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John Baglow

The 5 basic PLN tools

Friday, 12 Apr 2013, 16:47
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Edited by John Baglow, Saturday, 13 Apr 2013, 14:47

I was wondering what would be the most effective 5 tools for a learner who was just feeling their way towards some sort of Personal Learning Network. Of course, the possibilities are endless but I can see from my own experience on H817 that there is a risk of spending more time on working out how a tool works than on actually using it effectively.

Here's my top 5:

  1. Twitter
  2. Social networking tool(Google+, Facebook)
  3. Video-conferencing (Skype,Blackboard Collaborate,Google Hang-Out
  4. Joint authoring tool (eg Etherpad)
  5. Blog

I would be pleased to know your top 5! Feel free to write a comment or use this survey

Tags: #pln, #h817open
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Bren P
Friday, 12 Apr 2013, 19:42
by Bren P

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Twitter? Nope, cba but possibly could be tempted to look.

FB etc? Nope - I have no intentions of handing over my email contacts or phone number - or rights to any info I post. Nor do I want anyone I know keeping tabs on me!

Skype etc? Maybe, but my connection speed is too slow to be reliable.

Joint authoring tool? Maybe, presuming it's the same as a wiki. I have used them but they are at the mercy of effective collaboration

Blogs? Yes I blog, so out of your 5, this would be number 1.

John Baglow
Friday, 12 Apr 2013, 19:55
by John Baglow

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Hi Bren, I know what you mean about FB . Some teachers and students prefer to keep FB for their personal life and use another tool (eg Google+) for their student or professional sphere. A few of us have got together in a Google+ community. It is completely private; people only have access if we invite them.

Thanks for your comments which help give me an idea of what might be the more general reaction to taking part in a PLN.

Nicola Morris
Friday, 12 Apr 2013, 21:38
by Nicola Morris

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I know too well that feeling of spending valuable time mastering a tool! I think I'd add feeders to this list as that is becoming the best way to keep on top.
Patricia Daniels
Friday, 12 Apr 2013, 22:05
by Patricia Daniels

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Hi John,

I'm sure we'll see a lot of overlapping here and perhaps a few exotic tools. If I'm trimming it to 5 useful tools to aid in building and maintaining a PLN, then for my PLE I'd probably select:

1) Twitter

2) Scoop.it

3) RSS feeds

4) Blogs

5) Google Drive / RealTime Board

Although I'm a big user of synchronous communication tools such as Skype, I think realistically with a PLN most of the communication happens asynchronously but with differing levels of immediacy or reaction time smile Twitter can be fast and used like chat, whereas responding to blogs and engaging in discussion takes longer. Sharing via a curation tool such as Scoop.it, is also a great way of sharing and building up a looser network and archiving material for yourself.RSS feeds like Twitter help keep you up-to-date and Google Drive and RealTime Board are tools that assist with collaborative work when you've been able to hook someone in.
Hope you get a few responses to this John. It's interesting to hear what people are making use of.
Best Trish
Nuala Davis
Saturday, 13 Apr 2013, 16:07
by Nuala Davis

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Hi John, great question. I'd go with

  • Twitter + Hootsuite (neat twitter search tool)
  • Blog + Feedly (an RSS reader)
  • Some kind of discussion space (Google+, Facebook - if your PLN buddies happen to be there.)

Like Trish, I think this is mainly asynchronous, so I've not really considered Hangouts/Skype/GoogleDocs/Etherpad.

Nuala's tools

John Baglow
Saturday, 13 Apr 2013, 16:49
by John Baglow

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Hi Nuala and Trish, this is all helpful. I am being a classic mooc student, busily (frenetically, some would say) flitting from one function to another. I am currently trying to get over my aversion to Twitter.