6. Dive deeper
Social media is a great place to make lasting friendships that translate from the digital to the real world at places like conferences, Murray says. To bridge the gap between online and face-to-face communication, Murray says that many educators are flocking to Google Hangouts and Voxer, an app that lets users leave voicemail-like messages for a group asynchronously or voice chat in real time like a walkie-talkie. “In a Twitter chat your conversation is limited to 140 characters at a time,” he says. “What people are starting to do is pair Twitter with another tool that allows them to go deeper with a much smaller audience.”
7. Make the time, if you don’t already have it
According to Murray, spending time growing and interacting with your PLN pays off in the long run. “Often people will say to me, ‘I don’t have the time for social media,’ and I respond, ‘You don’t have the time not to do it,” Murray says. “Personalized professional learning and staying on top of the latest trends and resources is really something that will help you be a top-notch educator. That availability for anytime-anywhere PD is at your fingertips.”
8. Model global learning for students
Collaboration, global learning, and analyzing different points of view are tentpoles of 21st century learning. Participating in truly global PLNs helps educators walk the walk as far as students are concerned, Anderson says. “For my students, it shows that learning doesn’t just happen in the isolation of me but it happens with other people and that there are a lot of people out there who have a lot of things to share. I say this all the time: alone we’re smart but together we’re brilliant. Imagine the problems we could solve if we all band together and learn from each other. That’s what my PLN does for me on a daily basis.”
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