Why+have+a+PLN?



Question:

Why do you have a PLN?

Answers:

To share ideas, gain knowledge, and keep up to date on educational issues. Also, to make new friends.

There is only one of me in the district and my PLN becomes my support team, source for professional development, and just general go-to team!

To connect with experts and passionate educators who can challenge and corroborate my thinking. Its an excellent way to view education beyond the walls of my classroom.

My PLN is my BEST source of professional development and support.

I was looking for a way to connect to other educators who were looking for creative ways to meet their students needs.

To help me do my job as Technology Integration Coordinator/Director more efficiently. For the perspective from a variety of educators.

My primary role is instructional for professional development for teachers. My PLN provides me with fresh ideas and relevant material on a daily (if not hourly!) basis. It also gives me an outlet to share material that is successful in our district.

Technology is in such a state of rapid fire change that it is critical to maintain this network.

Allows me to be more reflective in my practice

This is better than Google for finding great resources to use with my teachers and students. Everything shared has already been test driven by people I trust. I also like to contribute to my PLN. It feels great to hear how something I shared was used with students.

I use the PLN to keep up with national policy decisions that will impact my job, to learn how to teach paperlessly, and to find new teaching and Web 2.0 tools that can be embedded and become invisible in personally meaningful teaching and learning.

It is extremely useful in my profession. I am able to share resources and information in a matter of seconds.

My PLN helps me stay connected to current edtech resources and allows me to participate in meaningful "conversations" about education. There are not many people in my district who have a current working knowledge of technology in education. This is a way for me to continue my own learning.

I have a personal learning network to increase my access to knowledgeable teachers from outside of my local area. I share resources, and they share in return.

The best professional development opportunity I have ever had. Learning and support all the time. I get inspired by great educators. I get to inspire others. Sometimes in your district, you feel like a Lone Ranger. With a PLN you know that you are not alone.

I've reached that critical point where I'm not learning a lot from in-house professional development and conference sessions. To continue my professional growth, I needed to reach out to people who, like me, were forging through to learn new things on their own. It's like crowd-sourcing a Masters Degree.

I'm creating a school from the ground up. We're re-envisioning what school and learning should be within the public school system. Now into it for the past 4 years, the PLN has meant that I don't have to be that "educational detatched retina" and I can draw on the expertise of many. *I'm not alone*

I use my PLN to learn about new teaching methods, and to bounce ideas and questions off about the classes I teach.

I maintain a PLN so that I can stay caught up on trends and interesting info in the world of educational technology. I'm learning to share my thoughts and materials as well, to help "grow" my PLN.

By surrounding myself with smart people it makes me look smarter than I am. I can't know everything but I make it appear I do by having people in my PLN that I can ask questions of when I need help.

To grow as a professional. My PLN offers instant advice or feedback on most everything I ask or throw out. It is an easy way to make my project in my little ole classroom global. 1. Professional Development at my fingertips- 24/7/365. 2. The people in my PLN are those I have grown to trust. Some I have met F2F; others only online. They share, answer questions, and provide feedback daily, and I have learned and grown as an educator more in the last 2 years than I have in the 17 years I've been in education. 3. I want to be a part of a collaborative group that is responsible for change and growth for our kids. My PLN helps me do that.

I'm a "singleton" in my district. I work in the curriculum department but am the only one who focuses on technology integration. My PLN is essential for me to learn new things and keep the enthusiasm level up. It's hard to be challenged in a district where you are the only person, so I get my push and drive from my PLN when I just can't muster it up myself!

It has become essential to my job as a regional technology professional development specialist. I have access to a highly skilled network of folks to help answer questions, share resources and get moral support. I would be lost without it.

Keep up, learn new stuff, share my stuff/views

I use a PLN to learn about new resources available on the Internet for teachers. I also use it to stay abreast of current articles.

They serve as a filter to all of the great information for tech integration specialists. I may not get to all the blogs but I can get to Twitter easily and see lots of great information without a lot of time.

PLN's connect me with teachers, educators, tech people, and such all over the world. It is wonderful to share ideas and information with one another, read interesting articles, facts and such.

PLN's also can assist a new teacher or more experienced on to connect with one another for lessons or resources.

For continued professional development and to keep up with all the developments in free and open source software. I am also in the second year of a masters degree and complete assignments mostly by email - collaboration is via a NING site. I pass on the stuff I learn to my colleagues and students I work with via a wiki.

