Last year I learned how to be a connected learner with PLP, and now I want to take what I learned to the next level by contributing to other learners instead of just taking. Paula Montrie, the Middle School librarian here at Friends, started a Blogging Alliance. About ten of us will learn about blogging together. Doing this by myself hasn't worked, so I'm hoping the support and camaraderie of the group will take me to the next level. I love that there is no pressure and each of us can select the involvement and level of commitment we choose. Paula gave us five levels to choose from: Just lookin'-Not touchin', Commentators, Baby Bloggers, Blogging Buddies and Teacher Blogger. I hope she writes more about this on her blog, Reeled in Research.

At the same time I want to help our students and teachers become connected learners. Last year several teachers worked with me to get some of our lower school students blogging. The students loved connecting with classmates as well as getting comments from strangers in other schools. I learned a lot about blogging in lower school at ISTE 2012, and have shared it with our faculty. This year instead of just 3 classes blogging we could have up to 10. Some teachers are starting with class blogs using Edublog or Blogger while others have set up a Kidblog account for their class. It's exciting to see the enthusiasm spread.

More than a Lurker

Author Cathy Davidson defines learning as "a constant disruption of an old pattern, a breakthrough that substitutes something new for something old in a cyclical process."

Well, that is what happened to me this week. For over a year, I have been reading and listening to people talk about the importance of building your own personal learning network. So I signed up for Twitter, got a Google Reader account and started trying to find some people to follow and read a few blogs. It was hard to find time for this, and when I did, I didn't get that much out of it. So why should I keep trying? Then I started the PLP professional development program, and in one week I have become more than just a lurker. The light bulb finally went off! I learned how to find people to follow using the #tag which led me to #web20classroom and some great Twitter tips . I'm learning about some great links that I'm sharing with my faculty as well as retweeting. I now want to have a PLN that I can contribute to and learn from. The contributing part is new for me. I always felt I didn't really have anything to contribute, and feared saying something stupid. (I do that all the time anyway.)


But now, if I can help just one person or get one new idea, that is GREAT! My old thoughts about Twitter and RSS feeds were disrupted and replaced with a new broader way of learning and sharing with others.


A colleague said to me, there is nothing wrong with lurking. In fact, I needed to do just that to see how people used Twitter, blogs, and social networks. But it's exciting to learn even more and start to build my own PLN.