How to Create a PLN: What I Learned...

I guess I started off thinking to myself that I have heard about many of these tools, but I was hesistant to join them because it would take a lot of time to explore many of these tools and I feel that I don't have very much free time available! I first heard about almost all of these tools from one of my method's classes last Spring while I was taking my credential courses.  This class was designed around the Method's of Teaching Literacy, but one of our co-professors was big on using technology in her classroom at Point Loma High.  In this class, we explored many of these PLN tools in our lectures, but never had the chance to REALLY get to know the tools.  I am very excited for this class because I feel that I am a very "technologically savvy" but I don't know much about free tools on the internet.

When I googled "how to create a PLN", I found many interesting blogs about using tools on the Internet to build your PLN.  Here are a few that I checked out...

What the heck is a PLN??
This blog explains what a PLN is and gives subscribers a challenge every week to enhance their personal PLN's at their schools.  I thought that this blog is a great way to introduce new tools for those getting started with building their PLN's and so far.

Creating a PLN
This blog is also another introduction to what a PLN is.  What I really liked about this blog was all of the resources the blogger had listed for his viewer and the links to the websites.

Build a PLN: A Newbie's Guide
This too was another guide for those just starting out their PLN's.  The blogger set up a general guide for a busy teacher to help build their PLN.

Using Twitter to build your PLN...
This post is an extention to What the heck is a PLN?  They posted useful information about Twitter.  My initial thoughts about Twitter was that it was just another "facebook" type social website.  I didn't see the great benefits of Twitter until my method's class when our professor showed us that we were following the "wrong" people on Twitter!  I actually didn't realize that Twitter could be a learning tool rather than somewhere where I could find out that "a celebrity was spotted eating yogurt at YogurtLand!"

Making Time to build your PLN...
This too was a post that was an extension to What the heck is a PLN?  I thought that this gave great ideas about how to manage your time to set up a PLN.  From this blog, I thought that it was important to set goals when building your PLN because that will help you stay in one direction when building your PLN instead of straying off and not maximizing your PLN's potential.

List of other articles relating to using blogs, PLE hub, iGoogle, Diigo, webinars, etc.