I use my PLN to help me keep up with current trends and to share ideas I have and get input from others.

To meet people in my profession and get the most up-to-date information about information in my field.

To share ideas and resources

It is the greatest source of PD for me. There is not much PD going on in Costa Rica. Without my PLN I'd be stagnant.

I like to say that individually I know nothing! My limited knowledge, divided by the increasing amount of knowledge out there, means the percentage of what I know gets smaller and smaller and smaller. My PLN increases the size of my "Brain" and therefore the overall knowledge. When 500+ people are actively connected and learning, that starts to make a dent in the near infinite amount there is to learn.

I use mine to get and share ideas. I feel supported in what I am doing by these people that I don't necessarily know in real life. Even though I am the only one doing what I am doing at my school, I don't feel that I am all alone because of my PLN.

I am a learner! I'm constantly trying to improve my own teaching and to look for ideas that may be helpful to other teachers in my building. Using my PLN, I can have access to my on-demand learning needs.

To keep me up to date with tools and technology I can use with my classes. To provide immediate (or almost) answers and feedback to questions and problems. To share what I do with other teachers in my (somewhat isolated) subject area.

I choose to have a PLN to utilize as a "real-time" social and online professional development portal. I can ask a variety of critical thinking and higher order questions and receive immediate and quality responses from my online community of learners from all over the world. I can also share my insights and tried and true best practices with others, and I truly believe my efforts as well as others make us a unified and strong community of educators!

I have a PLN as a means to connect, collaborate and share with other educators, and techno geeks like myself. I find so many valuable bits of knowledge within my PLN and it also allows me to build my network. It is so important for my learning to be able to connect with different people and share and collaborate with them. I also find resources from people I might not usually interact with from other industries. I am writing my dissertation on this topic - would love to see your survey results.

Helps me stay connected with, learn from, and assist colleagues across the country/world - people I don't see regularly.

I always have; I just never defined it until recently. I strive to learn as much as possible, and if two heads are better than one, think of what happens when your PLN has 100, 200, 300, 400, 1000 heads! Great ideas, great discussions, helpful smart friends.

To learn from and share ideas with colleagues in wider world.

I work in a small district and there are not many other people around to collaborate. I use my PLN to learn and ask questions. I need the interaction for my own checks and balances.

To help me develop teaching skills and ideas. So that I stay current with education research, tips, and tools. I have a PLN so that I can connect with teachers and administrates outside of my district and learn from their advice and experience. I am the only teacher of my subject at my school. If it were not for my PLN I would have no connection to other teachers of my subject.

I find that having a PLN is necessary for my profession as Education Technology Specialist. It is the one way I stay on top on new trends/ideas and have meaningful discourse on topics that are important to me.

Need to keep up with other librarians and curren trends.

B/C I can (and have) learned more about resources and best practice through my PLN than any in-service day can ever offer. A PLN "comes to me" and is available whenever I'm ready. to learn new things everyday

Expand my contacts beyond reasonable means

Learn from people I may never have a chance to meet face2face

Keep my sanity - there are others out there wanting to push the limits

It helps to have associates with whom I can 'bounce' ideas and questions.

My professional world is too big to rattle around in it alone.

I can get ideas, answers to questions, support, etc. in fast order.

Have met amazing people & developed "real" friendships.

Particularly great if I'm feeling out of step with the colleagues +/or institutions around me-- I know folks who share my visions & practices & can go to them when I need a reality checek.

It enables me to keep current, and to find resources for new project for my students rather than calling up the tired old lessons.

My PLN is a remarkable source of inspiration, information and encouragement to boldly go where I've never gone before!

So that I can stay current with technology and education, news, and many other things. I don't know what I would do without my PLN!

Because I don't want my students limited only to what I know or what I can find. Because I am stretched in ways I would not stretch myself. Because I am forced to think outside my comfort zone. Because I need people who understand and can sympathize with the trials of ed tech. Because I need to be a model to my students and to my teachers/admin about the use of PLN's

To extend my learning opportunities from once or twice a year when I met with like-minded professionals, to everyday I login!

My PLN has opened my eyes the amount of resources and educators out there willing to help. Teacher's have always been known to share with each other, but a PLN allows us to take this idea to a global level. I have a group of people that are always there to answer questions or offer advice. I have learned so much from my PLN.

