OLJ Post 9: PLN adoption (Module 3)

I’m a high school teacher, and will start my first job as a teacher-librarian (TL) in August 2022. As I progressed through the CSU units, I subscribed to or bookmarked blogs that I thought would be helpful to me as a newbie to the profession, such as 500 Hats (Braxton, 2021) and Mighty Little Librarian (Whitehead, 2021). I also subscribed to the Librarian’s Guide to Teaching (Piekart & Kiebler, 2021) and Don’t Shush Me! (Bogan, 2021) podcasts. These steps may seem simple, but this was the start to my PLN.

I have registered for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. I’m still figuring them out, as I have avoided social media platforms for many years. I am now following several TL’s on Twitter, for example Joyce Valenza (2022). I have also discovered ‘hashtags’ that are helpful for categorized tweets, such as #futurereadylibs, #tlchat, #edtechchat. At first when I started with Twitter, I thought that TLs used it mostly to highlight what they had done, and although this is good for ideas, it seemed resource poor. However, now I know what to look for, I am coming across tweets that ask for direct help such as the tweet from Geyer (2022) as well as invitations to online webinars (Malespina, 2022). Facebook pages recommended by my TL mentor at school have been really helpful, such as the Int’l Library Connection (n.d.) and Follet Destiny Users for Librarians (n.d). The Follet page has a great post from a newbie TL on how to do inventory for the first time – so many people responded with tips and tricks and encouragement. I have placed this post under “Favourites!”

Figure 1. Hello school librarians. Note. From Hello school librarians, Geyer, W. [@MrGee_Librarian]. (2022, April 12). Twitter. https://twitter.com/MrGee_Librarian/status/1513541006532218891

As a newbie, I feel like I SHOULD be able to relate to Utecht’s (2008) first ‘immersion’ stage of creating a PLN. However, I don’t feel that sense of urgency to immerse myself in everything, rather I feel a sense of carefulness and I am old enough to know that I can’t take everything in at once. Utecth’s fifth stage (2008) indicates that a balance is achieved between maintaining a PLN and respecting personal boundaries. I feel that I am already here due to my nervousness in regards to social media. Thus I feel I have elements of the first and fifth stage co-existing alongside each other. I am also intentionally using my social media accounts purely for professional purposes. I recognize that I need to keep developing my PLN and dip my toe in more and post questions and answers, rather than be a passive reader. I anticipate that I will do this more once I have actually started my new position.

Word count: 435

References

Bogan, K. (Narr.). (2021, August 2). Pt 1: Dealing with discipline in the high school library [Audio podcast episode]. In Don’t shush me; Listen Notes. https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/dont-shush-me-kelsey-bogan-hpExw3qZAU6/

Braxton, B. (2021, March 2). Safe harbour hat. 500 Hats: The teacher librarian in the 21st century. https://500hats.edublogs.org/2021/03/02/the-safe-harbour-hat/

Follet Destiny Users for Librarians. (n.d.). About. [Facebook page]. Retrieved April 27, 2022 from https://www.facebook.com/groups/227147405037179/about

Geyer, W. [@MrGee_Librarian]. (2022, April 12). Hello school librarians – I’m a librarian in training (grad student) and would like to know: What strategies and actions [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/MrGee_Librarian/status/1513541006532218891

Int’l School Library Connection. (n.d.). About. [Facebook page]. Facebook. Retrieved April 27, 2022 from https://www.facebook.com/groups/SLAsia/about

Malespina, E. [@elissamalespina]. (2022, April 28). During today’s webinar for Future Ready Libs we will be discussing items in this wakelet #futurereadylibs – BOOK CHALLENGE RESOURCES https://wke.lt/w/s/RyFQnr [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/elissamalespina/status/1519404556408565761

Piekart, A., & Kiebler, J. (Narrs.). (2021, May 14). Marketing your library instruction (No. 38) [Audio podcast episode]. In The librarian’s guide to teaching. The Librarian’s Guide to Teaching. https://librariansguidetoteaching.weebly.com/#:~:text=%E2%80%8BThe%20Librarian’s%20Guide%20to,having%20meaningful%20conversations%20about%20librarianship&excl;

Utecht, J. (2008, April 3). Stages of PLN adoption. The Thinking Stick. https://www.thethinkingstick.com/stages-of-pln-adoption/

Valenza, J. [@joycevalenza]. (2022, May 2). Another lovely list; Best digital tools for teaching and learning 2022 – American Association of School Librarians (AASL) [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/joycevalenza/status/1520911350662324224

Whitehead, T. (2021, October 28). First quarter success; Mighty Little Librarian. http://www.mightylittlelibrarian.com/

One thought on “OLJ Post 9: PLN adoption (Module 3)”

Alison O'Keefe says:

May 3, 2022 at 2:28 am

Being new to Twitter myself, I find it comforting that through navigation and connection you are finding the site useful and not just a showcase of people’s achievements or ideas. However, like you said, the platform is great to spark ones own imagination as well as try an implement new things that are suggested. Thank you for sharing your searchable hashtags. I look forward to exploring these more as I delve deeper into the the world of Twitter.

This course certainly does open your eyes to the plethora of skills, knowledge, understandings and possibilities of a the teacher librarian role. I love that you approach your PLN with a sense of carefulness and that the stages co exists along side each other. I too agree that there is fluid amongst the stages and that they don’t occur in a linear fashion.

One thought on “OLJ Post 9: PLN adoption (Module 3)”

Leave a Reply Cancel reply