PLN stands for Personal Learning Network, which is basically the collection of people that we exchange information with, online and offline.  It has been in existence for a very long time, especially with family, friends, and our educators, but the Internet and Web 2.0 have expanded the communities we can interact with [1].

As a significant aspect for professional and personal development, PLNs require a person to collaborate with others while collecting knowledge from a Personal Learning Environment (PLE).  Goals, interests and problems need to be known in order to make use of the PLE [2].

Researching the topic more, I have found several resources of how to start a PLN online, and I have selected the steps [3] that work best for me.  Here goes:

Step 1: Joining a Network

-        Twitter: Check

-        Facebook: Check

-        LinkedIN: For professional [4] networking. Check

-        Flikr: I was so close to opening an account with them a few months ago, but I have decided to wait until I am done school.  Because I want to start my PLN, however, I have just opened up my first Flikr account. Photography is something I am trying to develop, and I plan on sharing some cool photos soon

-        Del.ic.ious: I remember one of our instructors from our first term mentioning del.ic.ious, and I visited it but didn’t really get it at the time.  New media was so new to me, so I stuck with my one and only social networking tool: Facebook.  Once again, after reading about it, I have come to understand the benefits of this tool.  Signed up? Yup!

-        Tribe: I have been told to join this one, but I haven’t signed up yet.  In fact, the person who recommended it to me is coming over tonight.  I will ask him personally about the benefits of joining it, and I might just follow suit.  All I know is it has to do with finding a community, which is pretty much what a PLN is all about

-        OneClimate and OneWorldTV: I found those on a list of social networks.  They are related to non-profits that advocate environmental issues and social issues, respectively.  Unfortunately, there was an error when I tried to sign up to both.  I will keep them in mind and try again in the next few days

Step 2: Finding People to Connect With

-        Search: This can be done through using the site’s search engine

-        Following: Follow friends of friends that discuss topics of interest

-        Bloggers: Look out for the bloggers that I already follow, which are not many, but I do have a connection with them one way or another

Step 3: Joining the Conversations

-        Respond: Always make an effort to respond to messages from others

-        Up To Date: Remain up to date and don’t disappear for long periods from the conversations

Step 4: Starting Conversation

-        Questions: Try and post some

-        Polls: Create one to engage others

-        Links: Post some interesting links that may be useful to others

With these steps, I am definitely able to create a PLN online that will not overwhelm me.  I try to keep my online and offline life balanced [5], so these steps work well for me.  As for my offline PLN, I have created wonderful connections with my current and past classmates, as well as my friends, family, educators, and past co-workers.  With this new PLN plan I have developed, I am confident that my knowledge base will continue to grow from this day on.

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References Used:

[1] Klingensmith, Kate. “PLN: Your Personal Learning Network Made Easy “. May 05, 2009 <http://onceateacher.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/pln-your-personal-learning-network-made-easy/>.

[2] “Personal Learning Networks”. Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Learning_Networks>.

[3] Byrne, Richard. “How to Build a PLN”. Aug 12, 2009 <http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/08/how-to-build-pln.html>

[4] “5 Things You Can Do to Begin Developing Your Personal Learning Network”. The Innovative Educator. Oct 12, 2008 <http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2008/04/5-things-you-can-do-to-begin-developing.html>.

[5] Sakamoto, Barbara. “What is a PLN, anyway?”. Sep 10, 2009 <http://www.teachingvillage.org/2009/09/10/what-is-a-pln-anyway/comment-page-1/>.

I remember a time when computers were DOS-based, where visual elements were so simplistic that any little bit of color or graphic made me go: Wow!

Over just a few years, the Internet has developed so rapidly that we can now do almost anything without having to leave the house.  I don’t think I’ve stepped foot into a music store since Napster came to life.

This brings me to a very significant offering of the Internet: Software as a Service (SaaS).  Up until recently, the only SaaS I knew were hotel chains and an airline.  They’re called Radisson SAS and SAS Scandinavian Airlines, respectively, but they are often shortened to SAS.

Carefully researching SaaS for my Trendsetters class at BCIT, I have come to discover that this service has been around since the commencement of network-based access [1].  This is where I fell upon Zoho, a superb example of what SaaS is all about.

Simply put, SaaS is software that is available to all who have Internet access [2].

How it works:

By visiting a website like www.zoho.com, an end user is provided with options to use the services provided by the software provider.  We have all been using email services like Hotmail, and that is actually considered a SaaS.  Zoho provides multiple solutions to businesses and customers alike.  Visit their website and check out all the neat choices!

Consumer Categories:

There are 2 main consumer categories of SaaS [3], which are evident with Zoho’s pricing strategy:

1-    Line of Business Services (i.e.: business solutions), where very often there are fees charged for usage

2-    Customer-oriented services – mostly free but supported by advertising, but there are some charges for extra features like extra storage space or special designs

Benefits:

Aside from being very convenient, SaaS can benefit in several ways [3]:

1-    Lowers costs: No licensing fees are involved, and it lessens the need to hire specially trained IT personnel

2-    Requires much less storage space: Without having to download a software or large amounts of data, an end user saves quite a bit of space

3-    Requires no backups: There is no need to backup your information because it is stored with the SaaS provider

Drawbacks:

Nothing is perfect in this world, so let’s see what disadvantages SaaS has [4]:

1-    Requires Internet connection: Without the Internet, SaaS is rather useless. This might not be a tough argument for us Vancouverites, but it is something to think about on a global scale

2-    Full functionality: SaaS applications may not have the same full features that non-SaaS applications provide.   An example of this is Excel and Google Spreadsheets, where Excel automatically resizes columns and also fills cells for you (months, numbers, and so on).

3-    Speed: Having a slower computer and Internet connection make for a very slow usage of SaaS applications, whereas non-SaaS applications depend on the computer speed only.

Regardless of what benefits and drawbacks SaaS may have, it is, just like the Internet, growing at an accelerated rate.  According to Gartner, a leading IT research and consulting company, SaaS will take over 25% of new business software [5].  Now that’s fabulous news for Zoho!

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References Used:

[1] “Software as a Service”.Wikipedia.   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_service>.

[2] Archie. “What does SaaS Mean?”. Zoho Blogs. Jan 09, 2008 <http://blogs.zoho.com/general/what-does-saas-mean>.

[3] “SaaS”. Tech FAQ. <http://www.tech-faq.com/saas.html>.

[4] Glassey, Alex. “The Tap: 3. SaaS Disadvantages”. Dec 05, 2006 <http://alexglassey.blogspot.com/2006/12/3-saas-disadvantages.html>.

[5] “Gartner Says 25 Percent of New Business Software Will Be Delivered As Software As A Service by 2011″. Gartner. Oct 03, 2006 <http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=496886>.