It's the best, most focused professional development I've ever done. I have a huge community of colleagues to ask advice, bounce ideas, learn from, be inspired by- a much larger group than I could ever keep in contact with without tools like Twitter, listservs, wikis & nings. It helps me to be aware of what's happening in education as a whole, not just in my own school & /or district.

It's always nice to have tech-savvy colleagues that you can go to for advice.

Use it to keep in touch with and share new developments and experiences re Libraries, books and Web 2.0

To keep up to date with what's going on with educational technology

No, but I am planning to create one.

It's extremely important that I have a PLN because I need to learn about new tools, trends in technology, and be connected with reflective educators. Particularly in the area of educational technology, I need to have a group of people from whom I can ask advice, collaborate, with and learn from.

New ideas and insight into the profession, especially concerning the integration of technology into the classroom.

I stay connected with other like minded educators, I learn about projects, resources, live and virtual professional development and I can share my knowledge and resources, and can get help as needed. When you start up on one of the social networks, if you want other educators to follow you, put in your profile educational information, your job, grades, organizations you belong to, so they will follow you back.

Connects other librarians and educators from around the world. The networking is important when it comes to sharing knowledge and ideas in my field of education.

I love the opportunity to learn from other educators. There are so many wonderfully creative and innovative teachers out there! I am the Technology Instructor at a small private school, and so I often feel isolated from the world of educational technology. But when I have an idea for a lesson, but need help making it work, I turn to the teachers in my PLN for ideas, and my students benefit from their collective knowledge.

To connect to a wide range of people who have valuable insights & knowledge about teaching and educating.

In my school, I am the computer teacher. There is too much "out there" to sort through. I learn for myself, I learn for others, I can pass on the best of what my network finds to others in the building. I like to share what I know. It makes me happy to think that others find what I am doing with my students useful and time saving. It took a while to become comfortable with connecting with other teachers online, but now that I do, I can't imagine working as I did before - an island by myself.

- To share resources

- To find new resources shared by other educators

To learn from colleagues, to improve my teaching practice, access to resources for my students, to be a better teacher

It is the only way for me to get professional development outside of conferences.

To be an effective teacher, one must continuously be a student.

So that I can learn more than I would be able to do working on my own.

To stay current with my profession, to get/give support to others

So I can find the newest resources and to connect with other teachers.

To continue to grow as an educator

I have a PLN so that I can learn from and share ideas/resources with like minded educators that I don't work with. I also use it to broaden my world view. The people in my PLN are my most trusted source for information and ideas about all facets of education.

I'm new to all of this, but in a short time I've been connected to helpful, inspirational people and some great resources.

With the ever changing world of web2.0, my PLN is a quick and painless way tostay in the loop

Provides me with tried and true resources I can share with fellow teachers.

Living in a rural (and non-techy environment), PLNs let me connect w/ other people who share similar interests. I get SOOOOOOOOOO many great ideas & links from my PLN I can barely keep up! It also allows me to solicit help, get 'bodies' to contribute to my students' work, etc. Can't believe I ever exited without it!

To reach my networking beyond my geographical area. To expand my knowledge. To find new ideas.

It keeps current thought right at the front of my thinking. It is a way to take the ideas that occur to me and test them against a variety of individuals I respect. This helps clarify their validity and potential to me.

Everybody has one. The only question is whether you recognize it and cultivate it.

To collaborate on projects, find resources, and connect with people in the same profession.

Helps me feel connected to teachers from around the world. Also helps me stay informed about latest trends and developments in educational technology.

New to teaching and have noe formal training so need guidance!

Learning is personal. I can learn from people, not just resources. Ideas and content are all created by people. In the past we might be satisfied and only able to learn from the content, now we can learn from the content creators. That is a much richer learning experience.

To keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues.

To challenge me to try new things.

To get new ideas.

For my own sanity.

I started Twitter out of curiosity and have since built a PLN of bloggers and tweeters who answer my questions, share resources and links with me, critique me, collaborate with me, mentor me, and basically care. They listen to me vent, give me suggestions, help me be more creative, and inspire me to press on toward the greatness they have already achieved. They are my life support and I would not make it as a teacher without them. They help and encourage me and do what they colleagues I see every day cannot.

