Kelly Soczka Kaiser’s Personal Learning Environment (PLE)

Use Regularly Now Currently Exploring Need to Learn/Add

Angela McGowan

Ph.d. Candidate & Communication Instructor, University of Southern

Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS We edit each other’s scholarly articles, learning activities, and employment materials using Dropbox. Using Dropbox, we have created a warehouse of class materials for each other and have invited others to also share materials with instructors across the country that we know and trust. We recently published an article together in Communication Teacher in May of 2014.

 

   

Linked-In I currently use linked-in to stay connected to other colleagues and am subscribed to several groups, but I don’t use this resource as often as I would like to find relevant articles. This offers me the ability to stay connected with others without having to retain ever changing emails or phone #’s.

Research Gate Research Gate is a social networking web site similar to Linked-In. The site provides all of the same services of Linked-In, but with one additional feature: sharing scholarly research. I found the web site when looking for research for this class! Yeah! I was unable to find an article on our databases and on the web for free. Yet, this site allowed me access to the article for free because the author posted it for me to use. I also contact the research directly using the site. Yeah!

Lynn Lemerand Communication Instructor

Delta College, University Center, MI We present together on Community College Interest Group panels at CSCA together. We also share learning activities and materials.

Slideshare

I have used slide share in the past to share ppts., but I would like to spend a bit more time finding examples of concepts on other’s slides to use in my class. This is an easy way to share slides with other educators.

Teachers Pay Teachers According to the TeachersPayTeachers® (n.d.) the site is an online marketplace where teachers buy and sell original downloadable educational materials. The web site also has FREE resources. I recently discovered this web site a few weeks ago and am looking forward to finding useful resources for my writing courses.

SoftChalk SoftChalk Cloud (2014) is multi-function platform that combines learning object repository, content authoring, hosting and management features with an easy way to track student score results. I have created digital learning objects using this program, have shared learning objects and have also found learning objects shared by others that I could use in my classes.

ISSU I have used ISSU in the past to post resources for students, but discovered they needed to create an account to download materials. There are resources I can download and use on this site. I just need to do a bit more exploration.

 

Twitter I have an account, but haven’t really used it. I know it would allow me to connect with others, find resources, and organize them.

National Communication Association The National Communication Association (2014) advances communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific and aesthetic inquiry. I have attended and presented at their conference. NCA allows me to remain connected with scholars from across the country, provides access to events via my CRNET email subscription, and provides instructional resources.  

Prezi Prezi allows users to share resources, as

well as, construct my own prezis. I have created 3 prezis and have found some resources, but would like to find a few more. I can also easily share my slides with students.

Scoop-It I have had read several articles from the site sent to me from various organizations, but have not yet added an account or used it to organize teaching resources.

Central States Communication Association The mission of Central States Communication Association (2014) is to unite and educate people with both an affinity to the central region of the United States and a scholarly interest in all areas of communication for promotion of their mutual goals and advancement of their field. I have presented at several conventions and have made regional connections with other community college instructors.

Pinterest

I have used Pinterest primarily to find recipes and to organize my links to hobby focused web sites. Recently, I added a few boards that are writing focused; yet most of the resources on Pinterest focus on K-12.

Brainshark

MSTC just subscribed to Brainshark and I completed the training to use this new tool, yet have not had time to dig into the site. This program allows teachers to animate slides and videos. I am uncertain if there is any sharing of resources or not. I need to investigate more.

                                     Diigo Diigo is a social bookmarking web site that allows you to share resources with others

and create communities to easily share resources. Diigo has organized my life, allowed me to build a library of resources, and to easily share links with colleagues.

edshelf

edshelf provides text based and videos descriptions of educational web 2.0 tools. Users can create an account to create boards to bookmark tools (similar to Pinetrest), to share resources and provide reviews of tools.

Wisconsin Education Association Council   Four years ago, when I began working at MSTC I joined WEAC and the Mid-State Faculty Association to foster professional relationships with people in the technical college system. Since then, I have developed relationships with faculty members across WI. Two weeks ago, I was elected president of all of the technical college local unions and am now a member of the WEAC State BOD.