PLN Blog

What is a PLN?

            A personal learning network is critical to education going forward. As educators in order to teach the new we need to learn the new. Technology is not the wave of the future it is a tsunami. At my last placement the teacher began a new and permanent way of assessing her students through a national standard. The means of which required that each student spend a significant period of time on a computer. There were moments when she was lost and could not figure out how to start the testing process. Other teachers had to leave their class during class in order to help.

            By having a personal learning network for technology is a vital part to our student’s growth. Once my CT figured out how the program worked she was amazed by the real time analytics. To know exactly where each student is in terms of their academics though the data provided was incredible. The data showed multiple different areas of the student’s development and recommended common core standards.

            During the process of watching one teacher lead another teacher felt like watching the blind lead the blind. I heard a lot of “I think” said in a form of a question. After the testing was complete I was allowed to access the site and see what I could come up with. After five minutes of playing around with the software I was finding all forms of new computational data. My CT was shocked with the information I gathered. I just figured the program was designed to be user friendly.

           The only way we can evolve through the process is to be a student ourselves. To break and fix is exactly what we ask of our student. We should not be afraid to venture out on our own. If anything it should feel refreshing to be able to embrace the role of the student.

            As tech grows so does the amount of information. Blogs like this one helps grow the social circle. Larger circles like Evernote , Flipboard, twitter and other tech blogs provide a new learning medium for teachers to go and develop on our own. I personally recommend Flipboard for those who are starting out. It combines multiple forms of social media into one location. It is user friendly and the reader can follow and find new ways to address their lack of computer skills in a non-threatening manner.