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Personal Learning Networks - Why You Need One (or many)
presented by arvind grover, Director of Technology at The Hewitt School. E-mail: agrover  hewittschool.org Alex Ragone, Director of Technology, at Collegiate School. E-mail: aragone  collegiateschool.org

In attendance: Marie Ursino, Ben Chant, Suzanne Fogarty, Jackie Condie, Libby Hixson, Michael Maloy, Scott Moran, Chris Hempel, Bob Feinstein, Narinder Bhalla, Bud Cox, Priscilla Hindley, Eric Eilen, Elise Goldman, Bob Jane, Jocko McKean, Henry Trevor, Joan Rappaport, George Swain

There are 4 stages of learning (according to [|Daniel R. Tobin] ): 1: Data 2. Information 3. Knowledge 4. Wisdom

Joining a PLN gives you an easier path to go from stage 1 to stage 4. When you have a problem, you need access to a personal learning network, be it about teaching, staffing, parents, students, products, it doesn't matter. A network of professionals at your disposal is where you must go to ensure that you are exploring that variety of solutions and options that are out there. Not doing so is a disservice to yourself, and your constituents. Due diligence research can be applied


 * Ok, I'm sold, where do I sign up?**

There are a number of places to get started with a personal learning network. There are entry points for the least and most technically savvy, so don't feel intimidated by the technology. If you can read and/or hear, most all of these will work for you. We strongly recommend joining a social network, and the ISE Net is a great place to start (see below).


 * E-mail Listserves** - a place to subscribe to an e-mail list of your peers, and have powerful discussions just via your e-mail
 * [|Independent School Educators Digest] - a list of thousands of independent school educators from around the world. Many questions have already been asked/answers, so be sure to also check the searchable archive
 * [|NYSAIS Listserves] - NYSAIS maintains listserves for assistant/associate heads, lower schools heads, middle school heads, upper school heads, early childhood educators, community service coordinators, diversity educators, and more.


 * Blogs** (to read, and to comment on with others):
 * [|Leader Talk] - a group of educational bloggers, all writing to one blog. Sponsored by EdWeek. Has great discussions.
 * [|Practical Theory] - a blog by Science Leadership Academic Principal, Chris Lehmann


 * Social networks** (sign up for an account, join a network of people)
 * [|ISE Net] - Independent School Educators Network - powered by Ning (a place where you can start your own social networks).
 * [|Twitter] - Twitter is a social network where you can post type messages no longer than 140 characters. Then, your friends can read and reply to you (publicly or privately). The image below is an example of a Twitter conversation. You need to first sign up for an account, then find friends to "follow." Feel free to follow [|Alex] or [|arvind].
 * arvind mentioned the photography social network [|Flickr] - sign up for an account, and start uploading pictures, joining groups, making people a "contact" of yours, and talking to people. You can leave comments on photos that you like. There is a group of educators posting photos in the [|2009/365 group].


 * Podcasts**
 * Alex and arvind (and another tech director from Chicago) do a live weekly webcast called [|21st Century Learing]. Pat Bassett, President of NAIS, was recently a guest on the show. [|Listen to the archives at EdTechTalk.com]. You can also find other great educational podcasts there.

Alex and I asked our own **personal learning networks (PLN)** why they felt that their PLN was so important. Here's what some of them said within a few hours of us asking:
 * [[image:http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3402/3236699231_35c86972af_o_d.png]]

How students can build PLNs:

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