On Being Networked

Being networked for me has meant having ideas and information available to me to help me meet goals I have set for myself as a teacher. I have learnt about things that I have wanted to know more about and have learnt about things that I never knew existed, like voicethread. Through the prompts given to LTT members, I realized that I am more connected than I first thought. I forgot about things like pod casts, wikis, and TEDtalks when I first began thinking about my network. I also realized that my being part of the network has been one sided. The pieces of the network I first thought about were those in which I was a more active participant, ones where I contribute to as well as draw from. The ones I forgot about tended to be the ones in which I draw from solely. Part of the reason I am drawing rather than contributing, is due to the fact that what I am reading about (theory, technology tools) tends to be things which I do not have a lot of knowledge about and feel like I have little to contribute. Twitter was mentioned often as being an important resource for educators in the voicethread so I have been convinced to give it a try. Perhaps being limited to 130 characters (...think little room for deep thought, maybe :) ) will encourage me to be a more active participant. So, a goal for me will to be a more active contributor to my network and look at ways to further expand my network.