I teach in a small, rural district. I am the only full-time English teacher at the high school. My PLN allows me to connect with other English teachers and share ideas with them in a way that would otherwise be very difficult. Social media tools like Twitter have been incredibly valuable to me.

Because I don't want to be the person that's always catching up. I like to talk about and use new tools, learn about new ideas and shared them others. Having a PLN is personalized professional development EVERY day.

Constant 24/7 support and a never-ending source of fresh ideas and opinions

I started mine just a few weeks ago after attending ITEC and have been using it primarily to gain information relating to technology in education

I have a personal learning network because I am looking to connect with like minded professionals who are integrating technology. Also, because of budget cuts, professional development is limited, so I have a PLN to keep me current and as a way to learn new things; be exposed to new ideas and methods.

To stay in touch with professionals who are innovative and thoughtful.

I learn so many things not daily, not even hourly, but by the minute! There are so many great tools and ideas that people are willing to share and give me some ideas how my teachers can use these tools.

Mostly to see what other people are doing and to get resources from them. I also share resources with others. Other people have such great ideas!

I use it to learn, connect with other teachers, share, help!

Best way to keep up to date. Info I get through social networking is very timely, relevant, and fast.

As I become increasingly interested in engaging my students in a 21st Century learning environment, I am in need of colleagues that are of a like mind. Just as I expect my students to break down the walls of the classroom to collaborate and find experts from whom they will learn, I need to open my classroom door to new colleagues. My PLN allows me to do this.

To reach outside my immediate sphere of resources and circle of colleagues -- I've learned so much from so many distant friends this way!

To share resources, make contacts and discuss important issues concerning technology in education.

I have a PLN for motivation, inspiration and focused determination.

The sharing of ideas, resources, and stories is fascinating and incredibly beneficial. In the 3 months I have been developing my PLN, I have been fascinated by its reach and its help to my career.

I can connect with teachers in parts of the US and world that I wouldn't be able to connect and collaborate with in real time. Some of the people I follow on twitter are technology educators and often post links to sites, or give recommendations about web20 tools I can try out with my students. I think it's important to teach students that learning is ongoing, and global, and my PLN helps me do that.

In order to keep in touch with those that are pushing the envelope for educational and instructional change. I love the fact that I can network with people who are more knowledgeable than I and can learn almost 24 hours a day. In addition when I have a question or just need a quick pep talk the network is there.

My PLN keeps me on top of the latest research and new thinking ideas. I feel like I'm connected to something bigger then just my district. It feels good to share with others and I always know that if I have a question they are there for me.

I learn more from following my PLN than from any class, conference or professional development. I am now a constant learner, interacting with people who care about areas that matter to me.

To keep a pulse on what is happening in the educational technology field, to connect with other teachers, to share and receive ideas and resources, to increase my own learning ... because its fun!

My PLN is a wonderful way to share and collaborate. You have to keep learning and having a PLN enables me to create a web of interconnected minds.

I use it as my Professional Learning Network. People are excellent resources.

Without my PLN, the bouncing of ideas, searching for and sharing of information, and the discovery of new things would happen at a much slower pace, if it happened at all.

To stay connected and current with technology and learning trends

My PLN is literally my personal learning network! I learn about all sorts of new tools, sites, and ideas from the awesome educators in my network that I probably would ot otherwise know about.

For the enjoyment of collaborating with other teaching professionals. I find there are benefits for my students, me, and hopefully other teachers in my PLN by being engaged in this kind of collaboration.

The resources and the connectedness it provides,

Let's me keep up to date, reflect, vent, laugh, get help really fast from experts, network with people worldwide, stay at the cutting edge.

My Twitter network have helped me proof dissertation and fill in job app forms

To connect with other professionals and share ideas n good practice.

I have a PLN because it is impossible to know everything, try everything and find everything on my own.

Along with my PLN, I am able to: get help with developing new ideas find valuable resources engage in meaningful discussions about educational issues that matter to me learn about new tools get answers to my questions (quickly!) connect classes for projects and so much more!

I learn more from Twitter in a day than any inservice training I have ever been to.

It was so important for me to look beyond what became the "bubble" I worked within. To look outside of my school district and learn from others who maybe 5 miles to thousands of miles from me has broadened my appreciation for what I do and more importantly, all that is possible!

I enjoy socializing and networking with others who share my interests in technology, education and lifelong learning.