Techniques for Effective Technology Integration 1

Techniques for Effective Technology Integration 1

Chapter 1:

Building a Personal Learning Network

What is a Personal Learning Network?

Early in my teaching career, one of my students came to see me during home room, which was after lunch that year. He told me that he wanted to show me something. He said that he was not supposed to have it school but that he was very proud of it. I could tell he was rather excited. He was not a good English student; in fact, I had to constantly encourage him and had just got him to turn in enough work to make a C. I had looked at his grades, and he had either a C or a D in every class except construction.

Construction was relevant to him and his construction teacher was the only one he connected with. He and I were starting to connect as I really made an effort to find some common ground. He liked computers and video games. I had always loved computers and though I have moved away from videogames in adulthood, I understood and respected why he enjoyed them. I could see how excited he was and I did not want to shut down his enthusiasm just as we were making a connection and he was starting to improve. So, I hesitantly told him he could show what he had and not worry about getting in trouble, within reason of course.

What he pulled out of his sweatshirt astounded me. It was a PSP, which is a portable gaming device from Sony. It was not the standard issue one that could be bought at the local store though. He had taken it apart and added lights all around it. He had used a soldering iron to connect the lights to the battery so they would have power and to the speakers so they would pulse to the sound of whatever game he was playing.

It surprised me that he had this much technical savvy at a young age. He was not done, though. He turned the PSP off and back on. He had actually installed custom software to make the PSP much more useful. He was running custom programs on it that it was not designed to run. He was able to hack into the school’s Internet signal and he even turned it into a universal remote that he could control my DVD player and projector with.

To say that I was impressed is an understatement. There were two important things that I took from this occasion. First, I found a new way to connect with the student. While I am almost positive that he turned other teachers’ projectors off or changed the chapter on their videos, he never tried anything like that with me. I respected his intelligence even if it was not always applied to English. He actually started doing much better when I let him utilize his talent to help out. He actually made some custom electronics devices for the class from scratch. Once, I handed him a design schematic and he came in with a working prototype the next day. I had been working on this particular project for a week and was not able to build something that this student could easily. He became one of the kids that worked hardest for me that year. English was never his best or his favorite subject, but I was able to connect to him with the skills and interests that he had.

Second, this was one of the first times that I really recognized that I was not always the smartest person in the room. Sometimes being good with technology can give a person an overinflated ego. If this was ever the case with me, it did not last long. I started to recognize students’ unique interests, strengths, and abilities. We need to meet the students where they are before we will be best able to take them where they need to go.

Students today are inundated with technology. They are inherently good at using technology from growing up with it; it is a mindset that is hard for many educators to understand because it almost feels like the students are coming from a different world. The hard part is that we are also preparing them for a different, changing world than the one we were prepared for. It will be different even than the one that exists today.

Adaptation is an important skill to teach students even if it is not measured on a standardized test. It will make it easier for us to help the students if we change with them and tailor some of what we do to what they know and understand. This does not mean a complete overhaul of one’s teaching style. What it means is that we add some techniques and some tools that make what we already do more interesting to the students.

Historically, when a teacher wanted to improve or collaborate, there was the teacher next door, who still remains an invaluable resource. Talking to the teacher next door remains so important for a number of reasons. First, it is relevant. Teachers in the same building or who teach the same subject or grade level are often going through similar tribulations at similar times. Through talking, teachers can vent frustrations and share successes. They can help each other. Second and just as important, it is convenient. Both teachers benefit from the conversation, but no extra work is required to attain that benefit.

The idea of the personal learning network (henceforth to be referred to as a PLN) takes the idea of the teacher next door and grows it exponentially. This cannot be emphasized enough: participation in a personal learning network requires little effort and yields greats benefits. Participating in a PLN is not something extra that you have to add on to what you do; it becomes a part of what you. Once you become immersed in it, you cease even thinking about. Collaborating, sharing, helping, and learning become a part of your daily routine.

