 As a matter of fact, I just hit the record button. OK, it's 345. We'll get started. Today, we're talking about building a PLN. And we'll talk about what exactly that means. And what spurred this is the 12-day challenge that came about. It was created by Mickey, and I think Josh was in there. So let's talk about who our co-hosts are today. I'm Cory Dahl, and I work at ESU 8. And with me is Mickey Mueller. Yeah, I'm Mickey Mueller. I'm Mickey Mueller. I'm the Educational Technology Facilitator for Norfolk Public Schools. And Otis Pierce is from ESU 7. And we have Laura Kroll from Exeter Milligan and Josh Allen from Lewis Central. And we're going to be just chiming in today as we go, because everybody here that's co-hosting has played a say about this topic of building a PLN. Let's get started. What is a PLN? I've highlighted those letters there, as a personal learning network. And we'll spend the next several minutes just talking about what that means to us. And we'll just take turns as we go. I've really embraced the personal learning network. Once Twitter really got started and when I started it. So it means more and more as we've moved along throughout the years. And I think each person will speak to that as well. OK. So why would you build a PLN? Let's start here. Let's have Josh. There's Josh. I'll drag a picture of him in there. And let's just have him share just a couple things about why you would do such a thing. Did we lose Josh? That's all right. We'll come back to Josh. Mickey Mueller, let's go over to you. Tell me what's it's meant to you to start building a PLN and how it's affected your career and your professional life? Well, I am actually on Twitter because of Corey Dahl. And he tried to convince me for a long time that that was something that I should do. And finally I lost a bet and had to join Twitter. And it has been the best thing that I have ever done professionally. I think we all get to a point in our careers where you love what you're doing, but you're just not finding a challenge anymore or you just need a little something. And Twitter was that little something for me. I thought I was connected and I thought I knew what was going on in the world of educational technology and I had no idea what I was missing out on. And so Twitter has really just given me new life as a professional, as an educator. I can't believe all the connections that I've made as a result of just getting on that one social network. And there's other social networks out there. Google Plus is another great option. But Twitter for me has been the biggest factor in building a personal learning network. Right, it's very good. Talk about just sharing ideas. Let's see, Josh is back in. Josh, talk about sharing ideas and using Twitter and PLN. Well, my apologies. Sharing ideas, it's a great place, Twitter is, for throwing your ideas out there, using a hashtag to find other like-minded people that can give you feedback on it, can provide you guidance you can learn from their experiences. Just today we had a school district visit, Louis Central here, to learn about our one-to-one program with Chromebooks. And all of that happened because of a, I had shared online about some of the things that we were doing and they wanted to come learn from that. And I put out what we're struggling with and what we are learning. And people see that and we can begin sharing ideas that way. So there's really a hashtag or a group out there for whatever it is that you're interested in, being educational or not. So it's just a matter of finding the right area. Wonderful. OK, next, we have Otis. Otis is close by. Otis, you use Twitter and how PLN has affected your professional career as well. Just expand on something Josh or Mickey has said or? I think it must be you. Expanded my professional circle just being able to communicate with like-minded people, not only in Nebraska and in my service unit and within the ESUs in Nebraska, but across state lines and across the world. Seeing what's happening and learning what's happening from people in Australia or England or New Zealand or Canada or Mexico or wherever it may be helps to expand what we know. And it helps. 140 characters is short to get an idea out there. But then when you attend conferences or things and actually get to meet up with those people and see those rock stars and get to actually collaborate and things come about, because of those collaborations that you started on Twitter, where you can connect your classroom, your school, your ESU with places around the world and learn from others, I think that is great to not only build your professional circle, but to show the kids as well what is out there for them. That's very true. I find myself checking into Twitter often. I've learned to do certain things like follow hashtags and follow certain people to get ideas. But I really use my PLN for things just like today. I put it out there and was able to connect with several people to help with this webinar today. But I also use it occasionally when I have questions. I put that out there. I also use it to share things that I find that I think are interesting. Any further comments? I put several words on here. I do use it for inspiration. I put that word up there because I will see posts or quotes that people find inspiring. And I'll keep those and share those. Definitely use it to connect, share. When you think about staying current, if you're on Twitter and following