Blog Post #5 - PLNs What are they? 1

Networking is a very useful resource for educators. It can be a great way to steal ideas from other teachers, to gain inspiration for different aspects of the classroom, and to have support from others who know what you are going through. There are resources that are specifically for teachers and others that are not just for education, but can be a great resource for teachers.This includes a PLN (personal learning network). This should be a global, online network.

Link to photo source: Perey Research and Consulting

The video Welcome to My PLE! was about the use of one program; it was Symbaloo. It was not really what I think of with networking because it was not really involved with other people. It is just a way to save information, and it can be a great way to hold the information. Personally I was not really a fan of Symbaloo. It seemed like in order for it to work up to full potential I would have go give access to all of my personal accounts. I am not comfortable with that. If I do not give it access then it becomes just as useful as my "bookmarks" on my computer. The only difference is that I did not have to give my bookmarks all my information in order for it to open my pages to the homepages.


I found My Big Campus while I was looking for some sites through Google. I think that would be a fantastic resource that I would not have access to at this point. It looked like I would have to be a teacher at a school before I could gain access. That will have to be something for me to remember to look back into in the future when I am a teacher.
To take a tour of My Big Campus and see what the advantages of this site are, follow this link.

I also found Teachers.net. This site has chatboards, discussions boards, accessibility to lesson plans, chatrooms, posts, and more. This seems like it can be a truly useful site if used to its full potential.
Another site that is very similar to Teachers.net, is The Educator's PLN.

Link to photo source: Telford Mind

Finally, Pintrest can be an amazing resource for educators. Through Pintrest, the user can follow education boards and individual people. There is also the function  of message; this can be used easily on this site. The users can also put their own pins on this site. Also, the links from the different pins can be followed back to mother site where more ideas can possibly be found.