15-Year-Old explains the key to developing a #PLN

Alex Laubscher and mentor Mike King at MoCCA Fest

Alex Laubscher is a cartoonist who I met this year when his mother brought him to New York City for MoCCA Fest which is an art festival for illustrators. By the age of 15 Alex developed an extensive network of others who share his love for the zine culture and illustrating.  Alex connected and developed relationships with some of the leaders in his field via Instagram. 

Laubscher has learned to produce and sell his own self-created zines.  He has learned everything he knows about his craft not through school, not through his parents or family, but via the learning network he has created for himself. He has asked for and received some terrific support in this work through his school, but for the most part school has gotten in the way of his success. His parents have been supportive of his endeavors, but by no means are they ones guiding him in this journey. Rather they are their to support him in doing their best to ensure he is safely and happily able to pursue his passion.  

In the following interview, Alex explains his tips for success in creating a professional learning network.  
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Teen explains the power of a student PLN

Guest post by Connor Wood

I had never heard of a Personal Learning Network (PLN) before Lisa Nielsen asked me to write about mine. I did not originally set out to make a PLN. It just sort of happened as I started asking around for interviews for my education blog, Trismegistus Nab-tu-we. I also contacted author  Henry Olsen and entrepreneur William Peregoy. They were both helpful in giving me the tools and ideas I needed to start my blog and autodidactism. There are a couple of other student groups I have turned to for advice including Students for Education Reform and The Providence Student Union.

I have a little secret. Aside from my blog, the only social networking site I belong to is Google+ which is only because of my blog. I use Google+ for major posts, but not much besides that. I guess I am kind of old school in using my email for most of my networking. When I started going around looking for people to interview, I used only email. This allowed me to connect to progressive educators and reform activists like John Robinson, James Bach, Lisa Nielsen, and Jerry Mintz, all of whom have been extremely helpful in networking ideas and suggestions. Jerry and Lisa, for example, both recommended I get in touch with Nikhil Goyal. Additional help in getting my voice heard has come from Diane Ravitch and Mercedes Schneider. Lisa too has helped me a lot. Allowing me to contribute this guest post is an example of that.

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#NYEdTech Meetup Tonight at 7pm on Teacher #PLNs w/ @InnovativeEdu & @mr_casal

What are the most successful teachers doing differently? How is that experienced being shared, and how can new teachers best learn from those that have come before them? Teachers are progressively forming broader and richer professional learning networks that extend far beyond their schools boundaries in many cases.  

Innovative New York City educator Chris Casal (@mr_casal) and I (@InnovativeEdu) will dig in to how personal learning networks or PLNs are formed and what is exchanged by impactful educators as part of the NYEDTech meetup TONIGHT from 7 - 9 p.m. in Manhattan.

If you're in the area, it's not to late to join us. 

Details at http://www.meetup.com/NYEdTech/events/160696002

If you're not in the area, don't despair. You can still follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #EdTechNYC and/or watch the live streamed broadcast below once it begins.

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Educator Ann S. Michaelsen explains the power of student PLNs

While it is no longer unusual for teachers to embrace and understand the value of personal learning networks, few are supporting their students in doing the same. I went on a search for educators involved in this work as part of a chapter I am writing for a book on the topic of student liberation being released by Steve Hargadon later this year,  In the below Q&A you will get a look at the insights from one of these educators.  

As you read what this teacher is doing consider how you might integrate such practices into your work.  If you are already doing this, please share what you are doing in the comments. 

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Being a connected educator has helped me grow my BaMMily tree

Tonight I will have the honor of being recognized as a Bammy award finalist for my work as an education commentator along with recognition for being a top 100 influential voice in education for my work as a connected educator.

The first thing you should know is that you can tune in live tonight! The event takes place Sat Sep 21, 2013 7:30pm EDT — Sat Sep 21, 2013 9:30pm EDT At that time, hop right over to http://www.bammyawards.com/index.php/bammy-awaards-live where you will have a chance to see educators being recognized for their ed celeb status ;)

As a Bammy Finalist I was asked to put together a short two-minute video outlining what being a connected educator has meant to me.  Below is the video.

