Taken from a painting of Kapiti Island at Sunset.
by Sonia Savage.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Creating the hub of my PLN

How do I organize the way I can tap into my PLN and other places that I use frequently ?  The hub of the network. That’s what PLN Challenge#6 is asking us to think about.  At first I was going to give it a miss, however I decided to do a little “spring” cleaning. 

I now have things slightly more accessible and I am happy with it.  I think that’s the essential part, it has to work for you.  That said if others post on this, I will be looking at what they have done, as something may stand out to me as a great idea.

This is how my homepage looked before the spring clean.  It worked, however there were a few double ups and it didn’t have that kerb side appeal!

Now I have changed the classic theme and put in Ninety mile beach. Far more relaxing and refreshing to view.

I like to work with tabs so across the top I have:
                                Diigo
                                Hootsuite
                                My class and teacher blog
                                Igoogle   (my homepage)
On the next line I have:
                                Evernote clipping tool
                                Bit.ly url shortner
On the next bar there is:
                                TKI  (Website for NZ teachers)
                                My SchoolTube account
                                Ilearn  (Collaborative website.)
                                NNWP writing lessons Ning
                                My You Tube site
                                My Glogster site.

I have now put two pages on my iGoogle site after reading the challenge post.  I have shifted my personal interest  links to this page.  On the homepage I have added in a feed from my Google Reader and Facebook.  I do have some educational links on Facebook, however family things also come in there and I like keeping an eye on it, so have given it prime real estate! I may add the Diigo bar as well later on, the problem when we have our laptops upgraded as teachers, is that it has to be set up again and some things get missed.

Now as I do this I acknowledge there are a few places in my links I haven't been to recently.  Like clothes we don't wear I guess they should be deleted. However I am going to hang on to them for awhile longer and try them on again!

Now when I turn on my computer at school in the morning, a good cup of coffee and I will be ready to go.

7 comments:

  1. I must admit that I am terrible about organizing my PLN. I use google reader and twitter but really need to do something about organizing my reading into a central place!

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  2. Stephanie
    You make me feel good. Today I got myself better organised in Hootsuite, so I am ready for #duedchat! I am not the most organised person around but I try, its like trying to keep a handle on the chaos!
    Kathryn

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  3. Great Kathryn!

    I'm so pleased the challenge has been of use. I so agree that the page(s) have to work for their owner. For me moving away from the classic theme made it feel so much more "mine". I love the way your page looks and the beach is beaut. I hope the multiple pages work as well for you as they do for me!

    Jo

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  4. Kathryn,

    I just love how your iGoogle looks now. How did you get the YouTube site to show your stuff. I couldn't figure out how to link it my YouTube account.

    -Mrs. Berry

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  5. Jo
    Thank you and thanks for your post with tips. Christy my Youtube is just a tab, its not a feed, I guess you might be able to do that, but a tab is fine for me. That might be Facebook that you can see.
    Kathryn

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  6. Kathryn,

    I didn't think to add Diigo and Evernote! I use Diigo a lot and just started using Evernote. I'll add those, too! :)

    I have a section on Feeds only, so I have Google Reader, Twitter, Twitter Times (like daily newspaper on whom I follow), and my blogs. On my home page I have: Weather Channel, everything else google and some technology podcasts I follow. Then I have 2 more sections on Groups and Pictures that aren't that developed. I may move things around more, and add/delete more as well. It's a good challenge for doing a little cleaning!

    Do you check your iGoogle first?

    Theresa

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  7. Theresa
    I see you have your post up so I am going to visit when I get home. IGoogle is my homepage so its the place I go first. Mmm I use Flipboard for Twitter on my ipad but must check out Twitter times, for PC. Sounds good.
    Kathryn

    ReplyDelete

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