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
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
