Blog 7: Professional Learning Network

The concept of a Professional Learning Network is an overall good idea as the constant feeds of new information become more exciting when they are relevant to the individual. Some of these websites such as Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, etc. offer people a few different ways in which they can interact and engage with other professionals in a relatively safe manner.

During this quarter, I signed up for twitter and (although most of the people I'm following are celebrities) I found that there are many educators and educational groups that utilize twitter on a regular basis to share their thoughts, concerns, ideas, etc. with others. I thought this was awesome because it seems like people are not afraid to "tell us how they really feel" when using media tools like this. 

The RSS feed was interesting at first but, honestly, I was overwhelmed with the amount of results it returned in most cases. It seemed that if my search was more general, I got a TON of responses...but if I was more specific, I got very few responses. After a few attempts, I felt that I had a better luck using google than the Digg Stream. 

Finally, the Blog was probably my favorite tool this quarter. I really enjoy being able to simply write down what I feel and not having to think too much about writing as a process. Having the freedom to write whatever I want because it's my blog is quite liberating and even more captivating for that very reason. 

Blogging is something that I feel can very easily be introduced in the classroom and have students not think about "writing" as a chore. The whole format of blogging is much more laid back and non-traditional, in a sense, which I feel would compel students to engage in the process more easily. For the adults, I do believe that twitter and other PLNs can be beneficial. Unfortunately, I also feel that what is lacking the most is an understanding of the value in these tools as well as a large unawareness of their existence. Overall, I think these PLNs have great value in the accessibility they give educators to resources, information, and other professionals in the field. 

Journal 6: Self Reflection

Although HTML seemed overwhelming at first, it was incredibly helpful having someone break down what all the tags, letters, and symbols mean, as well as how they are all used to create something cohesive. The book exercises have provided really great practice and that has probably been the most exciting part of becoming familiar with the coding process. One of the first assignments, creating the Bistro website, was exciting because it was the first time that I was able to directly see how the see of code that I entered turned into something real in a browser. During one of the earlier labs, I was also excited about being able to create and format the buttons at top of my first website and add the picture background, which helped to solidify the importance of css and how much of a difference the small details will make. 

One of the more challenging parts of all of this, however, has been the css, mainly because it is so time consuming. Especially being a bit of a perfectionist, it is very frustrating spending so much time on the smaller details of these pages such as the "tabs" at the top of the page. It has been great learning that the css can be embedded though, this will definitely cut down on the amount of time it takes to make these pages as visually appealing as possible.