The Power of my PLN: A Daily Example!

The story I am about to tell is not a tremendous one.  This story is is not overly dramatic.  Yet, this story is the simple power of my PLN (Personal Learning Network) and how they support me in various ways on a daily basis.

This morning I was working on a course framework form for the distance learning course Shannon McClintock Miller will be teaching this fall to students at Van Meter and Monsignor Bonner & Archbishop Prendergast Catholic High School, my school.  When I needed some assistance from Shannon, I quickly sent out a tweet and she logged in to Google Docs and began working on the form.  Only problem, Google recently added a chat feature to the Document section and it wasn’t there.  While Shannon and I tweeted back and forth to discuss the form, we still were unsure about what happen to the chat feature.  Power of PLN #1: A few minutes into our discussion Shannon and I received a tweet from Mary Beth Hertz, a local Philadelphia teacher who is an All-Star on Twitter.  Mary Beth, in her tweet, simply suggested to check the settings to make sure we had the newest version of Google Docs selected for use.  One minute later…we had the solution to our problem.  Thanks, Mary Beth!

This afternoon I was in a meeting with my Technology and Learning Committee.  We were discussion various topics we must address in our planning process if we are to go to a 1:1 environment in September of 2011.  During our meeting we identified two key areas which needed to be addressed; however, as of now we did not have an answer for either area.  Power of PLN #2: When you have a discussion about a 1:1 environment and have a question, reach out to Chris Lehmann, Principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia.  I sent a tweet out to Chris.  Within minutes Chris sent a response back and we set a time to discuss the question our committee must address.

Today, we didn’t save the world.  No, very simply, today was a normal day for an administrator during the summer.  Today, there was some paperwork; there was a formal meeting; and there were several informal meetings.  Yet, if I didn’t have my PLN, I would not have been working on a course framework form; I would not have received an immediate answer to a question about Google Docs; and I would not have had another Principal to reach out to about our initiative.

While this story was not a jaw dropping one, it does demonstrate the potential that resides in ones PLN.  Thank you to all the members of my PLN, well, for being members of my PLN!