Student PLN

There is a lot of focus on educators having an online PLN (personal learning network) but I haven't heard as much about students having an online PLN.  The idea of a PLN isn't just to have fun using social media (though it is that, too!), but it is to Learn something through the online connections you make.  Educators may do this through Twitter, Facebook, iGoogle, RSS readers, social bookmarking tools, educational websites, Symbaloo, or plenty of other places. 

But what about our kids? Where is their PLN?  Sure, they are probably on Facebook, and maybe have an iGoogle (which is probably only used to have a gaming widget that doesn't get blocked by your school's internet filter, or see their favorite professional sports team statistics), but how are they learning with these tools?  Chances are, they are just using these tools to have fun.  Fun is fun, but shouldn't we teach them to take the next step and learn something while they're out there!?

Much like educators, I think that students need to have a place where they are learning online--not by having to search for information, but having information come to them.  A good start may be an RSS feed about a topic of their interest.  If they like a certain model of car, let them follow a blog about cars and put it in an RSS.  If they like computer programming, let them find a Ning or Wikispace about the topic and subscribe to the sites changes. If students are having information that they care about fed to them, they will see the true power of social media.  Perhaps, someday as they're doing research for a school project, they'll subscribe to content relevant to that subject because they'll have already seen how easy it is to do.

A tool that allows organization of online content is Symbaloo: it's easy and kids can have all of their content organized on one page--personal and school. I've written a blog post about that here.