATA – The river flowing past you INFORMATION – The Data you pull from the

river and assign relevance and purpose KNOWLEDGE – The Information that you

actually keep, apply, and use personally and professionally

WISDOM – Combining Knowledge with intuition and experience over time in a way that makes your personal and professional lives better

The Solution – Create aPersonal Learning Network!

Personal Learning Network –

A group of people who can guide your learning, point you to learning opportunities, answer your questions, and give you the benefit of their own knowledge, experience, and wisdom.

Learning is Becoming anOpen Source Project

An Open Source project is a software product that is collaboratively built.

Everyone has access to help build the product if they have something worthwhile to contribute.

No one owns it. No one takes credit for it. Everyone gets to use the product… even

those who did not help build it. The “Sage on the Stage” is dead! Most of us

just don’t know it yet.

The Dark Side

A PLN Can be a Tender Trap! It is estimated that a new Web 2.0 type

application is released every 10 minutes! It’s easy to get so infatuated with the bells

and whistles of Web 2.0 applications that you forget why you started to look for new applications in the first place… to make your personal and professional life better… not more complicated.

Be Smart. Refuse to Play the Game!

It’s OK to be ignorant in the 21st Century! Not a single human being on earth knows

about all of the interactive applications on the Internet... Not one!

Don’t be intimidated by those who try to make themselves feel important by constantly pointing out applications with which you are not familiar.

Remember! It’s not about swallowing the River. It’s about gaining wisdom!

In the End…It’s All About the Network! By using the power inherent in many social-

network-oriented web-based applications, you can ensure that the River flowing past you is made up of stuff that you want and need to make your life better.

Once you’ve managed and channeled the River of data, your goal is to then choose wisely what is important and useful to you from your personalized stream… and let the water wash everything else away!

Before You Take the Plunge

Develop a strategy for storing and organizing multiple URL’s, User names, and Passwords

KeePass - Open Source Windows Softwarehttp://keepass.info/

Create a disposable email account specifically for registering on social-networking sites. Don’t use your main ISP account’s email. http://yahoo.com, http://google.com

Develop AND practice good password skills.

Join the DEN!

Discovery Educator Network One of the best teacher resources I’ve

found… ever! View Introductory Video Webinars, resources, and local, regional, and

national events presented by leaders in technology-oriented education

Signup today! http://community.discoveryeducation.com/

Blogs, Podcasts, and RSS

If you think a blog is just a place to complain about your boyfriend, you’re wrong!

Blogs are now one of the most important parts of a Personal Learning Network

Podcasts are not just for kids either! In conjunction with the wise use of RSS

feeds, blogs and podcasts can really help you control and direct the flow of the data River.

Some Good Educational Blogs

http://cliotech.blogspot.com/ http://weblogg-ed.com/ http://www.teach42.com/ http://www.halldavidson.net/ http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/media_ma

tters http://technorati.com/blogs/tag/education

(start now… there are over 22,000 of them)

RSS – The World in Your Inbox

Really Simple Syndication Find the RSS, HTML, or Xml logo

Right-Click, Copy Link Location (PC) Paste link location into your RSS feed reader. Reader? Many Browsers read RSS. Google

has Google Reader, and many third party feed aggregators are available.

Beyond Blogs

There are a host of other tools you can use to manage the River and create your own Personal Learning Network

You want to find tools that…

Suit your own personal learning styleFunction wellIntegrate with other toolsDon’t waste your time with frivolous content

Let’s examine a few

Do you Tweet?

http://www.twitter.com What are you doing now? Anything you can say in 140 characters or

less! Automatically uses http://tinyurl.com/ to shrink

long URLs Tweet from phone, IM, or browser Those you follow and those who follow you

become your Personal Learning Network

Have you ever been caught Plurking?

http://www.plurk.com Verb. plurk (plüer-kh) - To chronicle the

events of your always on, action-packed, storybook, semi-charmed kinda life.

Similar to Twitter, but more robust. Also has an interesting “Karma” rating system

that encourages worthwhile posting.

EdStreamTV

http://edstreamtv.wikispaces.com/ Live Video Streaming from NECC (National

Education Computing Conference) on WikiSpaces

Your EdStreamTV Guide For NECC 2008 An example of what can be done! Could your class create a live video cast

someday?

You Always Wanted to Be a Star

http://www.mogulus.com/ Watch 26 channels simultaneously on the

Mogulus Grid Start your own live broadcast using content

from around the web or your own webcam Spread your channel all over the internet by

embedding it on your blog or Facebook profile

More Video… USTREAM.TV

http://www.ustream.tv/ Ustream.tv quickly and easily allows anyone

with a camera to broadcast to the world. All you need to stream is a computer, internet

connection, a microphone and a webcam or video camera. Our system will auto detect your camera type.