 

After watching the video I'd love to hear in the comments who has become members of the network that you have grown. How have they positively contributed to your practice? How would you convince a not-yet-connected educator that it is important to become connected? How would you convince your supervisor?  

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10 Innovative Ideas To Provide Time for Professional Development and Collaborative Learning

Finding time for teachers to meet and learn together is often very difficult, but a resourceful school team can utilize creative ideas that have worked well in other schools.  It is important to put these structures in place early in the year.

Here are some ideas for providing time for educators to learn together.

1. Provide teachers on a particular grade level or who teach a common subject with a shared prep so they can plan and study together.
2. Invite teachers to determine how their shared preps can be used for any study group they can imagine.
3. Organize some regular large group activities for children.  Some schools have a weekly K-2 sing-along run by the music teacher on Friday mornings, allowing K-2 teachers to meet in a weekly study group.  On Friday afternoons, an activity for the upper grades could be planned.  Other schools organize large group gym activities, like Olympics or Field Days, run by the gym teachers and educational assistants.
   

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How strong is your personal learning network? Take this quiz to find out.

I've written about developing a personal learning network many times on The Innovative Educator.  This updated infographic was created as a tool to promote an interactive conversation about developing PLNs. Each dot has an action and a question to answer.

Click the dots and let me know what you think?  Is this something you might use?  Is there anything you might change or revise?



Where do you fit in?  Take the quiz below to find out.  You can see the quiz as a full page here.


Share your results. Text below or visit this link.

See how others did here.

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Solution to combatting lonely, isolated educators: #PLN

Feelings of isolation occur with some regularity among educators, especially those who teach in specialty areas and/or small schools. Teachers spend much of their day separated from peers in classrooms that can become silos. However, technology is providing new ways for teachers to connect with peers both near and far. In this show, listeners are invited to join BAM radio's Rae Pica for a discussion about overcoming isolation by builidng a personal learning network.

Joining Pica are four innovative educators who walk listeners through the process of getting connected. They are:

• Rob Mancabelli is co-author of Personal Learning Networks: Using the Power of Connections to Transform Education.
• Nicholas Provenzano is a high school English teacher who is passionate about integrating technology into the classroom.
• Erin Klein is a second grade teacher who has her Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction and is the technology co-chairperson for the Michigan Reading Association.
• Lisa Nielsen (that's me!) is a seasoned public school educator and administrator and author of the book Teaching Generation Text

 You can listen to the program on the BAM radio site here!

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5 Cs to developing your personal learning network #PLN

Thinglink is a cool tool that brings ideas into a nice visual graphic. Check out this one based on my article, "The 5 Cs to developing your personal learning network."

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If you think a personal learning network is an echo chamber you’ve missed the point.

High school math teacher Crystal Kirch used her blog to ask for help with her biggest struggle this year:

"My students don't know how to learn.  They don't know how to succeed.  And, it doesn't seem like they care to change any of that. "

After reading about her struggle, some innovative educators and parents disagreed with her view toward students and took the time to respectfully disagree with Ms. Kirch. Unfortunately, Ms. Kirch censored all those who did not see things her way. On Twitter she thanked everyone for all their love in reaction to her post...even though she knew the truth was that there were people who did not love what she shared.  

Ms. Kirch was directly confronted about her practice of silencing those who didn’t share her views on Twitter and in the blogosphere. She ignored that. As she published comments that expressed the sentiment “Way to go”! “Atta girl!” and “Chin up!” it became clear that her views were to be loved, not pushed or challenged. When they were, she reacted by hiding and disabling comments and added a disclaimer to her post admonishing those with comments that did not support her position calling them “intense attacks.” She then wrote a post praising herself as someone who among other things cares more than she should (Yikes!). She also explained that her public blog was solely for her Personal Learning Network (PLN) which defines as only those who agree with her views. She also decided for her readers that her direct quote about her biggest challenge (above) was taken out of context and she was under attack.

But here’s the thing...

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