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What exactly IS a Personal Learning Network (PLN)? Who uses them? Is this something I need? How do I get one?
Several months ago I found myself asking those very questions. Debbie, my wife, was attending a "TIES" Conference in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and I had always wondered what went on there. My feeble attempt at defining what that conference is, would be a gathering of people in education that want to efficiently and effectively integrate technology with their teaching methods and classrooms.
The first day was a Sunday, if memory serves me right, and so in the afternoon I was sitting home waiting for a hockey game or something to start when I decided to search around Twitter to see if there was any "chatter" about TIES. There was indeed a popular hashtag at that time, #TIES2014, and so I began following that "thread". I wasn't "tweeting" anything, just reading what others were tweeting...I guess that makes me a lurker! (doesn't that sound sort of creepy?) The acronym PLN was being tossed around and they all seemed to understand what they were talking about...but it didn't register with me so I did some searching. That's when I personally discovered the concept of Personal Learning Networks.
According to Wikipedia, a PLN is "an informal learning network that consists of the people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from in a personal learning environment. In a PLN, a person makes a connection with another person with the specific intent that some type of learning will occur because of that connection." This really struck me, as it really supports the idea that quality learning can, and likely will, occur when you surround yourself with knowledgeable people you respect.
Obviously, my first exposure was in the realm of education, but there didn't seem to me to be any reason the concept couldn't be successfully utilized in any area of concentration whatsoever. While there may truly be some deep roots in academia, no doubt the concept has been around in various forms for years. And since I earnestly seek new knowledge, and find great value in staying up to date with new and trending technology, especially as it relates to my profession (government technology), I knew this was something I had to do...yes, I decided I NEEDED a PLN.
There are probably lots of ways to do it, but I decided to concentrate on the three social media tools that I use the most. Twitter, LinkedIN and RSS feeds from relevant blogs. So I began to ask myself some questions.
- Who are the vendors I interact with the most?
- Who do I communicate with that I seem to gleen the most from when they talk or write?
- Are there periodicals that I seem to read regularly?
- If so...are there specific authors that I lend more credence to?
- What does my job demand I stay current with?
It was in answering those questions that I began to build my own PLN. There is no other way to say it, but that by my personal involvement in answering those questions, the PLN quite literally fell into place and began paying dividends almost immediately.
Visiting the websites of our major vendors I found many of them already had at least one Twitter account that I could follow. Many had several so that I could pick my specific interest. A couple were even specific enough to deal with just the software that I was interested in keeping track of.
With my list of people I like to listen and/or read...I did a search on both Twitter and LinkedIn and "followed" and "connected" with them, respectively. Honestly, there were a few that I un-followed after a period of time because it turned out their Twitter posts weren't as relative as I thought they'd be...but the ability to un-follow is actually one of the wonderful parts of Twitter and PLNs in general. YOU get to decide who is in your network!
One thing that never ceases, is the stream of people asking me about new technologies that they have heard about, so I like to stay at least a half step ahead of them. So I found a few authors I respect that have some Blogs I could subscribe to. In some of those blogs they discuss some of the new and emerging gadgets and other technologies that are getting attention throughout the industry.
Again, its so nice that although you end up with a stream of good information flowing through your PLN, you can read and keep what you want and find valuable, and discard or ignore the rest. Further, as you follow others, they often will post relevant things from parts of their own PLN, which you can chose to use to expand your own. Similarly, if you read something you think others would value from your PLN, sharing it on Twitter or whatever social platforms you utilize will help add to your value in other people's PLN.
We discussed what a Personal Learning Network is, a bit about who uses one, hopefully encouraged you that you needed one, and gave you some questions to get you started developing your own PLN.
Have you?
Will you?
Leave us a comment to talk about yours and any tips you have!
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