Personal Learning Network

PERSONAL LEARNING NETWORK

DEFINITION/PERSONAL USE

My personal learning network is my informal learning network that consists of 

the people/organization I have interacted with and derives knowledge and thus created my personal learning environment. In my PLN, I represent the connections I have with other people/organization that results in some type of learning because of the connection with the specific intent of education or movement/fitness as they relate to children.  Overall,the purpose of my personal learning networks is to represent a visual map of those people/organizations that share a close association with the main concept of education and movement/kinesiology/fitness that relates to children/kids in learning environments.

                                        

SUMMARY

My online personal learning network purpose is to help me better understand, learn, and engage about my experiences and connections between my teaching and movement/ fitness/kinesthetic involvement.   The movement-based learning techniques, strategies, and style that utilize new, user-centered technologies that aid in the building of awareness, regulation, and mastery in order to benefit student’s ability to success within new and emerging territories of the modern world. Through incorporating movement and kinesthetic studies, groupings of students and learning communities that can find traditional learning strategies difficult dues to learning disabilities, language barriers, and/or the attention span.  The use of movement would provide learning opportunities to younger students as a whole, where the younger the student is the less there attention span tends to be, so that the nature of children is addressed and utilize as a strength in learning rather then a hindrance.  Other groups of students that struggle within the classroom and cannot learn through visual or auditory means due to learning disabilities or language barriers can also use movement in order to draw connections and help them retain information through ways that they can understand and relate to. 

   

RESOURCE NETWORK

Teaching/Educational website:

* http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies-learning-through-movement

* http://www.creativitypost.com

Physical Fitness/ Exercise:

* http://www.humankinetics.com

* http://www.fitkids.org/

* http://kidshealth.org/en/parents/exercise.html

* https://www.healthychildren.org

* http://www.letsmove.gov/get-active

* http://www.actionforhealthykids.org/

Children Activities/Kid Themed

* http://www.powkidschicago.com/west-loop-kids-classes

* http://www.chicagokids.com/

* http://www.thelittlegym.com/chicagoil/

Organizations/Institutions

* http://globalfamilyyoga.com/

* http://rainbowkidsyoga.net/trainings/chicago/chicago_training.html

* http://www.chicagochildrensmuseum.org

Blogs/Personal Websites

Art Educators

* http://paintedpaperintheartroom.blogspot.com/

* http://www.artwithmre.com/

* http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/

* http://minimatisse.blogspot.com/

Fitness Instructors/Yoga Instructors

* http://www.dailycupofyoga.com/

* http://www.mindbodygreen.com/

* http://www.nerdfitness.com/

* http://yogadork.com/

Children’s Fitness Instructors

* http://jumpbunch.com/blog/

* http://www.kidfitnessandhealth.com/

** http://alphamom.com/parenting/big-kid/kids-using-instagram/

Social Networks

Instagram

* https://www.instagram.com/fashionkids/?hl=en

* https://www.instagram.com/kidsfitnessrd/

* https://www.instagram.com/shinekidsfitness/

Pinterest

*https://www.pinterest.com/calfamfit/kid-fitness-ideas/

*https://www.pinterest.com/explore/kids-workout/

Twitter

*https://twitter.com/kidsandfitness

*https://twitter.com/kidsfitleague

*https://twitter.com/hashtag/familyfitness

*https://twitter.com/motionfitness

Facebook

*https://www.facebook.com/Fitness4KidsNZ/

*https://www.facebook.com/JumpStart-Kids-Fitness-146729910019/

*https://www.facebook.com/kidsfitnessfirst/

Emails/Direct Contact Info

*katalin@powkickboxing.com

*Adam@TLGchicago.com

*Mirabizen@globalfamilyyoga.com

*darrenF@mokshayoga.com

REVIEW/FUTURE PURPOSE

The way I used my PLN was to  visualize the connections that I made between movement/kinesiology and education in order to present learning linked to physical engagement.  In order to represent these connections I used blogs, social media such as Twitter, and personal emails as part of my  PLN to start out and begin to structure my PLN.  Beginning in January of 2010, I began my teaching venture and started to develop my network by talking and engaging with other teachers, I also started building a list of interesting sites that I came across, as well as whenever I could I posted on social networking sites about unique/interesting activities, and MY PLN SLOWLY STARTED TO BUILD!

