My PLN - They Can't Take that Away from Me!

One of the things that's become apparent over the past term has been the importance of my PLN. Primarily through twitter, although also as a result of my online presence over the past three years, I have established a network that continues to serve me in good steed. I have blown the numbers away from my previous blog. Its not in comparison, and should everything at my current location turn to custard I could re-establish myself quite quickly though my PLN.  One of the issues that occurred in the past was over the ownership of the online work that I was doing with students, whether it was owned by the students and myself or school.  I don't want to get into that particular discussion or thought, as I have very strong opinions on the matter and not all of the information relating to that issue has ever been made available.  However there are a great multitude of blogs and learning sites that are available now, I just despair as an educator how many of them are either rubbish or simply not being maintained.  

One school that I know quite well, has just branded itself as an 'E' learning school and subsequently the entire staff, every classroom and everyone employed by the school have started their own blog.   This was four weeks ago.   Three out of the 15 have any content at all, one's alright and the rest are just rubbish. 

Now I am all for getting staff motivated online, given the right circumstances and drive it can be a powerful, powerful tool, probably the single most important thing that you can do within your classroom.  If I look at the work that I have been involved in online over the last few years my pre-online work, as much as it pleased me at the time dosen't rank in terms of my professional development at all.   It's only since 2008 that I consider that I have been truly up and about to the level that should have.  But surely there is little or no value in every member of staff including all the administration staff running their own sites? Where is the audience going to come for that? I guess I have to reference my previous school in this.  Now that my old site is not being maintained its still the number one site associated with my old school.  I decided previously to maintain the site as an archive.  However there was a school of thought at the time that I should have surrendered the site, the passwords and the material to my old school upon my departure.  I didn't primarily as a result of the situation that developed as I was leaving.