Creating a PLN

Personal Learning Network....Sounds Easy Right???

So, I thought to myself this shouldn't be too hard.  I am pretty connected.  I have a twitter account that I check occasionally, I have Facebook which well that may be a little more than occasionally, I have Instagram, I have a Google+ account, and well I blog now, so I am covered right?  WRONG.  I quickly learned that I had so much to do and learn about building and sustaining a PLN and nothing about it came easy or quick.

I was tasked with finding a twitter chat and actively participating, but what is a twitter chat.  After watching the video posted about it I started to feel a little more confident.  Basically a twitter chat is where a group with a common interest set aside a certain time to discuss a topic, network, and gain feedback through asking and answering questions.  My teacher was nice enough to share a schedule of twitter chats with us and I set out to find one that interest me.  Before I get ahead of myself lets talk a little bit about the platform you use to follow and engage in a twitter chat tweetdeck.  Tweetdeck makes things flow a lot easier you can add a column (see below) specifically for the chat where only post that use the # of the chat will be seen.  I couldn't imagine trying to keep up with the pace of the chat in the normal twitter view with other tweets coming in at the same time.  

The Chat that I participated in was #edtechchat.  Multiple questions were asked throughout the hour time span and responses began like a water fall, and by water fall I am talking Niagra Falls has nothing on how fast this chat was moving.  This was overwhelming to say the least.  as soon as a question went up within seconds the answers began pouring in.  It took me a few questions to get a hold of myself and start to make some sense of everything that was going on in front of me.  Anyone who used the #edtechchat appeared in my column.  

After the first two questions I saw the third question come in and thought ok lets give this a try and dive in and hope for the best.  I answered question three and much to my surprise my computer didn't blow up.  I was a little worried since it had been working so hard to keep up.  My response was short and brief, but got my feet wet and let me gain a little confidence about how this whole twitter chat works.

I answered a few more topics with some still brief responses.  

I started to really enjoy seeing the answers people were giving, it started to get me thinking about the topic in a whole new light.  One of the questions talked about what would you like to see in the future in devices.  Many responded with battery life.  I never really thought about that.  As simple as it is, but very important if you are looking at trying to put a device in each students hand.

As the chat ended I scrolled back through to review some things and found some people that were interesting to me, and people I felt I could gain from following them on a daily bases.  

I also found some other chats and groups that I believe can be useful for me in the future and added those as columns to easily follow the conversations taking place.

Man I am glad that is over

Like I said before the whole experience was very overwhelming, but one I am glad I did.  Yes I am glad that first experience is over, but by the end I felt more confident in using my PLN to participate in chats and gain vital information as I learn more and more about education and technology. In the future I plan to look for more chats and jump in where I can as well as try and find as many resources that can help me along this journey.