people, you are following a lot of the most current people. And they're sharing new ideas. And I definitely use it for encouragement without a doubt. OK, let's move on. So step one in creating a PLN is to join Twitter, which brings us to this idea. And I'm going to have Nicky and also Josh, if he's still available. I'm going to have him talk about how this idea came about. Well, I'll go ahead and start. Actually, this was something I did with my staff last year at this time. I had just done a Twitter 101 session. I'd gotten some people signed up for Twitter. And in my experience, the hardest thing for a new Twitter person to do is actually tweet. They don't know what to tweet about. They have no idea what they should say. And so I came up with this challenge to give them something to tweet about, to help them get over the hurdle about tweeting. And so in November, Josh and several other people and I were together talking about ways that we could involve our staff in social media. Josh, are you still there? Do you want to pick it up from there? I am still here. In my new district, I saw the opportunity. This is the first time they've had a tech integration person at all. And while there's some pockets of teachers using social media, it hasn't really been a concerted effort. But I knew that teachers would really be interested in it. So during our little get-together, I just threw out the question, I don't even know really where to begin to teach these educators how to use different pieces of social media. And so as we were discussing, Mickey mentioned that she had done this 12 days of Twitter. And we kind of kicked around the idea a little bit. And at one point, we thought, let's do 12 days of social media. And we're going to cover all these. We're going to cover Pinterest and Google Plus and Facebook. And that went on for about five minutes. And then we got smarter and thought, that's probably a little too much. So we dialed it back a little bit and borrowed from Mickey's. And we divided and conquered Patty Wolfe and Angie Fadon at Concordia, Patty's at Cozad, Chris Erickson from York. And I don't remember who all else. Mickey and I all created different pictures, the ones that you see every day. And one of us tweeted out on that hashtag with different challenges. So that's kind of how it came to be. All of us were together in that spot just because of Twitter. That's how we all kind of got to know each other. So it's kind of given back a little bit. Right. So I heard the idea. And I thought, this is a great way to get started. So I think we need to go to Mickey's live finder. And I'll do that here momentarily. OK, you should be able to see her live finder. And now Mickey, if you guide us through this, sort of what we're seeing, left or right and how they can find out what the challenges are, even though it started yesterday, we can easily catch up. Yep, you can still catch up. We still want people to participate. And so what we did is we put together this live finder to kind of hold everything. And so the first tab just explains what the challenge is. And on the second tab, we put things, if you were brand new to Twitter, how would you get started? Who do you follow? How does Twitter work? So we've got some tips there for you. So if you've never used Twitter at all, go to Signing Up for Twitter on that tab. And it will take you through the steps that you need to go through to create a Twitter account. And then we've just given you some other helpful things there. How does Twitter work? If you're brand, brand new to Twitter, if you don't understand how that works. And then what we've got in the binder is I've got the 12 Days Twitter, the hashtag that we're using. That is a live feed for people who are tweeting with that hashtag. So you can kind of scroll through and see what everybody has been tweeting. It's not a full list of people, but that's quite a few of the most recent tweets are listed there. So you can kind of see what other people have been sharing. And on the other tabs are just the topics for the day. So yesterday, we did an introduction. And if you didn't start yesterday, it's OK. We had people do their tweet for day one and day two today. So whenever you want to jump in, just go ahead and jump in. So each tab lists the topic for the day. So today was a really awesome day because it was share your favorite website. And I tell you what, I think that was my link, by the way. Just saying that was my picture. That was my link. Throwing that out there. Josh created this image for the binder. But I could have just sat and watched the 12 Days of Twitter feed all day long because so many people were sharing so many good things. So you can go to this binder and access what the challenges are coming up. As you're getting started, why I love this challenge is you may not know really what to do to get started. So these are just simple tasks to do. And then you kind of dip your toe into Twitter. To me, it kind of helps you start becoming that connected educator, which I think is important to everybody. Not only connected with senior building in your town, but you get to connect with people from around the country and around the world, as I said earlier, and sharing that wealth of information that is out there from others. Yeah, and Otis, bring us a good point. This was a group of educators sitting around, most of us from Nebraska, Josh working in Iowa. And we thought, let's do this. And let's see what happens. Well, I've gone through, as I've been watching throughout the last two days, we have had participants from just about every state. Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Missouri, Kansas, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Iowa, Nebraska. And we've even had some international participation. We've had somebody from Canada. And just this afternoon, somebody from Morocco joined our challenge. So it truly is an international Twitter challenge. And what's neat about that, and you miss, you talking about all the states who have participated, is you go from being isolated, perhaps, in a small town in Nebraska, and not having many people that are in your area, perhaps. And you can immediately expand your circle. Well, and that's another one I would say to. Go ahead, Josh. I was just going to say, to your point about you didn't have to start yesterday. I have a meeting with a teacher at 12.30 tomorrow to get her Twitter account set up. And then we'll be starting from day one. And we'll just do her first three tweets are going to be whatever that is. So it's definitely not too late to get started. You can pick it up at any time. Yeah, and Nate Balcom at Grand Island actually had a little Twitter station set up in his library. And had people get, that he helped people set up their Twitter accounts, and their first tweet was their 12 days of Twitter tweet. So yeah, you can jump in at any time. That's a great idea. Well, I can't wait to see how this develops even to the future. In the next year, they have to continue this 12 days of Twitter. I think I need a Carol. So perhaps. You can't play it before Thanksgiving, though. That's just what I was going to say. It can't be done before Thanksgiving. Hashtag, respect the pilgrims. Right. Well, and not only we hope a song comes out of this, but I also hope that people are following people that are tweeting. I mean, I know I have followed tons of new people, and I have had tons of new followers since this has started. So tweet to the hashtag, but also follow the people who are tweeting, the people that aren't from Nebraska, aren't from Iowa, people from Morocco, and wherever else they're tweeting from. Follow some new people, too. Nicky, while we're here, and we may have some new users listening to this now, as well as, since we're recording it a day or so later or in the future, talk about the hashtag and what role they play. Yeah, I like to use my good friend Craig Badura's analogy, a hashtag is like a TV channel. And so when you use a hashtag in a tweet, people who are following that hashtag will see that tweet. So it's just like if you wanted to watch sports, you would turn on ESPN. Well, if you want to participate in the 12 Days Twitter, you need to use our hashtag. And so if you're not on Twitter and you want to kind of check things out, if you go to twitter.com slash search and put in the hashtag 12 Days Twitter, you will see all of the tweets that have been sent to that particular hashtag. So just kind of get you an idea or a flavor for what's going on. And you can do that with any hashtag that you might want to follow or that you might want to check out. So Corey here has gone to twitter.com slash search. And he's putting in the hashtag 12 Days Twitter. And we're going to pull up and see. Look at that. There's my good friend Craig Badura right at the top. And these are different tweets. It was funny. As you mentioned, he tweeted that out. It was pretty funny. We got that land. You bet. The various people who have used the 12 Days Twitter, that's included in each tweet. So I don't have to belong to Twitter to just search it and follow this. No, you don't. You can just go here or it. Remember in the LiveBinder, I do have a tab that has the 12 Days Twitter feed in it. So you can go to that tab and see what people have been tweeting. So yeah, you don't have to be involved with Twitter, but it sure makes it more fun. And that's one of the things that I've said. Go ahead, Corey. No, I was going to say, that's one thing that I sent out to my staff, too, is this is what is going on. If nothing else, go and especially today, go see what people are sharing. There's some great websites being shared. So even if you're not on Twitter and you're not interested, at least go look and see the resources that are there. Because I think once you see what's there, I think you do kind of see the power of why Twitter is so popular among educators. Exactly. Well, and today's challenge was tweet your favorite website. Well, if you're like me, I don't just have one favorite website. So I just periodically tweeted a website throughout the day. So and tomorrow will be another great option for that. Tomorrow is tweet your favorite app or extension. So again, I will probably just share all day long different apps and extensions that I use. So don't feel limited. You don't have to just tweet once. You can tweet more than once for each day. Is there anything else that we have to add, any closing comments by our experts? OK, two cents to if you want to lurk. But don't just lurk. Some of the best part of Twitter is being able to share. But it's OK to just sit and watch for a little bit, like tonight with Nebraska Ed Chat. It's OK to sit and watch it for a little bit. Participating is key as well. I have a question. Troy, I have enabled your microphone. Do you want to add something to this? We'll see if he can't get his microphone