I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation that was given by John Evans last week on developing a Professional Learning Network (PLN) and also on the new Maple system that will be implemented in to the Manitoba school system for all educators to use next year (2013-2014 school year).
I found John to be extremely knowledgeable in creating a PLN and that it is going to be how us as educators share information with our colleagues. He stated that we all need the tools to develop our PLN and then the more reason to share with others. However the greatness of having a PLN is that it is never finished or completed. It is a network and the beauty of knowledge is that there is always more to learn and share.
I also found many different resources that I will have to start using that he presented in class. For example, Paper-li and Diigo (which I have heard of, but have never explored). It is also quite overwhelming all of the exploring and researching that John Evans does daily. He says that he is an early riser and searches the internet for a few hours before he goes to work. I find it hard to find the time to dedicate time to searching for these great resources and this is why it is very useful that he has already done this for me and other educators. He has sifted through a vast amount of information and tools and pointed out the "good" ones to use and explore. Sharing is very important as an educator and it has very beneficial results.
John also gave us an overview of the Maple system in which all educators of Manitoba will be using next school year. It seems like an amazing system and he has put a lot of work and effort into it. It is more than just a place to record student assessment, but a place to develop sharing relationships with other educators and learn about different professional learning and development. It also has many other amazing tools to it that I will also need to take time to explore them all. I really enjoyed this part of the presentation since this element applies to all of us when we use the system next year.
I plan to explore Mr. Evan's blog and wiki site more so that I can find out even more information and I have also added him to twitter. I recommend all of you do as well!
@joevans on twitter
Link to Wiki!
The internet is mind-bogglingly huge, but if we all search a bit and share what we find we're going to find crazy amounts of good stuff.
ReplyDeleteI plan to share more of the stuff I find on twitter, instead of just bookmarking them for myself.
SHaring the resources we find useful is a great start to a PLN and connecting - as you said Brooke, there is so much good (& bad) stuff out there that it helps to spread the work around.
ReplyDelete