The Sunnyside of PLN

As the father of 2 kids, you can imagine my excitement for Winter Break. Any chance I get to experience new things inside and outside of the house with them is a refreshing break from "real life." One new thing for this break was letting our oldest (almost 3) watch his first full length movie, Toy Story 3. And, miraculously, he sat through the majority of it.

If you haven't seen Toy Story 3, here's a quick summary: The toys, led by Woody and Buzz Lightyear, end up going to Sunnyside Daycare after their owner, Andy, cleans his room before moving to college. Woody, who has long been Andy's favorite toy (see the original Toy Story), would rather the toys stay at the house they've come to know as home and move up to the attic. He tries to convince the others of how horrible a place daycares are for toys. But when the toys get to the daycare, the toys who are already there, and have experienced what daycare life is like, welcome them with open arms and give them a tour of the place.

Lotso (pic to the right, courtesy of Alan/Falcon), the leader of the daycare toys, describes himself as a "hugger" and introduces Andy's toys to other toys who have their specific jobs in the daycare. He introduces them to Ken (yes, that Ken) who gives them a tour and shows them where the essentials are located. Another toy, Big Baby, helps you with other needs you might have. Andy's toys become very excited about their new surroundings, but Woody leaves them there to go back to the familiarity of Andy's house.

Now, I could tell you the ending of the movie, but A) I'm not that kind of guy and B) It doesn't fit with the analogy.

Who are the daycare toys? Those of us who work and grow from our Personal Learning Network (PLN).

Who are Andy's toys? Educators just stepping into the online PLN arena. They've been told to stay away. They've been told they aren't going to like it.

But we know that's not true.

I read fellow metro-area educator Kristina Peters' blog post the other night, "When Two Worlds Collide," about how difficult it can be to articulate how important a PLN and events like EdCamps are to those who haven't seen the value of the hours spent communicating online. I'm not a very articulate in person. With this blog, I can type, rethink, retype, rethink, etc. Even after I submitted my comment to her blog, I was kept awake, nervous about whether or not I said what I wanted to, and then in the "right way" - who did I offend? Did I properly state my passion? Did I misspell words? You get the idea.

But in the global PLN that I participate in, my own Sunnyside, I don't want or need to take on the role of first greeter. I'm highly supportive of what you all do and will be your biggest cheerleader (sans skirt, of course). We all have our roles. We have to have our roles to make what we do successful. I'm watching college basketball right now - you have to know your role to make the team successful. It certainly doesn't mean those roles will always be the same - some may change day to day, project to project. But we have to have all the roles filled to make our PLN complete. (Click here for great blog post from Cathy Davidson on roles in a PLN...H/T to Stephen Ransom for tweeting it)

So as you think about your PLN, and bringing others into that PLN, be a "hugger" like Latos. Or the tour guide, like Ken. Or the worker, like Big Baby. Find others in your PLN so that when you do bring new people to our Sunnyside, you know where to send them so they can be successful in their new "home."

And if you're interested in the movie, check out this great synopsis of the Toy Story 3 characters by their voices.

Examining my PLN

As I get ready to present here at METC on how to enhance your personal learning network (PLN), I started to do some thinking about my own network and how it has exponentially grown in the past 18 months. On a semi-side note, I've been reading the book "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell, so that will explain how the mothership got to this point.
As a classroom teacher, I didn't have much of a pln. I had our district instructional technology facilitator (who's job I have now after she moved to ESU), but being the one person in a large district isn't easy (as I'm currently finding out). When she decided to move on, I thought I'd put in my application and see what happened...and wa-la! After getting the job I felt the need to start this little page of wisdom, which has reconnected me with old friends and helped to make new ones. My wife and I were fortunate enough to have very happy and healthy baby almost a year ago. Life has moved quickly in 18 months, and all for the better. The one thing that is lacking in my job is..another me. I was joking the other day that I'm not smart enough for the curriculum department and not geeky enough for the tech department. So I turned to an online personal learning network. What I've found in the online world is Twitter, Diigo, Google Reader and Nings. More than anything else, those four things keep me in touch with the outside world and push the limits of my knowledge and force me to question and justify my beliefs in education and technology. Because of Twitter, I met Michelle, who talked me into coming to METC. Because of Diigo, I have a vast array of websites, both mine and others, accessible from any Internet-connected computer. Because of Google Reader....I spend a lot of time questioning my beliefs and those of others, as well as learning about the latest in cool technology. Nings connect me with many people of common interests, a type of online cafe for us to meet and chat.



The opening of our presentation talks about the Stages of PLN that we stole from Jeff Utech's Flickr page. As I look back over the last 18 months, I see myself on that roller coaster. Last year I tried to immerse myself in all things pln, which boggled my mind more than you'll ever know. There are too many tools online for enhancing your pln. It's amazing. Which led me into step 2, evaluating my networks. At the time, I was "narrowed down" to more the four listed above. The quotes obviously mean that narrowing down translates to "I didn't sign up for EVERY networking tool or opportunity." Once I made it through step 3 of "knowing it all," I would like to think, especially since the little one came around, that I am in step 4 working toward step 5. I still have a hard time putting down the computer (or sometimes picking it up). I'm still a little "all or nothing" when it comes to either family life or work life, something I don't think is fair to my family or my work. But I'm not discouraged. In fact, I'm very encouraged with what I'm doing and how life is progressing. I have built and will continue to build my pln, changing as the tools change (it's the only thing that's stays the same, right?).
As I read back over this post, I see it's not as much for you as it is for me. It shows the steps that I've taken, both voluntary and otherwise, to get to where I'm at today (see, Outliers-style). As with most presentations, our planning was good, but I hadn't done much reflecting on it (man I sound like I'm back in grad school...ugh). Thanks for sharing this time with me. I'd also love if you'd share how your pln is changing you. If you type well and use good grammar, you may even get included in our presentation on Tuesday.

From ESU to StL

Currently I'm sitting in my beautiful room at the Embassy St. Louis/St. Charles, which is connected to the Convention Center that will host METC 2009 (link to METC Ning). I always get pretty excited for a new hotel, and this one didn't disappoint. More on the hotel and METC in later posts.
Speaking of later posts, I never had gotten a chance to reflect on ESU 3's 21st Century Skills Fair. Once again, ESU did a great job of bringing in quality individuals (including yours truly) to present on how to improve what is happening in your classroom. The first session I attended was on incorporating 21st Century Skills into math. ESU is doing follow up sessions similar to this on math, social studies and language arts, so I wanted to make sure I got to attend. As you can see by the links on their page, the activities shared are great to enhance your current curriculum activities. My goal is to encourage our toolbox writers to attend the session that corresponds to the content area that is their speciality. I think it's time we push our curriculum people to look at ways to integrate technology into the curriculum instead of relying only on their building tech people.
The second session was an introduction to NDE's iTunes U content. While not public yet, we were shown what will be there when it comes up (mostly NDE-directed professional development) and discuss where it is going in the future. One thing that was brought up by multiple people was wanting to see model teachers at work in the classroom. Something that we've struggled with in our own district is getting our new teachers out to see the best of the best. Being able to tap in to the best educators from across the state with just a click off a button would be huge in developing quality teachers in the state. And it's free to get. The catch is going to be compensating those who are doing the recording and being recorded.
The third session was great to get some tips as we move toward developing online classes in our district. While their setup was different from what ours will be, I did get some great tips.
The fourth session was OUTSTANDING! Because it was ours....We are currently getting ready to present the extended version here at METC. Our presentation starts tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 pm in the Windsor 1 in the Embassy.