PLN at KIS

Podcasts, Skype, Twitter, Wordpress, TinyURL, the list goes on and on non-stop of the new things I’ve tried this semester as if on a freeway. It’s been a long journey, and it has finally come to an end.

“Huh? What are we supposed to be doing?” was probably my favourite phrase during this semester. There were lots of new things that I wasn’t familiar with which also happened to be confusing. But as time passed by, I started to get used to the whole system and joined the rest of my classmates.

This class has taught me that a student can be a public writer who is capable of getting just as many feedbacks as the adults in the networking world. Especially in the beginning of the year, I didn’t know that writing with a simple language could be more effective than using hard SAT vocabulary. Adding silly jokes and catchy metaphors/smilies were also necessary for the world to see. The major thing was different about this class compared to other classes was the fact that we can enjoy writing without having to think about the complexity of the text. Editing was still essential, but no particular format was needed. We were given with an opportunity to write whatever we wanted to.

The thought of me being a good writer has never come up to my head - not that I’m a “good” writer - but after getting feedbacks from real people out there, I gained more confidence. Diane Cordell, whom I interviewed about 2 weeks ago told me that she could see a personality in my writing which didn’t hesitate her to keep scrolling down. Also, Heather, from Mr. Sharesky showed interest in my blog posts which did amaze me. As a writer, I think I’ve learned to put personality in it, but still have a bit more to go with holding the readers’ attention.

Numerous topics went through my head this semester, such as designing restaurants, online recipe book, comfort foods. I don’t think that I was able to make any of these “super effective” at all. Only if I figured out this system of networking with everyone in the world I could have moved on faster, but there have been many bumps on the way.

First of all, the bar design group did not work so well because we had no idea how we could incorporate other people’s idea when we wanted to design our own bar. It was way too complicated. Then I went off by myself thinking that it’d be easier. Well, I was wrong. All the responsibilities and pressures were on me, but at least I could control everything that I do. It was May when I set up my first interview. After spending so much time in this class, I finally got the purpose after 4 months. In a way, it sounds like a waste of time, but I still accomplished something before the semester ended.

I realized that talking to other people weren’t as hard as I thought. As I’ve written in my other posts, confidence was all it took. No one would want to come and find me unless I go and search them. It’s too bad the semester ended when I just started to get the hang of it, but I can still continue on my own.

Bumpy roads, narrow path, and freeway. I’ve gone through numerous roads during this experience. Perhaps now is the time to go my way instead of following the made paths. Hopefully I’ll continue to do more networking and set-up interviews to post on my project blog and/or my own english blog.

What I’ve learned about myself as a
1) writer
2) thinker
3) producer
4) social being/ networker
5) problem solver

PLN – which stands for Personal Learning Network – seemed nothing more than a ‘C-block class’ to me when I first encountered such a differently shaped class. Frankly, I should say that I was a little bit ticked off at the fact that I had to deal with a ‘new’ thing, and I couldn’t be bothered; without knowing that such system will find out things about me that even I wasn’t aware of.

I am a freshman in high school this year, and I came from a Korean public school, where English was treated something like a dog-food. It was no wonder that I was afraid to write about my opinions, because I knew I’d have many flaws that I fail to detect. So, naturally, I developed this sense, so that I give a deep, depressing sigh when I am put to a writing moment. I thought this sensation would last for way longer than I expected, but soon, as a student going through the PLN program, I found out that writing is freaking fun, and that writing about what you really like is what makes it fun. Unlike other classes or occasions when I have to write, I was given an opportunity to actually become a writer, a real writer, for the 77 minutes that I had in C block, and during my own blogging time. As a writer, PLN was more than a mere class but a huge device that I desperately needed, which ended up discovering my potentials. Now that I have had my chance to find more about myself, I will be using this momentum to keep going further, until I become a ‘real-world-writer.’

