Blog Post #5: Personal Learning Networks

"A personal learning network is a set of tools and people that you can use for help, consultation, collaboration, and other assistance."(Dr. John Strange) I had no idea what a personal learning network was, and trying to figure out who and what would be in my network started off very difficult, but then I realized there were a bunch of people who I could go to for help. I remembered that I had created numerous study groups in the past whether in high school or in college. I am still connected to most of those people either on social media, like Twitter and Facebook or through email, text, and video chat. I'm sure this same kind of network would be very useful as a teacher. I know that as a future teacher I can use my PLN to collaborate with other teachers to come up with new effective ways to teach, and  new ideas that could make learning fun.

I created my PLN on Symbaloo. This is a website where you can organize all of your resources you need for learning. For example on my symbaloo homepage I added Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, my school websites, and my various email accounts. I did this so I can easily locate my blog/class blog, and easily connect with those I go to when I need help.

When I first started using Symbaloo I was very confused. I didn't know what to add on my homepage or how to add it, but after playing with it and using the examples it was very easy. I started thinking of all the things I use on a daily basis for homework, studying,and  projects. I added them and organized them from left to right with school websites like sakai, and mymathlab on the left, and social networking sites like Twitter and Tumblr on the right. I love the way this website works, and I think I will be using it for a very long time.