Week 7: Personal Learning Network (PLN)

When I first began my journey in EDM 310, I was somewhat intimidated by creating my own personal learning network, or PLN. Now seven weeks in, it really is not looking so bad. I have started to use ITunes University, Twitter, Google Lit Trips, Skype, Blogger, Delicious, and others to begin making my PLN. ITunes University offers an unbelievable amount of content such as Pod Casts to explore and learn about any topic. Twitter allows connections with people, and thus the exchange of information. I have started becoming friends with authors and publishing companies because English is my major and my field of interest. I get regular tweets from Penguin Publishing company, Los Angeles Times crime fiction columnist Sarah Weinman, and writer Chuck Palahniuk. Google Lit Trips is also a very interesting part of my PLN because it offers Google Earth pictures of settings from literature. Skype is still in its infantile stages of my PLN, but I am learning as fast as I can and looking forward to it being a mainstay in my PLN soon. Blogger is also an important aspect of my PLN because it is so easy to use, and commenting allows anybody to be able to weigh in on topics. I have started exploring blogs about education, especially language arts education. Sharing bookmarks on Delicious also figures to be a big part of my PLN, and I am actively exploring different ways to share bookmarks with people who are interested in the same academic topics as me. My PLN is not very big right now, but the seeds of my PLN are rapidly taking shape and form. I feel certain that it will continue to grow for as long as I can possibly make it. It could become infinitely big, and also be a very vital part of my career and life.