The session was part of a larger conference that was happening all over Spain to celebrate 70 years of the BC in Spain.You can watch a recording my conference presentation here.
Or follow this link to it: http://tinyurl.com/382rmy2
The links from the presentation are also below and you can download a PDF copy of the presentation slides here: PLN Presentation slides (PDF 4.7 Mb)
Tools for growing your PLN
- Twitter is a great tool for starting to reach out to a huge network of teachers. http://twitter.com/
- You can follow me and see who I’m following here.
http://twitter.com/NikPeachey - This is a great starter list for Twitter of people involved in ELT who you can follow. It includes some of the real greats of ELT. Thank you to Barbara Sakamoto for putting together this list.
http://twitter.com/barbsaka/starter-pln/members
- LinkedIn is a great place to put your online CV, connect with other ELT professionals and start joining special interest groups. The groups are a great place for sharing and finding information.
http://www.linkedin.com - I'm on LinkedIn at: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/nikpeachey
- Although controversial as a teaching tool, Facebook can also be a useful professional networking tool, just start looking for the ‘Like’ button on various websites and click it to keep in touch with what’s happening. http://www.facebook.com
- I'm on Facebook too and am in the process of creating a page for people interested in learning technology in ELT. http://www.facebook.com/NikPeachey
- Many of the IATEFL Special interest groups use Ning for discussion of very specific areas of teaching. Here's an example from the Global Issues SIG
http://global-issues.ning.com/
- They’ve been around for a long time, but there are still some great connections to be made by looking for ELT related Yahoo groups.
http://groups.yahoo.com/ - Particularly useful is the Webheads list.
http://webheadsinaction.org/
Some great bloggers to follow are:
- Larry Ferlazzo
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/larry-ferlazzos-english-website/ - Ozge Karaoglu
http://ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org/ - Be sure to check out their blogroll and look for connections to other great blogs.
- Find out about more female bloggers here: http://quickshout.blogspot.com/2010/04/let-us-now-praise-famous-women.html
- Here is an example of a feed reader page I created. This can make capturing information much easier.
http://www.netvibes.com/Nikpeachey/en%23Teaching_English - Create your own using
http://www.netvibes.com/
These are great tools for storing links to information so that you can find them when you want them and share them with others.
- Instapaper
http://www.instapaper.com/ - Delicious
http://www.delicious.com - You can see my Delicious bookmarks at:
http://www.delicious.com/NikPeachey - Diigo
http://diigo.com/ - Also check out all the really useful Diigo groups. You can see the ones I'm following here:
http://groups.diigo.com/user/nikpeachey
Simplybox
- This is a great bookmarking tool for the more visually stimulated
http://simplybox.com - You can see an example 'box' of bookmarks here. I've made it public to share tools for creating digital content.
http://simplybox.com/public/?id=145809
Here are some tools for reflection
- Keep a personal online diary with Penzu
https://penzu.com/pad - Create your own blog just by sending an email to post@posterous.com and wait for the link to come back in your email.
https://posterous.com/
Slinkset
- If you want to share links and get comments on them but don't want to write a blog, then create a portal site. Here’s an example of a portal I created using Slinkset
http://technogogy.slinkset.com/recent - You can create your own for free.
http://slinkset.com/
- Barabara Sakamoto created this fantastic ‘sticky wall’ for teachers to express what it means to have a PLN. http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/ChubuTeachers
- Read or download this free booklet I wrote to get the technical knowledge and get started creating your own PLN.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/22124764/From-Information-to-Knowledge
Please also check out the other recorded presentations as they include:
- Patrick Howarth
http://www.livestream.com/bcvalencia - Steve Evans
http://www.livestream.com/britishcouncilspain - Graham Stanley
http://www.livestream.com/bcbarcelona
Related links:
- Pros and Cons as Web Based Research Tasks
- Creating Social Polls and Questionnaires Using Urtak
- Social Networks and the Web 2.0 Revolution: Part 2
- The Web 2.0 School of the Present
- Survey Results: Mobile learning for ELT
Nik Peachey