Professional Learning Environment

For my PLE I decided to put myself in the middle and choose the four platforms that I use the most often; Facebook, Blogger, Google+ and LinkedIn. I also color coded those I use for personal and professional use in orange, and those for professional use only in blue. In creating my PLE, I learned that many of the platforms I use interact with each other on a daily basis. My personal Facebook account is linked to my Pinterest and Instagram accounts. So when I post something on Instagram, it will also post on Facebook. And the same for Pinterest and Twitter. In my professional accounts, I choose not to interlock them as much so my followers aren't spammed with the same information. I will just create a duplicate post in the event that I have different followers on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Blogger is something I started using last summer during an EdTech course. I enjoy using it for professional use in my classroom, along with creating personal posts regarding my family and the many adventures we have. Grandparents LOVE to follow my personal account. Google+ is something I use within the school district I work in. I don't feel as comfortable using it, as I do Facebook but I do connect with others and use it to communicate from time to time. And finally LinkedIn is my newest addition and something I'm not 100% confident using quite yet so I did not form any connections to this platform except to myself. I look forward to developing my knowledge in LinkedIn and reaping the benefits that it will provide.

When making this I learned that I do have a pretty definite divide between what I use personally and what I use professionally. Although some platforms do have two separate accounts I try to keep my family life off of my professional accounts and vice versa. I also noticed that the more connections I had between platforms, the more comfortable I was using them. Facebook and Blogger are my top two platforms that my comfort level is fairly high. Google+ and LinkedIn, I don't feel as confident and therefore don't have as many platforms to connect with it.

Peer Reflections
In looking through other peer's PLE's I noticed that many of us share multiple platforms but are not connected outside of Boise State University. When viewing Megan Apgar's I saw that we shared many of the same social media connections and also had more examples in that particular areas. She had a few platforms that I am not familiar with such as Evernote. I plan on conducting more research to see if this is something I'd like to add to my PLE. I also noticed common similarities between my PLE and Amanda Hensely's in the sense that Facebook and Twitter are the most used platforms by both of us. In her PLE she noted two different blogging platforms, Blogger and Wordpress, where I only use one. Kimmy Davis and I shared many platforms and felt most comfortable using Facebook. I thought her explanation of juggling these platforms can be tricky and staying relevant is a challenge. Brian Betteridge had the connections all centered around himself as the consumer and we shared many platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. It's nice to see a male using Pinterest, there are so many great ideas. It didn't seem like Brian favored one more than any others so that was something we did not share in our PLE. I thought Amy Pierce's use of the collecting, reflecting, connecting and publishing model was a great idea. I saw that we both used quite a few of the same platforms, and how we connected some platforms were similar, such as Facebook and Twitter. I thought she did a nice job of using some platforms for more than one section. Many social media outlets can serve many purposes. And lastly, looking at Joanne Matibag's PLE I saw her connections to social media also linking with her personal life. I know that many of my accounts include pictures and memories from my personal account, it makes it easier to use the platform. She has many platforms on her PLE that I don't have any experience with such as Meet Up and ACDA Website. I need to conduct more research to see what these entail.