Week 5: Michelle's weekly report and reflections

Week 5

Hi guys!

            Well last week I informed you about what Diigo and Google alert are. I then went on to add these tools to my PLE, as I have been doing normally. What I did not do, however, is inform you that these tools also help to grow your PLN. Remember PLN from my first post? Personal Learning Network. PLN allow you to build “your own classrooms and own curriculum” according to WillRichardson’s youtube video ; which is what these tools allow you to do. You are grabbing information from other sites, thus creating a network, and personalizing the information according to what you like and want to learn.

           This week we will be looking at another tool to add to your PLN and I am sure many of you are familiar with it.

Twitter!

            That’s right twitter. The infamous site that allows you to post how your feeling, what you have eating, where you are going at any time, and anywhere. Although for the purpose of building your PLN, I would not count seeing what Mitch wore today as something you want to learn about, unless it is then I am sorry if I have offended you! But aside from the very, very personal aspect that twitter brings, consider the more informative and professional face it takes. Many people on twitter tweet helpful websites that you could go visit, or blogs you can go read in short yet precise messages.   

            I will be honest with you, I have never created or used twitter ever until a couple days ago. I am not master at it but I can tell you this, it is actually not bad! Like many tools we have explored throughout my blogs such feedly, google alert, and diigo, twitter is another convenient tool to help you grab information you need or want, all whilst creating networks with other people from across the world. You can follow someone you like or something you like and if they would like they could follow you back (which would be considered netiquette- remember this term?). By following this person you have access to anything they tweet. For example I am following BrockU  and they have recently started to follow me! By following them I have created a network and I will be alerted of any new tweet they post; some informational and some social. This way I can keep up to date with information. Sound familiar? (Yes! Just like the other tools!). Twitter also allows you to create lists or groups based off of whatever topic you find interesting and want to share with certain people you follow!

Twitter and my PLE

            Here we go again with the PLE… I know! But honestly having a PLE makes you realise how many places you can visit to get information, how many things you can use to note information and so on. Without it, you might feel overwhelmed or confused as to where you can find/create information. So let’s get to it. I would put twitter under synthesizing and creating> producing content because I can briefly put helpful information like blogs do or just link a message to a blog… I could also put it under collaborating and socializing> communication because I am communicating with feel twitter users… I could also put it under digital literacy and create a whole new subtheme called “sharing content” > twitter because I can post, retweet (share) contents so other people can see it!

             

Well that is it for this week. For those of you who have not yet started to use twitter, I STRONGLY encourage you to start! By far it is the easiest and most fun tool I have used to build by PLE and PLN.

Cheers.