PLN and other stuff:
I really enjoyed learning about the concept of a PLN, and actually being able to apply it to my life. Before I took this course, I had a small understanding on how to use social media and other online platforms to enhance your knowledge. However, this course really changed my perspective, especially the social media aspect. I never realized just how much information you can get from social media, and how valuable it is. Considering the Brad Baker podcast where he mentions that the power of a social media platform allows you to hear stories straight from the source. I think that’s so unique and special, it would be a shame to not take advantage of that, which takes me to the changes I have made during this course.
Changed I’ve Made:
I have created a new twitter account, solely for education purposes. I followed a bunch of different users from the education community, and followed people from all over the world to diversify my feed. I think it’s great to follow both people in my local community but also around the world, to get new ideas and have the option of creating discussions. While in the process of creating my new twitter, I actually deleted my old one. After doing the readings on professionalism and how we want to be portrayed online, I did some self reflection and realized I didn’t really want my twitter to be up anymore. I didn’t necessarily have anything bad on there, however I did use it a lot when I was 13-17 years old, so it’s mostly just immature banter on there or embarrassing pictures of me.
Future Plans:
Going forward with my PLN, I am certainly going to continue to expand and utilize mine. As I plan on becoming a teacher, I think that’s a career path that benefits immensely from connecting with others around the world to share and create new ideas. Working a job that’s continuously changing through the times and the students can be difficult, but through a PLN we have so many options to help us. It’s really nice to know that even though things are always changing in our job, we have a network with us that is up to date and can assist us along the way.
