Building+your+PLN


 * Building your PLN **

Take a look at this blog post by Gwyneth Jones, The Daring Librarian, who talks about the power of personal learning networks for teacher-librarians:

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As a new, or not so new, teacher-librarian, you will discover that the best thing you can do to develop personally and professionally is to build a personal learning network (also known as a professional learning network, or PLN) using Web 2.0 tools that are easily and freely available to you. I know that I rely heavily on my PLN (which I connect to through twitter and blogs, mainly) for most of my professional learning. My PLN is how I stay current with new and emerging trends and ideas, it is where I find out what is happening in the 'real' world, and it is how I share my own ideas, learnings, and resources with the world. My PLN is the most important aspect of my daily professional life.

I would encourage you, as part of this course, to take your first steps towards building and maintaining a PLN. If you haven't done so already, get a Google account (if you already use Gmail or Google Docs, you can use your existing Google account) and sign up for Google Reader, a service that collects blog posts and pulls them together in one convenient location. Below, are a list of blogs and bloggers that I would recommend you begin to follow...these are the leaders in our field and I guarantee that following their blogs will give you great insight into our profession!

I have not provided direct links to these blogs...please search for them through Google Reader or a general Google search and add them to your reader.

**Educational Technology and Schools ** Doug Johnson’s Blue Skunk Blog Will Richardson’s Webblogg’d Blog David Warlick’s 2 Cents Worth Blog Danah Boyd's apophenia Blog Dean Shareski's Ideas and Thoughts from an Ed Tech Jeff Utecht's The Thinking Stick Vicki Davis' Cool Cat Teacher Blog Kim Cofino's Always Learning Blog <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Judy O'Connell's Hey Jude Blog Shelley Wright's Wright's Room

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">**<span style="border: 0px initial initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">School Libraries and Libraries in General ** <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Joyce Valenza’s Neverending Search Blog <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Stephen Abram’s Stephen’s Lighthouse Blog <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Buffy Hamilton’s The Uniquiet Librarian Blog <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">American Association of School Libraries (AASL) Blog <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cathy Nelson's Professional Thoughts Blog <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kristin Fontichiaro's School Library Monthly Blog

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">**<span style="border: 0px initial initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Children's Literature ** <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Betsy Bird's Fuse 8 <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Liz Burn's A Chair, A Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jen Robinson's Book Page <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cindy Dobrez & Lynne Ruttan's Bookends Book Blog <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Laurie Halse Anderson's Mad Woman in the Forest Blog <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lois Lowry's Updates blog

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Next, if you are not yet on twitter, I would encourage you to join in the professional conversations happening there! Twitter is an exciting place where people connect and discuss issues and ideas that are important to teachers and teacher-librarians. I love twitter and use it everyday--and I learn something new from twitter all the time! Below are a list of just a few people on twitter I recommend you start following--you can expand your PLN as you grow more comfortable with the tool!

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%;">Joanne de Groot (@joannedegroot)

<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Will Richardson (@willrich45) <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">David Warlick (@dwarlick) <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Joyce Valenza @(joycevalenza) <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Stephen Abram (@sabram) <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dean Shareski (@shareski) <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Alec Couros (@courosa) <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ross Todd (@RossJTodd) <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Miguel Guhlin (@mguhlin) <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Steve Hargadon (@shargadon) <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Scott McLeod (@mcleod) <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mack Male (@mastermaq) <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Judy O’Connell (@heyjudeonline) <span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">danah boyd (@zephoria) <span style="border: 0px initial initial; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Buffy Hamilton (The Unquiet Library) (@buffyjhamilton)

<span style="border: 0px initial initial; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px initial initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Here is an interesting <span style="color: #114488; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">article to read about Twitter. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Segoe UI','Lucida Grande',Arial;">