Once my PLN was fairly structured, it helped to also lay the foundations for my resume and CV by developing my references and pervious experiences in an ordered and relevant manner and helped to visualize my network of connections.  It is how I plan on using my PLN in the future and be able to follow along the development of my teaching and movement activities.  

What I learned from this Cyber-pedagogy

In the cyber-pedagogy class I learned a survey of technologies that could be used not only in an art classroom but also be adapted in different ways through out any general education class.  The most influence thing I learned in the class is tat technology is a tool that can enhance any learning activity and that technology should be integrated throughout a curriculum.  So instead of studying technology like a subject, that is either the main focus of a semester or even just one lesson, it should be thought of as a tool that is used in teaching.  While this class of cyber-pedagogy did the exact opposite and taught technology as a subject, I think the class showed how to used different aspects of technology as a tool within the classroom.  From stop-animation to 3D printing to different forms of integrated learning, this class provided different tools to enhance any learning situation.  Therefore the biggest take-away from this class is the use of technology as something used throughout my teaching rather then for example studying technology as the subject of a week long lesson.

The technology that provided the best example of using technology as tool to enhance learning of a different subject was the creating of interactive interface because it could be used by a wide range of school-aged students to learn a wide range of subject through a  wide range of interpretations of ideas. There are three reasons why I think this best example of learning; adaptability, usability, and diversity.  
1. This first reason is adaptability of this technology. Creating interactive interfaces is adaptable in different ways from the way the interface is made to the way it is used.  The interactive interface can be created using a combination of physical programs along with computer programs in order to develop a style of learning that can be half technology and half traditional learning based.  The example in class of using the Makey-Makey was a way to develop a program that used a computer program that effected a physical object in the form of our cardboard creations.  This interface is also adaptable in its final product because this interface allows for the development of final projects that have specific purposes, or are just for fun. 
2. The next reason  is the usability of this technology.  This refers to the development of this technology ability to be used by a range of school-aged students as well as being used in different ways.   This means thats this can be used by students as young as KG all the way up to high school because they are able to create interfaces based on their ability .  It also means that students can create interfaces that have different uses based on how/why their interfaces are being used.                               
3. The last reason in diversity.  This is a combination of the previous two sections as well as the ability of this interface to reach a diverse range of students as well as fit a range of subjects.  Creating interactive interfaces is able to addresses students from all different backgrounds as they are able to apply their own personal perspectives in order to create unique interfaces.  This can also refer to the diverse range of integratabtle options for this technology.  

My future interests 

In thinking about the future, and how I would use technology for my own interests would have both personal and professional applications.  This is because I had not considered using technology in my future.  This is before this class I had not thought of technology as tools that enhance learning instead viewed it as the way it was taught in school, a week-long subject that we learned in science.  The way technology was explained in school was like a history class, where different events were explained like a historical time-line of important technological events. 

The first interest of using technology is personal by incorporating it into my artistic practice as well as my social networking and online interactions. These are all incorporated together to be used in different ways I had not considered before.  One example is works of art that are  created online and then sent to different friends to added their own touches.

The second interest for using technology is to incorporate it into my practices as educator and physical fitness instructor.  I can use technology to develop advertising and marketing information to help promote my different businesses &  practices.  
                                                     

How I imagine planning and using Technology in your future classroom

Building on the final interest from the previous section, I imagine using technology to further the student's understanding in the classroom. There are two different ways I would use technology in the classroom room.  I would use technology as a rotating topic as well as a permanent area of study.  Beginning the permanent area of study, I would set up a technology corner in my room with different technology oriented projects such as stop-motion photography.   The other changing and rotating topics within technology can even be used with technology itself such as reading instructional and tutorials on-line in order to learn new techniques and processes.                      l