Students already understand this, even if they cannot articulate it. It is why they almost universally have Facebook or MySpace pages. They can collaborate and share with their friends. Do they sometimes make mistakes or poor decisions online? Of course, they are still children. Even if they do not always make the best decisions, though, the students recognize the inherent power in networking.

There are at least 3 areas that comprise a personal learning network. The tools are less important than the ideas at this point. The first step is social bookmarking. This involves finding great resources for yourself and making them available to others. This benefits you even if you never share anything because your bookmarks will be available to you from whatever computer you are on. When you do start sharing, you will be amazed at the resources that others find that you can use. The second step is social networking. This is where every teacher becomes the teacher next door. You are able to post links to resources, share ideas, ask for help, and contribute what you know to a growing, global body of knowledge. Messages are generally brief and interaction is fast-paced. It is easy to do this between classes, during lunch, or whenever you have a moment that you want to post something or check what others have said. The last step is a deeper interaction that involves reflective reading and writing about our practice. Usually this is done by writing a blog, which is basically an online journal (blogs are discussed in much greater depth in Chapter 7.) You do not need to write a blog. The important idea is that you are reflecting somehow on what you are doing. Educators can look at and comment on each other’s reflections. Through this, all are encouraged and enlightened. No one can improve without serious thought about how they are currently teaching.

As with every technique and topic presented throughout this book, there are several ways and tools that you can use to develop a personal learning network. There will be specific tools recommended and demonstrated. You are most welcome to try these as they are described, but feel free to experiment and find what works best for you.

Social Bookmarking

What is Social Bookmarking?

Social bookmarking is a fairly easy first-step into building your own PLN. It is a simple idea really. When you find a good website or resource online, you will most likely bookmark it in your web browser. You may have heard it referred to as adding it to your favorites. As you browse the web, you naturally want to save things, to catalog and organize it so that it makes sense to you. This is beneficial to you because you have access to a list of sites that work well for you whenever you need them, as long as they are at your computer. This is bookmarking in a nutshell.

Social bookmarking just adds another layer fairly simple layer that makes bookmarking much more powerful. Your bookmarks are public (although you can choose to make individual bookmarks private if you wish) and saved to a website instead of to your Internet browser. There are many ways that social bookmarking can improve your experience of the Internet as well as add to that of others.

Currently, if you use traditional bookmarks to keep track of websites, your bookmarks are tied to your web browser. If you have two web browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Firefox, for example, you may only have your bookmarks in 1 of them. So, you are limited in a sense even on your computer. If you have multiple computers, you may be stuck emailing links to yourself or not having a resource when you need it. Social bookmarking, because you are saving your bookmarks to a website, lets you access them easily from any web browser. Furthermore, because your bookmarks are no longer on your computer, you can access them from any computer. You can even access them from your iPod Touch and many cell phones. This makes life quite a bit simpler and often can save a lot of time that would otherwise be wasting trying to relocate the same resource twice.

The social aspect is where you choose to let your bookmarks be public. You do not have to, but making your bookmarks public allows other people to discover the resources that you find interesting. The way it works is that someone adds you to his or her network, then he or she can see it when you add a new bookmark (if you choose to make it public). Conversely, you can choose to add other people whose opinions you respect to your network so that you will see it when they add a new bookmark. Through this exchange, all teachers in a network are edified and helped.

How Does it Work?

To start participating in social bookmarking, you need to sign-up for a free account on a website. There are several free social bookmarking websites. I am just going to recommend 2. The first is Delicious ( it is the first social bookmarking site. It is still one of the most used and easiest to use. It has become somewhat limited in functionality compared to some newer options, but it is stable and a good choice. The second option is comparatively newer, but it adds some features that make it extremely popular among teachers. Diigo ( allows you to not only bookmark websites, but highlight sections or write notes on them. In addition, it lets you create and manage classes so you can easily share resources with students, which could be incredibly powerful. You are free to choose any social bookmarking service you like, but we will be working with Diigo throughout the next few pages. Most of the functions will look similar in whatever site you choose to go with.

