Hello Everyone!
Before I get into what I was learning about this week, I would like to start this post off with a video clip that can be found here. This is a video that poped up on my Feedly feed, and I just had to share. As a future educator, educational rights are very important to me, and I am always astounded by this young woman's courage, and the wisdom she has at such a young age!

Moving on to this weeks session....
So this week I did what I have vowed to never do. I joined Twitter.

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 Here's the thing. I have always viewed twitter as a place where people post about what sandwich they ate for lunch, or how great their hot yoga class went, and I just did not see the value of knowing those things. Needless to say, I gave a good eye roll when I found out that I had to create a twitter account. BUT. As I began to look through the various accounts that I could 'follow', I began to see how there is potential for my digital learning.
This week we learned about creating, and building up a PLN. What is a PLN you may ask? Well, PLN stands for Personal Learning Network. Essentially a PLN is the people or groups that you exchange information with, and it is usually digital in format.
So after joining Twitter, and learning about PLN, the challenge then became filtering the ridiculous amounts of information from Twitter, and finding groups and people to follow that will create a useful PLN.  This was far more challenging than I initially thought, but I have a couple of tips if you are considering using Twitter as a PLN.

Tip 1: Start Small 
Don't expect to have it all figured out, and to have a perfect PLN after only one attempt. It will take time, so start by finding 3 to 5 people or groups to follow, that will really help with your area of interest, or study.
Tip 2: Don't Get Distracted!
As I previously mentioned, there is so much information, and so much going on within Twitter. Don't get distracted by posts or by following things that are not related to what you are learning.
Tip 3: Be A Copy Cat
One of the great ways I found to discover other people and groups to follow was by looking at who the people I follow are following. If the people you are following are interested in the same things, it is likely that they will follow at least 1 or 2 other people you may want to follow as well!

While I was hesitant at first, I think that I will indeed be adding Twitter to my PLE, as it has the potential to provide important connections, and resources when learning online, and learning in general. While I used to think that it would only go under my 'social' section if I ever got it, I now can see its benefits within my academic section. I encourage everyone to give Twitter a try, even if you are as skeptical is I was, and if you do follow me @hb11xz, and learn with me... digitally!
Have a good week!

~Hannah