For me, there are two ways to use a PLN; personal and professional. Lately, the two seem to get muddied and as I go looking for information for my class on recycling, I find I have "wandered off" and am now looking at homes in Iceland. BE AWARE, these networks are just that. Nets that work together. They combine categories of topics and allow you to seamlessly go from one to another. My advice is: Set a timer and when it goes off, re-evaluate if you are "on-topic"! Otherwise give in to your wandering and enjoy the journey. You will learn a lot but whether you will apply it professionally??? At home, it's your time so have fun.
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I also divide networks into two types, those I go to for information, and those that come to me. The ones that you go to means that they do not send you e-mails, newsletters, or updates on topics or discussions. The ones that come to you send you things at your request, daily, weekly, monthly according to guidelines.
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Last basic concept for a PLN: There are stages to becoming part of a PLN. What ever you want to call the stages there seem to be 5:
1 Observer you go to a website and read or watch it
2 Novice you say or post something at the website
3 Active Regular you post information regularly and share
4 Leader you become someone to watch or read by others
5 Graduate you leave the group and stop giving input
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Your levels of participation will change as your life changes. A PLN is always changing. The best PLN is the one you control. Just like the timer for searching sites, set a time line to re-evaluate your stages in your PLN. If you don't it will get overwhelming and too time consuming!
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Here are some sites I use as I began my professional PLN: I suggest start with 2 at a time then add and drop as you become familiar with them. I started with 3 that come to me: Flipboard and Zite and LinkedIn (excellent subgroups for special education interests) and then from there they led me to others. Just put your cursor on the logo and click. You will go to the site itself! If you do you have gone from observer to novice!
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I also divide networks into two types, those I go to for information, and those that come to me. The ones that you go to means that they do not send you e-mails, newsletters, or updates on topics or discussions. The ones that come to you send you things at your request, daily, weekly, monthly according to guidelines.
*******************************************
Last basic concept for a PLN: There are stages to becoming part of a PLN. What ever you want to call the stages there seem to be 5:
1 Observer you go to a website and read or watch it
2 Novice you say or post something at the website
3 Active Regular you post information regularly and share
4 Leader you become someone to watch or read by others
5 Graduate you leave the group and stop giving input
*******************************************
Your levels of participation will change as your life changes. A PLN is always changing. The best PLN is the one you control. Just like the timer for searching sites, set a time line to re-evaluate your stages in your PLN. If you don't it will get overwhelming and too time consuming!
********************************************
Here are some sites I use as I began my professional PLN: I suggest start with 2 at a time then add and drop as you become familiar with them. I started with 3 that come to me: Flipboard and Zite and LinkedIn (excellent subgroups for special education interests) and then from there they led me to others. Just put your cursor on the logo and click. You will go to the site itself! If you do you have gone from observer to novice!