To get started, go to and sign up for an account. Export your bookmarks from your web browser. (There is a tutorial available on this and all other important aspects of Diigo on the companion website, Click on Tools on the top-right of the Diigo website, then click Import Bookmarks. Follow the directions to let Diigo import you bookmarks and, in a moment, all of the bookmarks that were on your computer are now online as well. If you use multiple computers, just repeat this step from each computer with different bookmarks. If you want your bookmarks to be private, check the box at the bottom or they will be public by default.

Adding new bookmarks is fairly simple. You are already on the tools page. Click on the Post to Diigo button. There will be instructions on the page. Just drag the button to the bookmarks bar in your browser. Notice in the top-left of the picture below, there is a button that is part of my browser. That is how it will likely look on your screen as well. Click on that button whenever you are on an interesting website, and you can catalog on Diigo.

It is important to recognize, though, that no social bookmarking website organizes their bookmarks with folders in the exact same way that your web browser does. Diigo and other sites use the idea of tags. A tag is basically a category. When you bookmark something, you can type in as many tags, or categories, as you want to help keep your bookmarks organized.

Lastly, you should add people to your network so you can see when they post new resources. Below is a picture from my network. You can see that the people in my network are posting different and interesting, to me at least, websites. I can click on any of them and, if I consider them good resources, I can add them to my library.

Adding people is very simple. Anyone on Diigo is able to give you a link to their library, or list of bookmarks. If you are not already following this person, you can add him or her to your network by clicking the Follow Me! button on the top-right. A link would look like either (my list of bookmarks) or (bookmarks from the people I follow). After you have 1 person that you are following, see who else is in his or her network that posts good resources. As this chain continues, it helps you because you gain access to a plethora of good resources you might not have discovered on your own.

The next section on social networking describes in much more detail how to find and build a list of followers. That discussion is applicable here as well. Many of the people that you interact with in parts 2 and 3 of this chapter will also share their bookmarks.

Social Networking

What is Twitter?

The tool that we are going to use to begin our journey into social networking is Twitter. Twitter is considered a type of micro-blogging. If blogging is like an online journal, then micro-blogging is like online post-it notes. Twitter only lets you post 140 characters at a time: just enough room for a brilliant idea. This may sound facetious, but until you try it, you probably cannot realize how insightful some of our peers can be. Even more interesting, once you start participating, these insightful educators value what you have to say.

At first glance, Twitter does not sound very useful, or even intelligent. Why would anyone want to talk in 140 character increments? I have to admit to a slow learning curve; I sign up for Twitter, but did not start to really participate for another 2 months. The beauty of Twitter is that its value is directly proportional to how and how much it is used.

An analogy might help explain Twitter a little better. Having a Twitter account is similar to having your own TV station; you become an instant broadcaster. There is no FCC, but there normal rules of etiquette apply. You can say whatever you want. As people are browsing through the channels, if they come across something that you say that is valuable, they may decide to watch your TV station more regularly. In Twitter, this is referred to as “following” you.

The TV station analogy may start to break down a little bit here. You are not the only one with a TV station. Everyone on Twitter has a TV station. This can get a little overwhelming at first. That is why you flip through the channels and only watch those stations that you find interesting. In Twitter, this is referred to as “following.” This is kind of a revolutionary idea; the only things that ever show up on your TV are things that you find interesting.

If you follow someone, that person does not necessarily have to follow you in return. That is not what Twitter is about. You make up the network of people that you find interesting, helpful, insightful, or relevant to what to you do. Everyone else should be the same thing. If you do not have many tweets, or individual posts, people might be less likely to follow you in the beginning. Do not worry about that. As you use Twitter for a few weeks, you will gain followers as others see the quality of your contribution. It should be noted that if someone who follow stops writing messages that are valuable to you, can always easily unfollow him or her and no longer have to read what he or she is writing.