Lynette and I have been bandying about the concepts of Personal Learning Environments and Personal Learning Networks as we complete the assignments for this class. She will add to this  in her own blog:  adventures in education.

(PLEs) are personal to each individual, created by individuals, owned by them, and used by them in their lifelong learning.   Think of them as the  ultimate Bloom’s:  where you create, personalize, revise and implement life-long learning objectives.  Think of a PLN as a net of expert resources s to whom you can turn to discuss the kinks, to solve problems and foster your professional as well as personal growth.

A Personal Learning Network a system for starting your system for life-long learning.  Technically a PLN represents the personal web 2.0 tools/technologies you use, like blogs, mashups, tagging, RSS feeds, wikkis, twitter, and other tools that allow you to generate, communicate, organize and share content.  Mack suggests these tools:  http://onceateacher.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/ten-free-web-2-0-tools-for-the-classroom/

I am thinking of PLEs and PLNs like the teaching-learning spiral that begins somewhere but never ends, that evolves always from what comes before… a spiral, a wheel that goes around and hopefully always moves forward with the learner at the center.  Visualize a tree that branches as it grows towards the light and whose roots are able to hold more firmly to the ground at the same time.

PLNs and PLEs are ultimately what we to create and have our students create.  How we can best help them and ourselves along this journey is the question.  So how do we do this?  

Participate in social bookmarking sites like diigo or twitter; begin writing a blog; check out teacherlingo community (join), join a social network of teachers (like making curriculum pop); share ideas with people whom you trust; find a mentor; watch thought provoking videos,  etc.   

Would these be useful?  Yes.  Do we want to engage in this process?  Yes, yes.  This class has changed my thinking:  there is an acquisition function as well as a communication/sharing process that is critical.  There are people and resources to consult; question, and argue with (even if you end the sentence w a preposition).  Use them.