I read an insightful article the other day on one of my favorite education blogs, What Ed Said. The premise of the article was this: Let students become the “boss of their own learning” by creating and developing their own personal learning networks. The author of the post gives a list of ways you can be a better facilitator to students by helping them begin this task that will serve them not only in their K-12 years, but throughout their lifetimes.

A few of my favorite suggestions from the post:

• Flatten classroom walls – Create global connections. Collaborate with kids in other countries. Set up a Voicethread so kids all over the world can respond. Find classes learning about the same issues to debate with on Skype.

• Encourage conversation with family – Invite parents to share in the learning, in person, or by commenting on class blogs and wikis. Set tasks that involve parents, grandparents and siblings. Send student questions and wonderings that haven’t been addressed in class, home for discussion. 

As a tech-savvy educator, you have probably established your own learning network and have found a way to incorporate ideas, models, lessons, and inspiration from other educators from across the globe. By helping your students tap into these same resources, you’re helping them to understand that learning happens beyond the school day. When you give students power to control the direction of pieces of their educational experience, they become more engaged in the process and more responsible for their own academic progress.

As the provider of Internet-based curriculum for schools across the country, we understand the need to move learning outside the walls of the traditional classroom. Our lessons are multi-media rich and filled with engaging content. Links to external web sites encourage students to explore the world around them through the eyes of others.

In what ways do you benefit from your own PLN? In what ways can you help your students begin their own networks?

Unfortunately, the voices and posts of the masses may be loud enough to drown out your messages. A small but heated discussion by the school board will no doubt be interpreted as a major conflict on Twitter, or a tiny policy change may be linked to a civil liberties violation then spread through Facebook to hundreds.

 While there may be a place and a need for your sanitized messages, it may be time to expand the scope of your communications to mimic that of your constituency. They’re communicating to others in your community with their opinions and even their understanding of the facts.

 In a recent blog post, Reaching for the Heart: 5 Tips for School District Communications Directors, Miguel Guhlin suggests,

 “As a citizen-journalist, as a person who has embraced social media as a way to share the exciting actions being taken by educators around me, I also see an important need for K-12 educators to tell ‘their’ story, sharing what is happening at their schools, in their classrooms, in the offices, as openly and transparently as possible. My bias is that I believe that most educators live in fear of speaking up, fear of losing their jobs, being censured, being called into their supervisor’s office or at Human Resources and asked, with the force of temporal power lurking behind each word, ‘So, tell us. What do you really believe and why should we continue to employ you if you’re going to say this about us?’ Instead, anyone with the temerity to be transparent about the work they are doing should be celebrated and applauded.”

 Mr. Guhlin has great suggestions for diving into social media, and tips for success on his website.

 As innovative educators and administrators, it’s time to ask the hard questions: Are you using social media to tell your stories, applaud accomplishments, and discuss local initiatives? If not, maybe it’s time to start.