PLN 17 semester 2

I read an article called "PLN's Again" by Jessie C. who talked about Personal Learning Networks.
This is how I responded...
Dear Jessie C.,
I enjoyed reading your blog mostly because it was on a topic I was familiar with, PLN's. I am in Ms. Smith's class and we do PLN's twice a week as well. I agree with you about how this is a great way to give us a chance to open ourselves up to the world around us. At the beginning of the semester, I had no idea what a blog was and did not know much about the new and great way of communications on the internet. Like you had said, blogging gives us a chance to communicate with the world through our own words and can influence other people’s thoughts, by showing WHAT MATTERS to us. It really is cool see the world in a new technical way as we explore the new opportunities we have with technology. This gives us a way to expand on our thoughts about what we read and see and also teaches us to elaborate on what we have to say.

You also spoke about PLN presentations. Though I am definitely not a very good speaker, I do enjoy listening to the ideas of my classmates about what they decided to read further on a certain subject and how they responded to the author’s opinions. It also sparks some really good conversations in our class (once someone finds the courage to speak up). At the end of their presentation they are to ask a question to the class on a topic that relates to one of their blogs that they discussed. Then we are allowed to go on and talk about what we think which leads to a couple other topics. I think this part is really nice and gets us to speak up and share your ideas. The only part I don’t always like is when we leave comments on their blog giving them feedback on how they did. I think this is helpful but some people don’t really give you much. They might say things like “Good Job” or “speak up a little” but I still think we could do more.
Overall, I think the whole experience of doing PLN’s has been really good and has really helped with not only my writing but also using the technology we are so fortunate to be able to use.