First Impressions of PLNs

I have never heard of a PLN before today! When I started to read about them, I immediately thought, 'oh no, not another Moodle page or Blackboard posting!!!' ugh. I just finished my masters in educational technology, and I have about had it with posting things for the sake of posting as an assignment. (I guess that's what this is, but hopefully it will become more than that!!) Then of course comes the repsponse to others, which normally ends up being a waste of time.

After further reading and viewing of videos, I started to realize that a PLN is much more than posting for a class. It is a community where you can vent, question, answer, and learn about things you are interested in. That's the part I like the most. YOU get to decide what you do in a PLN and how involved you want to be, and it's not an assignment. I am intrigued by this concept because I love to talk to people all over the place about education to see their views, and I love to learn new things. So, we shall see where all of this goes!

Tags: SocialMedia101

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Comment by Marta on February 23, 2010 at 5:52pm: I THINK SO!

Comment by Andrea Hildreth on February 23, 2010 at 6:45pm: Classroom 2.0 is one of the strongest components in my PLN - I can always find interesting folks discussing topics I care about

Comment by Drew McAllister on February 23, 2010 at 7:32pm: Great initial impressions, Christy. Welcome to Classroom 2.0! I hope you'll poke around the discussion topics and groups here. There are some great opportunities to do just what you've talked about - connect, question, and learn. I'll send along the books once I get them. I'm looking forward to reading more of your thoughts as we go along this semester (and I'll try my best not to make it feel like an "assignment"). :)

Comment by Meghan Tobin on February 26, 2010 at 9:14pm: I like your comparison of PLNs and every other moodle/blackboard class. In undergrad, I seriously think we posted assignments just so the professor could say she was integrating technology into her class. PLNs do seem to be more than that. I guess it is kind of like the professional version of Facebook. Instead of stalking people to look at their pics, you stalk them to find out their perspective and opinion on what you need professionally at that point. Thinking about PLNs in that regard really does make it seem like a lot less work...Thanks!