Personal Learning Network

Do you know how you could get help from thousands of people who want to be a teacher as well as you do? Personal learning network is a good tool to ask professional questions, share ideas or simply talk about how teachers as you could improve their learning experience of their students. People always learn from others when they are doing the same thing, but with a different manner. It is a very good way to learn from your peers, but it could also be very interesting for your students to learn from you.

In fact, how can you reach the students who never participate or dare asking questions out loud in class? If you haven't noticed it yet, you will quickly realize that the students who participate in class represent a very small minority of the total of your students. How can you help the others who are maybe to shy to share their ideas or ask questions? Personal learning network will help you reach these students. 

Teachers should create a blog and ask the students to participate only if they want to. I'm sure you will be very surprised to see how many participants will join you on your blog. I think teachers must use it when they are teaching to a big amount of students. It's always hard to answer all the questions during class time, especially when you have about 200 students.

When students ask questions on the blog, teachers also have more time and more information to give to their answers which will be consequently more meaningful.  

When a teacher uses one of the social learning networks, it clearly proves that he always wants to learn and improve his teaching experience. Being a teacher doesn't mean that we are not the ones who are not supposed to learn anymore, we still have a lot of information to acquire to improve the learning of our students. 

Danah Boyd's Video

Changes are everywhere and technology has already changed the way teens live and learn. Teachers need to keep in mind that teenagers still have the same interests today as they themselves had before. Their social life still represents a lot to them. However, with technology, these social activities do not take place only at school, but also at home, on their way back from school…  In fact, everywhere they are. It is so easy now with mobiles and computers. Teenagers use these tools as a way to express how they look, who they are and their interests. Today students use Facebook or Myspace to fulfill more this critical  period when they research their personal identity. It is very important for teenagers to mark their relations with others. Facebook and Myspace help them to be aware of everything that is happening to their friends, even if they do not actually meet them. In fact, parents can put their children as long as they want in their room, they would still find a way to talk to their friends. And you know what? This is good! Children NEED to have social skills to understand our environment. People’s interaction with others will always be one of the biggest components of our world.

Of course with Facebook and Myspace, teenagers create their account and comment according to their specific social context. However, teachers and parents still have to remind them that there is sort of an invisible audience that can always have a look on their profile in a different context than what teens expected.

Pedagogy and technology can be wonderfully mixed, but teachers need to use it adequately. They should teach to their students how to do a research effectively and how to analyze sites critically. They need to present them those different purposes of using internet. We have to engage students in technology, because it will make students who do not have a computer at home for example familiar with it, and it will catch the attention of the others who use a computer on a daily basis. Teachers need to use the same tools as their students; otherwise, they will not get their attention or will simply not be understood by them. SPEAK the same language as them!

The most important thing that teachers have to remember when seeing students using technologies that they do not know about is to ask them why they use it and create a simple dialogue with them to be aware of the adaptation that they must encounter to use this technology later for future classes.

Please watch Danah Boyd's video about this subject matter on  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rmoc9F6fceQ&feature=player_embedded