Building Your Online Personal Learning Network (PLN)

Bob BertschWeb Technology Specialist

NDSU Agriculture Communication

What Is a PLN?

PLNs are deliberately formed networks of people and resources capable of guiding our independent learning goals and professional development needs.

PLN Resources

BLOGS

BOOKMARKS

SLIDESHOWS

VIDEOS

• Technocrati• Google blogs

• TED• YouTube

• Slideshare• Prezi

• Diigo• delicious

PLN Resources

BLOGS

VIDEOS

SLIDESHOWS

BOOKMARKS

CONVERSATIONS

TwitterFacebook

Google BuzzBlog Comments

LinkedIn

Using Twitter For Your PLN

What Is Twitter?Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging tool that allows users to share 140 character bursts of information (tweets). 

How are people using Twitter?• As a news source• As a conversation• As conference tracker• As a marketing tool• As a knowledge network 

Setting Up Your PLN Using Twitter

• Identify people who can contribute to your PLN

o Authorso Bloggerso Speakerso Magazineso News sites

Setting Up Your PLN Using Twitter

Search for them on Twitter.

Setting Up Your PLN Using Twitter

Check the following/followers lists of those you follow

Setting Up Your PLN Using Twitter

Consider following those accounts

Setting Up Your PLN Using Twitter

Check lists the accounts you follow appear on

Setting Up Your PLN Using TwitterSearch Twitter for subjects you want to hear about and consider following accounts

Setting Up Your PLN Using TwitterCheck for better search results by using a hashtag.

• Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context to tweets. 

• You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag.

• Hashtags were developed as a means to create "groupings" on Twitter, without having to change the basic service.

Setting Up Your PLN Using Twitter

Try a hashtag when searching Twitter

Setting Up Your PLN Using Twitter

Consider following the accounts that those you follow retweet

Creating a Personal Learning Environment (PLE)

Personal learning environments allow you to collect all your PLN information in a central location.

Collect:• News• Blog feeds• Your Twitter feed• Twitter search term

feeds• Twitter list feeds• Social bookmark feeds• Web-based tools

Create Your PLE on:• Netvibes• iGoogle• Pageflakes• Evernote• Diigo

Feeds

Feeds are the way content is syndicated on the web

• stay up-to-date on new content from a particular source

• read your feeds in Outlook, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Reader

• add feeds to personalized web sites like Netvibes & iGoogle

 

Creating a PLE on Netvibes

1. Choose private, public or dashboard2. Add widgets3. Add content using feeds 

Questions?

Bob Bertschhttp://www.twitter.com/ndbob

http://www.facebook.com/bobbertschhttp://www.diigo.com/profile/bobbertsch