going. Surprise mystery guest. That's always fun. Right, we had actually raised his hand. So we'll see if he has something to add. And if not, I would just encourage, if you're a Twitter user, and you have people around you who maybe don't get it, get them involved with this. And just do these simple tasks over the next few days. And then we'll see how that goes. Yes, Troy. Hi, guys. Great webinar. Changing or getting my information to my staff. Best way, Mickey's got the live binder that we can look through. They can search 12 days of Twitter. Tweetdeck, what's the best way to monitor the 12 days of Twitter challenge? I like Tweetdeck. Is that something I should be talking to my staff about, especially the new ones? Let's go around. Otis, what is your favorite app? Or how would you monitor the 12 days of Twitter? I use Tweetdeck on the computer. I actually have the app downloaded, but it is web-based, which is nice. Anybody new to Twitter can go ahead and just log in with their Twitter handle now. If I'm on the iPad, there is no Tweetdeck on the iPad, unfortunately. So on the iPad, I use Hootsuite for that. But I am known as a Tweetaholic. We won't say how many columns I have on my Tweetdeck just because I have a lot. But it makes it easier to follow, especially if you're at a conference or something. And then sometimes, depending on the conference, for example, Isti, I can't even follow it on Tweetdeck. It just flies by so fast with so much information being shared. But I like to use Tweetdeck personally. And then on my phone, I'll just use the Twitter app. And if it's something that I want to look at a little bit more, I'll make sure I favorite it. And then when I get back to my Tweetdeck, I'm able to go and take a peek at it. Josh, what is your favorite Twitter app? Well, I am in the minority. I am not a Tweetdeck fan for new users. I think it's too overwhelming. I use Tweetdeck. I did set up a column for 12 days of Twitter. I am much more apt to tell people to go to search.twitter.com if they want to follow a hashtag or if they are using a software or an app to use the search feature within those apps. I've long been in the minority. I know that that's recommended by a lot of people. I feel it's too overwhelming. So I always have them just search for the app and that you can save it if you want or go back to that link. But for new users, that's my recommendation. I'm going to expand on what Otis was saying. Otis uses the Chrome app Tweetdeck found in the Chrome browser. Whereas I just use the Tweetdeck application itself. OK, Mickey, what do you use? Are you a Tweetdeck user? Oh, yeah. I'm a Tweetdeck user. And I disagree with Josh. I try and get my new Twitter users on Tweetdeck as soon as I can. I know it's overwhelming. But if they're only using the Twitter app on their smartphones, they are missing so much. Because they're only seeing the tweets from the people that they follow. And with the thing like 12 days Twitter, like I said, there are tons of states. There are people from other countries participating. So if you don't have that continuous scroll of that feed, you're really missing out. So I use Tweetdeck. But in the LiveBinder, I did a Tweet chat. I think is what I did. There's some other clients' websites that you can use. But like the Twitter search is just, that's a great way to go too. But to answer Troy's question, I also send an email to my staff every morning with the challenge of the day. I just take the picture from the LiveBinder and send that to them as another reminder so those people who are not on Twitter, as much as I am, that at least gives them that reminder in their inbox that they need to go and do the challenge for the day. So I also email them as well as sending them, tweeting it out. Wonderful. And I'm also helping new teachers and telling them about Tweetdeck and putting the columns in. I say start with one hashtag column. You don't need to put 20 columns on your Tweetdeck right away. Allegedly. Yeah, yeah. That's probably low right now. But start with just one column. And then you can always work your way up. And if it's something, a hashtag or a person that you followed and they're not putting out what you think they should be or you're not getting anything from them, stop following that person or stop following that hashtag. You know, it's choice. Follow what is best for you. Hey, Craig Badura has joined us. That's raised his hand. And I don't know. Yes, it's just like a call-in show. I love this. And the line. Yeah, I've got some garden tools I need to sell. I'm sorry, that's the long station. Craig, welcome to the program. Is this where we talk about renovating an old house? Ladies and gentlemen, Bob Vila is on the line. Bob, what are you working on now? Can you hear me or not? Yes, we can hear you. Yeah, we can. I was just lurking. That's all I'm doing. I'm out later. You scared me. I'm gone. I'm actually working on a bathroom right now with the plumber. What else would you like to know, Kyle's done. 100-year-old bathroom's ready. Oh, suddenly we've lost connection with Mr. Badura. I thank my guest panel today, Mickey Wheeler, Otis Pierce, Josh Allen, and Laura Kroll. I was watching on Twitter, and she is having some technical difficulties, as did Mr. Badura there. Weird. You should share it with your friends. This is a day challenge. And thank you to the group who helped create it. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thanks.