Grow Your Own Personal Learning Network

Well this is my first blog posting for quite a while, but I'm hoping to have a lot more coming up very soon. This is just a quick posting to share a session on building your own Personal Learning Network, that I did for teachers in British Council Bilbao recently (25th September 2010).

The session was part of a larger conference that was happening all over Spain to celebrate 70 years of the BC in Spain.

You can watch a recording my conference presentation here.


Or follow this link to it: http://tinyurl.com/382rmy2

The links from the presentation are also below and you can download a PDF copy of the presentation slides here: PLN Presentation slides (PDF 4.7 Mb)

Tools for growing your PLN

Twitter

• Twitter is a great tool for starting to reach out to a huge network of teachers. http://twitter.com/
• You can follow me and see who I’m following here.
  http://twitter.com/NikPeachey
• This is a great starter list for Twitter of people involved in ELT who you can follow. It includes some of the real greats of ELT. Thank you to Barbara Sakamoto for putting together this list.
  http://twitter.com/barbsaka/starter-pln/members

LinkedIn

• LinkedIn is a great place to put your online CV, connect with other ELT professionals and start joining special interest groups. The groups are a great place for sharing and finding information.
  http://www.linkedin.com
• I'm on LinkedIn at: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/nikpeachey
  

Facebook

• Although controversial as a teaching tool, Facebook can also be a useful professional networking tool, just start looking for the ‘Like’ button on various websites and click it to keep in touch with what’s happening. http://www.facebook.com
• I'm on Facebook too and am in the process of creating a page for people interested in learning technology in ELT. http://www.facebook.com/NikPeachey
  

Ning and other independent social networks

• Many of the IATEFL Special interest groups use Ning for discussion of very specific areas of teaching. Here's an example from the Global Issues SIG
  http://global-issues.ning.com/
  

Yahoo Groups

• They’ve been around for a long time, but there are still some great connections to be made by looking for ELT related Yahoo groups.
  http://groups.yahoo.com/
• Particularly useful is the Webheads list.
  http://webheadsinaction.org/
  

Blogs of course
Some great bloggers to follow are:

• Larry Ferlazzo
  http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/larry-ferlazzos-english-website/
• Ozge Karaoglu
  http://ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org/
• Be sure to check out their blogroll and look for connections to other great blogs.
• Find out about more female bloggers here: http://quickshout.blogspot.com/2010/04/let-us-now-praise-famous-women.html

Feed Readers

• Here is an example of a feed reader page I created. This can make capturing information much easier.
  http://www.netvibes.com/Nikpeachey/en%23Teaching_English
• Create your own using
  http://www.netvibes.com/

Storing links and social bookmarking
These are great tools for storing links to information so that you can find them when you want them and share them with others.

• Instapaper
  http://www.instapaper.com/
• Delicious
  http://www.delicious.com
• You can see my Delicious bookmarks at:
  http://www.delicious.com/NikPeachey
• Diigo
  http://diigo.com/
• Also check out all the really useful Diigo groups. You can see the ones I'm following here:
  http://groups.diigo.com/user/nikpeachey

Simplybox

• This is a great bookmarking tool for the more visually stimulated
  http://simplybox.com
• You can see an example 'box' of bookmarks here. I've made it public to share tools for creating digital content.
  http://simplybox.com/public/?id=145809

Here are some tools for reflection

• Keep a personal online diary with Penzu
  https://penzu.com/pad
• Create your own blog just by sending an email to post@posterous.com and wait for the link to come back in your email.
  https://posterous.com/

Slinkset

• If you want to share links and get comments on them but don't want to write a blog, then create a portal site. Here’s an example of a portal I created using Slinkset
  http://technogogy.slinkset.com/recent
• You can create your own for free.
  http://slinkset.com/

More information

• Barabara Sakamoto created this fantastic ‘sticky wall’ for teachers to express what it means to have a PLN. http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/ChubuTeachers
• Read or download this free booklet I wrote to get the technical knowledge and get started creating your own PLN.
  http://www.scribd.com/doc/22124764/From-Information-to-Knowledge

I'd really like to add a special than you to Barbara Sakamoto from Teaching Village for allowing me to share here work on PLNs and for helping to save me and I hope you a lot of work too.

Please also check out the other recorded presentations as they include:

• Patrick Howarth
  http://www.livestream.com/bcvalencia
• Steve Evans
  http://www.livestream.com/britishcouncilspain
• Graham Stanley
  http://www.livestream.com/bcbarcelona

I hope you find these useful and thank you to everyone at the British Council Bilbao for their hospitality and professionalism under pressure.

Related links:

• Pros and Cons as Web Based Research Tasks
• Creating Social Polls and Questionnaires Using Urtak
• Social Networks and the Web 2.0 Revolution: Part 2
• The Web 2.0 School of the Present
• Survey Results: Mobile learning for ELT

Best

Nik Peachey

Another year under the old belt

Well, today is the glorious day that comes around once a year.  It usually entails a flood of facebook wall posts, an outrageous amount of libations debauchery, and of course having to change a certain number in my blog title.  You guessed it -- today is Amstel's birthday!   So now THIS is officially the story of a 24-year-old birthmother.  Thank you mom and dad for the gift of life! 



Crazy how it's been almost six years since I first found out that I was pregnant.   I remember I had just turned 18 when my Political Science class decided to do an election debate in front of the entire school.  It was right before the 2004 presidential election, and my topic was abortion.  I chose that topic.  I spoke passionately about a touchy subject that I really didn't know a whole lot about; but I knew what I believed in.  I argued that abortion was morally wrong and not a viable option for unplanned pregnancy.  I think I touched on some brief fetal development facts, and I spoke passionately against the killing of the tiniest of human beings.  I don't know why I was drawn to that topic, but it was something that really touched my heart.   Later that week is when I fearfully took my first pregnancy test.  And it came back positive.  The irony!   If you want to hear God laugh tell Him your plans, right?  It was the first of many "coincidences" (or should I say God's plans) that would occur throughout the next six years of my life.  



I started Amstel Life when I turned 22.  At best, I wanted to help people to understand why I chose to place my daughter for adoption with the Dollar family.  I also wanted to help other birthmothers who had placed, and most importantly, I wanted to show women facing unplanned pregnancy that there is a peaceful and  positive alternative to abortion.  Never in a million years did I expect to receive the support, feedback and encouragement that I have experienced through Amstel Life.  Never in a million years.  Thank you!



Here's something cool that you guys should know about.  Scholarships 4 Birthmothers is a nonprofit that was started by a birthmother to give scholarships to women of all ages who have placed their baby for adoption and want help with school!  Please consider donating a few dollars to this wonderful cause. They are only $50 away from their goal! 



There are two info sites:

scholarships4birthmothers.info

scholarships4birthmothers.blogspot.com



It's been a great day so far.  This morning, my boss called me into the conference room.  I sat down with my notepad and pen, ready to take notes.  Then I realized that my colleagues were surprising me with birthday cupcakes and a Tinkerbell card that played music.  It was pretty much awesome.  They proceeded to tell me about what they were doing when they turned 24, according to my boss, "before there was electricity."  Haha.   Deanna called my phone today and left a sweet voicemail of her singing happy birthday.  At the end she said, "Happy Birthday Mimi!" (Mimi is my mom)... "I mean AmyHutton!"   That made my day.  

Thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes!

Here's to another year of Amstel Life!

Flowers delivered to my desk from my best friend Natalie.

Message: "I hope these flowers find you well and you don't eat them."