Chapter 1: Building a Personal Learning Network

Techniques for Effective Technology Integration 1

Chapter 1:Building a Personal Learning Network What is a Personal Learning Network?

Early in my teaching career, one of my students came to see me during homeroom, which was after lunch that year. He told me that he wanted to show me something.He said that he was not supposed to have it school but that he was very proud of it. Icould tell he was rather excited. He was not a good English student; in fact, I had toconstantly encourage him and had just got him to turn in enough work to make a C. I hadlooked at his grades, and he had either a C or a D in every class except construction.Construction was relevant to him and his construction teacher was the only one heconnected with. He and I were starting to connect as I really made an effort to find somecommon ground. He liked computers and video games. I had always loved computersand though I have moved away from videogames in adulthood, I understood andrespected why he enjoyed them. I could see how excited he was and I did not want toshut down his enthusiasm just as we were making a connection and he was starting toimprove. So, I hesitantly told him he could show what he had and not worry about gettingin trouble, within reason of course.What he pulled out of his sweatshirt astounded me. It was a PSP, which is a portable gaming device from Sony. It was not the standard issue one that could be boughtat the local store though. He had taken it apart and added lights all around it. He had useda soldering iron to connect the lights to the battery so they would have power and to thespeakers so they would pulse to the sound of whatever game he was playing.

Techniques for Effective Technology Integration 2It surprised me that he had this much technical savvy at a young age. He was notdone, though. He turned the PSP off and back on. He had actually installed customsoftware to make the PSP much more useful. He was running custom programs on it thatit was not designed to run. He was able to hack into the school’s Internet signal and heeven turned it into a universal remote that he could control my DVD player and projector with.To say that I was impressed is an understatement. There were two importantthings that I took from this occasion. First, I found a new way to connect with the student.While I am almost positive that he turned other teachers’ projectors off or changed thechapter on their videos, he never tried anything like that with me. I respected hisintelligence even if it was not always applied to English. He actually started doing much better when I let him utilize his talent to help out. He actually made some customelectronics devices for the class from scratch. Once, I handed him a design schematic andhe came in with a working prototype the next day. I had been working on this particular project for a week and was not able to build something that this student could easily. He

Techniques for Effective Technology Integration 3 became one of the kids that worked hardest for me that year. English was never his bestor his favorite subject, but I was able to connect to him with the skills and interests thathe had.Second, this was one of the first times that I really recognized that I was notalways the smartest person in the room. Sometimes being good with technology can givea person an overinflated ego. If this was ever the case with me, it did not last long. Istarted to recognize students’ unique interests, strengths, and abilities. We need to meetthe students where they are before we will be best able to take them where they need togo.Students today are inundated with technology. They are inherently good at usingtechnology from growing up with it; it is a mindset that is hard for many educators tounderstand because it almost feels like the students are coming from a different world.The hard part is that we are also preparing them for a different, changing world than theone we were prepared for. It will be different even than the one that exists today.Adaptation is an important skill to teach students even if it is not measured on astandardized test. It will make it easier for us to help the students if we change with themand tailor some of what we do to what they know and understand. This does not mean acomplete overhaul of one’s teaching style. What it means is that we add some techniquesand some tools that make what we already do more interesting to the students.Historically, when a teacher wanted to improve or collaborate, there was theteacher next door, who still remains an invaluable resource. Talking to the teacher nextdoor remains so important for a number of reasons. First, it is relevant. Teachers in thesame building or who teach the same subject or grade level are often going through