Get Engaged: Tips for Building Your PLN

Monday, December 10th, 2012

Building and extending your professional learning network (PLN) outside the walls of your school and boundaries of your state can be a breath of fresh air for new ideas and troubleshooting age-old dilemmas. Here are a few tips for meeting new thought leaders like yourself as well as helping others improve their engagement with the rest of the education technology world.

What other events would you add? Do you have a favorite blog we should know about? Be sure to share your thoughts below!

1. Get Reading

Our team stays up to date with innovative ideas and resources by regularly checking these great blogs. We recommend you do the same for some quick, thought-provoking reading. (Tip: If you’ve fallen way behind, check in with our Twitter Buzz blog series for the most popular articles we share each month Sign up here and it will automatically be delivered to your inbox.)

2. Get Tweeting

It is a difficult task to choose the top educators tweeting about technology in the classroom, but these leaders continuously provide excellent resources and personal experiences everyone can learn from.

George Couros- @gcouros
Nicholas Provenzano- @thenerdyteacher
Richard Byrne- @rmbyrne
David Andrade- @daveandcori
Jason Markey- @jmarkeyap
Annie Murphy Paul- @anniemurphypaul

3. Get Watching

No travel required: attend interactive professional development sessions from your classroom or living room thanks to webinars. Archived recordings are an excellent alternative to gain the same access to information without the financial investment of traveling. Check back often with these sites for the most recent sessions and subscribe to receive alerts when new events are posted. Interesting in hosting an EdTech webinar with DyKnow? Let us know.

Let’s Share Ideas! EdTech Webinars: Access over 15 webinars by your peers on 1:1 computing, interactive learning, engagement, collaboration and more
EdTech Teacher Webinar Archives
eSchool News Webinars
Education Week Webinars
Tech & Learning Webinars

4. Get Moving

If you are able to attend one of these fantastic in-person events, we highly recommend doing so. There is no substitute for the high energy levels and access to masses of resources (even though Twitter comes in a close second place). We annually attend each of the following major conferences and regularly host 1:1 computing roundtables (at no cost to hosts or attendees!) Interested in hosting an event at your school or presenting on behalf of DyKnow? Speak up.

ASB Un-Plugged- January 2014, Mumbai
ISTE- June 2013, San Antonio, TX
TCEA- January 2013, Austin, TX
Iowa 1:1- April 2013, Des Moines, IA
Lausanne Laptop Institute- July 2013, Memphis, TN
TeachMeets- Regional, locally organized un-conferences
EdCamps- Regional, locally organized events
1:1 Computing Roundtables- Regional events. Educator-centered professional development workshops welcoming all experience levels with 1:1 programs. Read some sparknotes about events like this hosted by Branksome Hall (Toronto) and Mary Institute & Country Day School (St. Louis)

5. Get Talking

Ask other educators in your district what they are hearing in the EdTech world. What are their favorite resources to reference? Now prepare to share.
Initiate EdTech “Lunch and Learns” to share pedagogical ideas and successes and spread encouragement for innovative technology integration.
Highlight an Educator of the Month achieving excellence in curriculum-based technology integration.
Start your own blog to chronicle these journeys (And be sure to let us know!)
Stay in touch so we can learn more about your EdTech successes. Reach us on Facebook or Twitter and sign up for our monthly newsletter.

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2012 at 8:00 am and is filed under EdTech, Teaching with Technology . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.