Kelly Soczka Kaisers 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 others 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 dont 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
others 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 havent
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.