A while ago, I wrote a post about ‘navigating’ my career through the PLN program, and as this piece of writing tells me, I have to admit that PLN had made me into a deeper thinker in general. What I mean by a deeper thinker is that I have become more mature in terms of thinking, and such change had made my writings look better compared to the ones in the past, and I have actually become a more efficient problem-solver. PLN was never an easy-A course, and it required the students to take full responsibility and maturity. Writings needed to be in a form that is appropriate to the audience out in the world, therefore I spent more time than any other writings, when I was typing for my blog.

Other than being a more creative thinker for the sake of writing, I can also say that I have become a more responsible problem-solver. Before, due to the fact that there were always people at the back in case of a problem, I didn’t care much of what I did. If I made a mistake, I could easily lean back, hoping for those supporters to push me back up. But, in the world of global and networked society, such method didn’t work out. So, PLN had introduced me to how things in the professional-world are done, and how I needed to grow up. As a result, I developed a sense, so that I prevented many mistakes from occurring, and even if it did, I was able to find the most efficient ways to come up with a solution.

PLN was also being a guideline of how I should produce quality work. Mistakes were fine, because that is the source of all the good experience and education, but such thing did not make laziness tolerable. Once, I was thinking and dragging too much with my project, and I was inflicted with a low grade which now, I think I deserved. That had taught me a valuable lesson that if the production rate is significantly low, no matter how high-quality my other works are, people would not be interested, and will abandon my idea easily. Laziness is never accepted in the pro-world. In the end, I grew up, and kept on producing whatever I needed to produce at an acceptable rate. After all, I wanted attention, and I needed to prove myself that I deserve such thing.

Lastly, as PLN – personal learning network – is self-explanatory in the sense of being a guideline, I was introduced to the whole new world of socializing and networking. Before I even knew PLN existed, I thought just talking and chatting to my friends was good enough to be considered ‘networking’. However, now that I saw how world-wide network was running, I was dazzled, and was excited to try so.

Unfortunately though, seeing from what I have done, I didn’t really succeed in becoming a good, world-wide networker. I had a habit where I was lazy to do stuffs that I didn’t usually do. So I did use Twitter - Mr.Burell’s probable favorite networking application – but I never used it as I used MSN and Skype with my friends. That is the conclusion, but is never the end of the story. Just like how I learn from my own mistakes, I did the same thing for this particular event, and I will, not may, develop as a young networker, and hope to be recognized, linked, and running.

Now that I finished writing about such a special program that I faced for one full semester, my head nods automatically in agreement that PLN was the course that had influenced me in the most ways. I thank Mr.Burell and myself for giving me a chance to experience this sheer brilliance, and I will never make all the times I spent here a waste, but will develop this into something that will shine in the future.
Photo credits to marttj

Imitate this sentence in comments.  Make it about school, homework, or something like that. Aim for a witty, slightly sarcastic tone.

ADJ , ADJ, ADJ and/or ADJ, S - APPOSITIVE - V OBJ.

Often brutal, as often tender, never vulgar or graphic, this acknowledged masterpiece and “classic” of modern, 20th century literature - “the only convincing love story of our [20th] century,” according to Vanity Fair - sends educators running for the hills.

Leave a comment in which you write this sentence with as many sentence openings as you can - YOU CANNOT ADD OR SUBTRACT ANY WORDS. YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO MAKE AT LEAST FIVE DIFFERENT SENTENCES WITH DIFFERENT OPENINGS BY SIMPLY REARRANGING:

He was quickly and happily crossing the street eating a hamburger when the bus came out of nowhere and ran over him.

Won:

• by end of class:  old posts on new blog
• by next class (Tue):  YouTube videos X 2 and new script

Paul:

• by next class (Tue): first review posted
• migrate to edublogs
• send me new link for sidebar
• titles and first paragraphs

Jaeho:

• will plastic surgerize four posts by Tuesday

About Your Project Premieres:

Stephanie writes:

I think that I should write at least 3 more posts to publish it… maybe until after the spring break?? (hopefully…)

and I reply:

that’s reasonable. but i want three solid posts on there before spring break. it takes an hour or so to write a good, long post. class is an hour and 15 minutes.

we have 3 classes left before break. so you should be able to have a nice front page worth of content before break.

