Best of the Blogs

from Technology & Learning
What Technology & Learning insiders are writing online. For their full scoop, go towww.techlearning.com/blog/.
LIFE LESSON
How to Create a Personal Learning Network
Jeff Utecht

David Warlick wrote a post about being able to zip up or turn off your Personal Learning Network. I too have been thinking about how one goes about starting a PLN, how do you monitor it, and how do you learn to shut it off. We all continue to push teachers to start PLNs if they haven't already.
There's an emerging trend of what one goes through when adopting a PLN. I continue to look at the stages I am going through in adopting this new way of learning, interacting, and teaching in a collaborative, connected world.
As I have helped others start their PLNs, I have found many of them go through these same stages.
Stage 1
Immerse yourself into networks. Create networks you can find where there are people and ideas to connect to. Collaboration and connections take off.
Stage 2
Evaluate your networks and start to focus in on which networks you really want to focus your time. You begin feeling a sense of urgency and try to figure out a way to know it all.
Stage 3
Know it all: Find that you are spending many hours trying to learn everything you can. Realize there is much you do not know and feel like you can't disconnect. This usually comes with spending every minutes trying to be connected to the point that you give up sleep and contact with others around you.
Stage 4
Start to put your life into perspective. Usually comes when you are forced to leave the network for a while and spend time with family and friends who are not connected (a vacation to a hotel that does not offer a wireless connection, or a visit with friends or family who do not have an Internet connection).
Stage 5
Try and find that balance between learning and living. Understanding that you can not know it all, and begin to understand that you can rely on your network to learn and store knowledge for you. A sense of calm begins as you understand you can learn when you need to learn.
Personally, I continue to struggle with balance in my life between being connected and being here in person. I force myself to put down the computer and pick up the guitar. I force myself to take Screen Free Week off and reflect (I write blog posts on paper...a very strange experience), and I almost enjoy going on vacation with no Internet access. PLNs are very powerful, but they are not all there is to life...and I'm just glad I have a wife who reminds me of that from time to time.
Jeff Utecht is an international educator currently working in Shanghai, China.
MYSPACE GENERATION
Learning in Public
Bob Sprankle

Like it or not, much of our lives are open to review and examination on the Internet.
On the positive end, many of us are now learning in public in ways that were never before possible, through tools such as blogs, wikis, and podcasts. Though this approach of putting your learning out there for all to see can be daunting and challenging, I firmly believe the rewards are enormous.
On the "not so positive" end of the spectrum, a photo posted on Facebook of some youthful indiscretion might not go away, could potentially even become viral, and may have a compromising outcome on future opportunities (such as college admission or employment). While many of these youthful indiscretions are not new, the public and global spotlight on them has evolved far beyond what existed when my generation was "young and stupid."
No matter how hard we try to warn digital natives of the potential negatives of giving the skeletons in their closets a global stage, I suspect that these incidents will continue to increase. The tools make it too easy, with decreasing time for the opportunity of sober reasoning between the click of a cell phone camera and its post to e-mail, MySpace, or YouTube.
Bob Sprankle is a technology integrator, teaching grades K–4, at Wells Elementary in Wells, Maine.
WEB APPS
Going Mobile
Wesley Fryer

I've only just started exploring available Web applications for my iPhone and am AMAZED by the potential for information access and collaboration. While it is true only a limited number of people have an iPhone (or other smartphone), it seems likely the number of cell phones with Internet access is growing—though the presence of cell phones in traditionally organized classrooms is regarded as a disruptive and unwanted element of the modern learning environment. I visited 8th grade students in an Oklahoma school district last week who are assessed a fine that increases by $10 each time they are caught at school with a cell phone. It seems likely the administrators creating and enforcing these policies in K–12 schools have not yet experienced the amazing, constructive potential of mobile Web applications. (It's also likely these administrators define the role of teachers quite differently than Dr. Phil Schlechty does in his book Working on the Work: An Action Plan for Teachers, Principals, and Superintendents.) Here are a few of my favorite iPhone Web apps I've used:
Podcaster: Subscribe and listen to or view podcasts directly on your iPhone without downloading them to iTunes.
43 Actions: I'm using 43 Actions to more effectively manage my to-do lists and get things done! Applications like this, which can be with us at all times on our mobile device, may be the most invaluable of all mobile applications because they can become an essential part of our workflow routines.
Wikipedia: Bjarne Grimsmo Mogstad's iPhone interface for Wikipedia is a streamlined, fast portal. I find myself referencing Wikipedia almost every day, and this application makes my mobile access to Wikipedia even faster.
Wesley Fryer is the director of instructional support services at the College of Education at Texas Tech University.