Second Life

http://www.secondlife.com It’s a place… NOT a game! Fantastic opportunities for networking Must be 18+ to be on Adult Grid Teen Grid inaccessible without FBI clearance Must download and install client Resource intensive! Includes x-rated content on adult grid, but it is

easy to steer clear of it

Second Life… Get Started!

http://www.secondlife.com Skip the “Join a Community” step Choose a name carefully! You may be stuck

with it for a long time. Keep your SL name SHORT and easy to

type! You won’t regret it. Choose a name that reflects your

professional position! Provide real information about yourself… they

may check.

Second Life… Get Started!

First, master Orientation Island. Then, thoroughly investigate Help Island.

Learn to move around, change your appearance, and fly before you go exploring on the main grid

Act the way you would normally act when on the streets of any large city, and you’ll be fine.

Remember, you can always just close the client if you get lost or flustered!

Second Life… Get Started!

Expect to spend up to ten hours in world before you are comfortable with the interface!

Second Life vocabulary…Avatar – Your person in Second LifeIn World – logged into Second LifeSL/RL – Second Life / Real LifeRezzing – the process of graphics resolvingRez Day – The day you created your avatarRolling Restart – Normal server maintenancePublic Sand Box – A place where you can try your building skills

del.icio.us

http://del.icio.us/ Social Bookmarking Bookmark, tag, organize, and share internet

sites Makes your bookmarks browser/computer

independent! Browser tool bar makes use a snap

Slideshare.net

http://www.slideshare.net Upload, find, and share presentations Great for publicly posting copies of a

presentation you give. Don’t reinvent the wheel! Presentations

available on just about any subject. Can be slow to load Distinct URLs for linking

Diigo.com

http://www.diigo.com Highlight, annotate, bookmark, tag web

pages, and share them Create and share specific bookmark lists Create workgroups! View the annotations of other users on a

page

Vimeo.com

http://www.vimeo.com Video Sharing Easy to use 500 Meg Storage per week EMBEDD code generated Direct URLs

Ning

http://www.ning.com Create your own collaborative workspace or

join the spaces of others http://wcsdcollaborate.ning.com http://discoveryeducation.ning.com/

PageFlakes

http://teacher.pageflakes.com/ Add, Delete, Flakes or Widgets to create a

composite page that can be made publicly viewable.

Create a networking center for you and your class

Pull in feeds from all over the web

VoiceThread

http://ed.voicethread.com/#home Hold a conversation/discussion centered

around some a number of media types Submit comments by computer, phone, text,

or drawing Participate in any public VoiceThread Create asynchronous mini courses/webinars Link directly to a specific VoiceThread

Dandelife

http://dandelife.com Your Lifecast Web 2.0 site activity aggregator and mini

blogging site. Pull in streams from sites like del.icio.us,

Twitter, Fickr, You Tube, Facebook, RSS feeds, Amazon, and Live Journal

View as timeline, blog, photo timeline, or embed as a widget

Flickr

http://flickr.com One of the most popular image sharing sites

on the Internet Requires a free Yahoo ID It’s a good idea to make a Yahoo ID anyway

so that you can use the email account for your networking registrations.

Slideflickr

http://slideflickr.com/ Create a slide show from files in your Flickr

account and share them Customize your presentation

Tools for Creativity

http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/StoryTools Creating videos, animations, etc. takes tools Check out this site for a great list of Web 2.0

tools you can use to create content This link alone will keep you playing for

weeks!

Tons of WEB 2.0!

http://del.icio.us/tag/web2_smackdown http://www.polleverywhere.com/ https://www.chacha.com/ http://animoto.com/ http://www.piclens.com/ http://www.coveritlive.com/ http://qik.com/ http://www.handipoints.com/ http://webcastacademy.net/

More Tons of WEB 2.0!

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ http://www.ajaxim.com/ http://www.doodle.ch/main.html http://www.timebridge.com/home.php http://summize.com/ http://taggalaxy.de/ http://www.exalead.com/search http://www.voki.com/

Final Thoughts

I’ve seen slide backgrounds from a presentation I gave at PETE&C show up in a professional development presentation in a Mexican school system.

I recently saw pictures of me presenting in Second Life in promotional media for a presentation given at the National Educators Computer Conference on using Second Life to Create a Personal Learning Network.

Final Thoughts

Remember! No matter where you go or what you do on the Internet, you leave footprints.

Anyone following those tracks should always find a professional educator at the end of the trail!

Since you never know where or when people will pick up your tracks, you only have one recourse.

REMAIN A PROFESSIONAL EDUCATOR AT ALL TIMES WHEN ONLINE!

Thanks!