Younsuk writes:

We’re not ready yet to publish our basketball site yet. We want to wait until we finish the interview with St. Louis coach and players, and with Graham Bensinger.

and I reply:

but i want all the interviews and other writings revised and on your blog before the break - in fact, my Tuesday, Mar. 25.

I also tell Younsuk:

I want you to go to Alltop.com’s Journalism page, and find Poynter Online. Search Poynter Online for interviewing tips, and write a brief post sharing what you learned.Write it as a real post. Make the fact that you are researching how to interview people before you interview a big guy from sports journalism interesting.

And make what you discovered as you read interesting too. How did Poynter Online help you improve your preparation for a good interview with Graham?

Re: JaeHo’s KJ Matsui interview:

I want to see this revised by the end of this class on Friday. You should be able to do it in no more than an hour of focused writing. It’s got potential.

To All of You, I wrote:

Whenever you write, “In my opinion,” instantly chop it into bloody little pieces, and bury it in your back yard. Never let it be seen in your writing.

About Your Alltop Tours:

JoorHee wrote a fun post that used the S-bomb, so I edited it a bit. Joorhee, see my comments on that post, revise it, and post it on your project blog. WE NEED TO LINK YOUR PROJECT BLOG TO THE SIDEBAR.

And as for the rest, you’ll have to look at your comments to your own posts. I’m just trying out the Flock browser as a replacement of Firefox.  Flock is kind of cool.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Hit comment and list a few articles you can write without needing any outside help. I’m talking articles about your subject that you think would be interesting to write, and interesting for your readers to read.

Why am I assigning this? Because: if you sit in class thinking, “I don’t have anything scheduled to produce,” you can always simply write about one of the ideas you list for your week’s work.

Joorhee, read my comment on your script post.

Younsuk and Jaeho, you told me you have more than enough to do, so do it.  IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANY IDEAS TO WRITE ABOUT, then write a creative piece (non-fiction) just about some thing about basketball that you just love. An “impressionistic” piece, for example.  (Look that word up.)  And try to write that well.  Again, this is only an assignment if you don’t have something to do that comes from your own minds

Stephanie: Tweet @dmcordell and see if she’ll play with you in a skype interview.  If you can’t do phone, do a chat.  Also put out a good tweet inviting people to offer their favorite childhood comfort foods (with recipes) in future interviews. It’s a really cool idea.  (That will take you all of ten minutes maximum. Spend the rest of the time doing whatever you have planned.  If you’re empty, google “Proust grandmother food memory” and see if you find the section from his novel online where he writes about how the smell of a pastry took him into a vivid childhood memory. Read it and NOTICE the writing. This is optional.  But it’s interesting as a model to practice writing yourself.

Kevin and Jane and Jihyung: Where are you heading? Show me you got something worth an hour’s work done today.

Won and Paul and Michaelle: You guys are good. You know what you’re doing and where you’re going. Go.

It’s the end of the week, so you should all have one substantial post that:

• has a voice that makes readers interested in what you’re doing
• has good design elements: images (with credits), headings, use of color and other typographical elements
• is a respectable length (should look like a week’s work)
• has links to people or sites discussed

If your post is already finished, do this today:

Either:

1. Start working on your next post idea by drafting it, and/or seeking contributors via Twitter or any other network (including local people - students, family, and community members).  If you have contributors already, send emails or tweets requesting specific actions by a specific time.

and/or

2. Research other writers who write about the same subject (or podcast, or make films, etc) online, and write reviews of their skills - what do they do that is worth imitating? Why do you like or dislike them?

To find posts to review, go to Google Blog Search or  Technorati blog search .

Find three posts and write about the goods and bads you see on these sites.

Last ten minutes:

Write a post on this blog saying what you got done this week, and what sort of grade you should get for

a) effort

b) product

Include reflections of progress made in your project, and problems you need to solve - and any other ideas you might have.

Leave a comment saying what you’re going to produce by Friday for your project.

If you need any help solving any problems or finding resources, let me know.