Developing a Personal Learning Plan (PLP)

Developing a Personal Learning Plan:
https://d396qusza40orc.cloudfront.net/newtechtools/UH%20PLP%20Handbook.pdf

The course I have taken on Coursera:
Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Web 2.0 Tools

I have learned a variety of Web 2.0 tools through this course and my knowledge in what tools to implement for instructional issues has increased. The idea of combining 21st Century Skills and Web 2.0 tools is great. I also like the lifelong learning module of this course. Lifelong learning has been an ever-lasting theme for people who want to make continuous progress and keep updated, especially in this explosive information era where things change rapidly.

This course has provided abundant resourses. However, sometimes too much means nothing, if we don't know what to select and focus. Technology should only be the tool which serves education rather than the purpose. Too much exploration of Web 2.0 tools without the instructional issue in mind won't yield good results. One of my deep feelings about my experience of this course is that I seem to have learned a lot, but when I ask what tools I have learned, I only remember few that I have been using since before this course. The reason is that many of the tools I explored are not implemented for specific instructional issue or personal use, so my understanding of them is very superficial. If we just keep exploring various Web 2.0 tools without having the purpose in mind or implementing them, we may just have wasted our time. In my future learning and exploration of Web 2.0 tools, I will focus on the instructional issue or educational needs and learn Web 2.0 tools purposefully to solve issues.

My personal learning plan is as follows:
1. Follow pioneers in educational technology field through Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, and Websites. My twitter account is LiCheng1012. I have been building my personal learning network through Twitter.
2. Learn from my classmates, colleagues, professors, and the instructional technologist and other technology persons in my university after I start school this Fall.
3. Read academic literature in educational technology field and keep updated about new trends.
4. Implement available and appropriate Web 2.0 tools to facilitate my teaching. Doing is the best learning.
5. Write reflections and do action research on Web 2.0 tools as much as I can.
6. Attend academic conferences in educational technology and try to publish papers.
7. Continue taking courses on Coursera and Lynda.com