Step 2: Making Connections (II)

9. Involve your students. Once you get to know a few educators, you might start to think about ways to engage other students.
10. Spread the word. As you begin to explore PLNs and online communities, share this information with your district. Maybe they don’t realize this wonderful virtual opportunity exists!
Barriers to creating a PLN?
If our first step were to looked at many of the advantages of building a PLN, what holds so many teachers back from building their own PLN? If the benefits of being a connected educator are clear?
Why a lot of teachers don’t use this PLN?  They don’t know there are thousands of educators from around the world who are online connecting,collaborating, and learning together.
It requires, at least at first, digital literacy beyond a Google search. It is certainly essential that educators develop their digital literacy. As Silvia Tolisano has pointed out, our notion of what it means to be literate or illustrate calls for an update...
...Merely reading and writing in text form and on analog platforms is simply not enough to call yourself literate.
The skills and abilities MUST include reading and writing in various media forms and on multiple platforms INCLUDING digital spaces.
 We can’t continue to differentiate between our analog and digital world. Because we live in ONE world after all.