Personal Learning Network Reflection

One of the tools that I found very beneficial to my students' age group was the collaborating drawing tools. I found that my students were able to easily maneuver through and thoroughly enjoyed the program. I also found that there was a lot less fighting when working on a project together as they all had their own workstations and could make changes as they saw fit.

My school is also introducing Moodle to the district. I do know much about the program, but we are actually having an inservice about it this week. I look forward to learning about the program and implementing it into my classroom, with my students, and with my parents next year.

I also found that podcasting and digital story telling were very interesting to learn about. I think my students will have a great time using this tool, however I did not get the chance to try it with my students this year. For students, I think the more technology that you have in your classroom, the more the majority of them are interested and motivated to complete their work.

I know we did not talk about SMART board technology at all in class, but I am hopefully going to get one in my classroom next year and I believe many of these programs will be taught with much greater ease and efficiency while being implemented with the advantage of the SMART board in my room. Students in the past have loved the board and I can't wait to show them these new programs in an easier fashion. This is how I will be implementing these programs in the future.

I do use FACEBOOK and Twitter for my personal/professional needs as I keep updated with friends and professionals in my field. I do not think that it would be appropriate for my students at this age, but I have to admit there are many of my students who have their own FACEBOOK page. I just do not feel it is appropriate to be socially "friends" with my students on these programs at their age.

The programs that I found were not beneficial for my students were blogging, twitter, del.icio.us, and wikis. I don't feel that these few programs were beneficial to my teaching style and with my age of students. I feel that the blogs and twitters were meant for students of older ages if not adults most of the time. I also thought about the wikis being used with my students, but I found it difficult to learn and maneuver myself, let alone a 7 year old child.

I have already started talking with not only my technology expert in my district about my PLN and the things I would like to have implemented at school, but also with my school principal and other colleagues. I figured that if I am finding the tools useful for my classroom, why wouldn't I share these tools with others who might find them useful as well. I think that I should also be showing them tools I am not planning to use, as they might be able to see it or use it in a different way then I am seeing it. They might even convince me to use one of the tools I don't see as useful at this time.

The value of my personal learning network is that this is what I will be taking back to my district and classroom as a new way of teaching. I am always looking for ways to better my teaching and technology is lacking in my classroom as of now. I am very excited to learn more about the programs in my PLN over the summer so that I can implement them successfully and comfortably next school year.