A personal learning network (also called PLN) is an informal learning network that consists of the people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from in a personal learning environment. In a PLN, a person makes a connection with another person
who has an expertise in a particular strategy or a person with the same area of interest.
Generally PLN helps people learn through collaboration. As per the current technological changes in 21st century classroom, educators need to update their knowledge day by day to get the efficient usage of educational technologies, develop professionally and provide students with quality education. Most of the educators are self-learners developing their skills by communicating with other educators through social media, blogs and Skype. Your personal learning network plays a great role in bringing you the best educational practices from expert educators. Administrators need a PLN (personal learning network) that connects globally to share resources, learn and collaborate on best practices all for the purpose of improving the educational system. Educational leaders surely understand the importance of being a part of networks and learning communities on Twitter, Google Plus, and other social forums, where professional growth can occur at anytime, anywhere. There is no doubt that Twitter is a powerful learning tool to improve your personal learning network.
Let me share with you some important Twitter Hashtags that will help you know many edtech enthusiasts, learn from the resources provided by them, explore and exchange your knowledge. Before that I’d like to give you brief info about why educators and administrators need a Twitter hashtag.
Twitter Hashtag for Connected Principals:
Being a decision maker for an educational institution is a tough task as you have to manage academic, infrastructural, teacher training and technology implementation activities. It’s an effective way to collaborate with other decision makers in order to bring the best educational practices to your institution.
Do Connected Principals need to have a hashtag ?
Yes, connected principals need to have a hashtag to connect with each other easily and effectively. These connections lead to discussions on current educational challenges and derive solutions to achieve them. Let’s see some educators’ opinions on this topic.
“I have really learned a lot about sharing from my PLN! I cannot believe how easy it is to connect to great educators. I am hoping that more administrators will choose to connect themselves. It does not matter where Principals work in this day and age, they can make a choice to be connected to people that can support them” , said Patrick Larkin.
“Like many of you I also worried about the small number of principals (headteachers in UK) using twitter. It’s a great idea having a hashtag for us to share thoughts, ideas, concerns and innovations. Looking forward to connecting!” said Michael Shepherd
#cpchat:
Connected Principals is a great blog and community of many expert administrators who share their best practices in education. All of the authors have different experiences in education but all have the same goal; what is best for students. They come up with a Twitter hashtag #cpchat to make real–time as well as instant conversations.
#edleaders and #edadmin:
As the titles suggest, these two hashtags are related to resources and ideas connected to educational leadership. Follow these hashtags to explore numerous tweets that contain blog posts, resources and strategies from many administrators who share the best educational practices.
#edpolicy and #edreform are related to resources and ideas connected to educational reform. The adopted policies and suggested changes to reform the education are followed by these hashtags.
Resources related to higher education are followed by this hashtag. Many educators, students, parents and administrators share their ideas, suggested edtech products, insights and blog posts relevant to higher eduation with this hashtag.
#k12 :
K-12 is a designation for primary to secondary education. As the hashtag title indicates, many K12 resources, ideas and educational practices from educators are followed with this hashtag.
#edchat :
It is founded by Shelly S Terrell, an Education thought-provoker, the 30 Goals Challenge author and an International Speaker. It’s the most active hashtag on Twitter as it is tagged by many educators.
#edtech :
It’s all about educational technologies. Educators, students, developers, curriculum designers, startups and administrators, etc., interact with each other using this hashtag.
Ideas and resources related to educational technologies are connected with this hashtag.
#Satchat :
“#Satchat is a great example of the power of social media to improve education, and the benefit of expanding an educator’s Personal Learning Network (PLN). The premise behind this Twitter chat/hashtag came about when Scott Rocco and I connected on Twitter in February 2012. Both of us had a passion for education and knew other school leaders around the globe who shared our enthusiasm. What we would soon realize is that this passion was not restricted to local or national educators, but had a global reach”, said Brad Currie, a School Administrator in Chester, NJ and Co-founder of #Satchat.
#Satchat Twitter discussion has an average of 75 participants from around the world on a weekly basis. Follow this hashtag to connect with many administrators from around the world.
We hope this information helped you to know about some powerful hashtags that help you improve your personal learning network (PLN). We’d like to know about a few more hashtags like these. Please come up with a list of suggested hashtags that administrators must know about. The comment box awaits you.
