My Personal Learning Network is ever expanding, more rapidly now as I leverage more resources online, and as a result, having a greater impact on my personal and professional practice. The following Prezi illustrates how I see my PLN as of today, March 7, 2013.

As a way to connect, gather, and share content online, I most frequently use LinkedIn, Twitter (@markpalmerston), Google Apps for Education, and have been exploring Google+

LinkedIn I use as a professional networking tool and a source of professional information. Twitter has really expanded my view of social networking, forced me to face my fears, and really helped me connect with others and gather a huge amount of information in a much more efficient way than my RSS feeds allowed. While I still feel like much of my activities are viewing information, I am working to find my voice and share more content on twitter. I actively use Google Apps for Education, both personally and in my working world to very much connect, gather, and share information. One emerging tool that I am working to leverage is Google+.

To create digital content, I have really been enjoying making extra normal videos. While this, and my friend Voki, are newer tools for me, I have several ongoing favorite tools that I use to create Digital Content. In my professional environment, I use Google Sites to create internal websites for our schoolwide professional development as well as a separate site to organize and share our internal documents. I love using Prezi for any and all presentations, and have found it to be a great tool to visually display and organize complex thoughts and processes. Finally my blog; I started a blog a few months ago to reflect on my professional practice, connect with others, and share openly. While I am still finding my voice, I see such great value in creating and sharing content in this way.

I am always searching for better ways to organize content. I love iGoogle and have used this for a long time to organize and manage my RSS feeds. As iGoogle is going away, I have started to use Google Reader, and on my iPhone the Feedly app to organize my feeds. I have started using paper.li, and enjoy the ease and visual appeal. I have shared two paper’s one on my personal feeds (food, business, sports, and local news) and one on educational information that I follow.

I would like to improve in this area by finding better iPhone apps to organize, view, share and manage my use of twitter and online feeds.

My current learning environments are very important to me, and I hope that I am working to more fully engage in and blur the lines between my online and offline learning. Online I have been exploring MOOC’s through Coursera and #etmooc, both with mixed success. I see great value in these learning environments, but have found that a more traditional cohort learning model has provided me with greater success. My offline learning environments being highlight by the students, staff, and families at my school, along with coworkers, professional connections, and the community provide great opportunities to collaborate and share. As more of my learning blends the online and offline environment, I am continuing to seek out cohort learning models, which include my ACSA Innovative Technology Academy (#ACSATech) and my future learning experiences through California Lutheran University’s Doctorate of Education program which I plan to begin this June.

I invite you to come join my PLN to connect, gather, and share information.