What are Personal Learning Networks? If you assume students are only learning from eLearning courses, you are failing to leverage a huge part of the learning process. Ask yourself where do you learn? Most of us might answer “in a classroom”, but, in reality, the majority of learning comes from other places, like Personal Learning Networks. And these networks are personal, meaning there are no two PLNs that are equal; each of us has a unique range of people we learn from including peers, coworkers, supervisors, experts and other professionals. Today more learners use tools like Google and Wikipedia to acquire new skills and knowledge. They subscribe to personal and professional blogs. Or they ask questions through their social media networks to get the most relevant answers from the members of their PLN. Defining PLN's PLN stands for Personal Learning Network. A PLN is further defined by intention. PLNs are not new, but technology has, however, changed how we connect to others and have expanded their reach significantly. 1.
The Best Tools for Nurturing Your Personal Learning Network. If you're an educator of any level, you know the importance of maintaining a great personal learning network, a lifeline in the digital age. It doesn't matter if you're a teacher, administrator, or any other form of educator—a personal learning network sustains and nurtures you in many ways. Developing your own personal learning network gives you flexibility to get information on your own terms. You're no longer only limited to just the professional opportunities that your school provides. Social media and other online tools have broken down the barriers to learning; this is just as true for teachers as it is students.
You have much more control in your own professional development nowadays. So what are some of the best tools that can help you? Let's look at some of the finest avenues for support in sharpening your career and craft. 1. Wabisabi is a global community of educators just like you. 2. LinkedIn is currently the world's biggest professional network. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 1. 2. 3. 4. Personal Learning Networks. What is the Importance of a Personal Learning Network? As discussed in a previous post, a personal learning network (PLN) is a customized social media platform for educators. But instead of sharing pictures, status updates, and liking each other’s filtered profile pictures, educators can learn from people and resources around the globe to improve their teaching methods, stay up-to-date on the latest edtech trends, and receive endless outside support.
Today we’re listing a few key reasons why you should invest in a personal learning network, for the good of yourself and the students you’re responsible for. So, why PLNs? Control Everything No one knows which areas you struggle with as an educator more than you do. The great thing about a PLN is that it doesn’t limit you. A lot of educators shape their PLNs with a question. A PLN means people from all around the world with a variety of different specialties are collaborating to answer one question. A solution to your educational struggle is on the horizon. Get Challenged Get Out of Your Own Head. What is a Personal Learning Network (PLN)?
This animated video explains more about Personal Learning Networks and our network interactions on and offline. We all regularly interact with a network of our preferred people, digital devices, information sources and services, both online and offline. We use this network in different contexts, such as at work, in school and at home, and we use it where, when and how we choose.
This is our Personal Learning Network. Watch this video to find out more about Personal Learning Networks (PLNs). “intentionally builds, maintains and activates … contacts within her personal network for the purpose of improving her learning — and uses technology to support this activity — is creating a personal learning network”. “In our PLNs, we learn what we want to learn using the vast resources and people online (or off) that can help us learn it. Learning through our PLN is something we can do throughout our lives – it becomes a tool for Lifelong Learning. Personalized Learning Networks and the Power of Connected Educators. When I was in 4th grade, I had a pen pal who lived a vast 10 miles away. We wrote about our pets, what we liked to do, our favorite subjects, our favorite food. Perfect for a 4th grader. In high school, I exchanged letters with a student from West Germany, intending to learn about another culture (in reality, it was idle chat to get a grade).
Fun, but the letters took forever to go back and forth, and it was rather hard to figure out what to talk about. As I aged and technology began to outpace me tenfold, I moved through a DOS email system to AOL, from high levels of caution and alarm, to sensible guidelines and security measures. In today’s world, it’s hardly an effort for me to chat online regularly with my brother in Singapore if the timing is right. We know that the Internet is indispensable for anything from cat videos to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). A PLN is a group of folks who can advise, support, educate, and discuss topics relevant to their work. Personalized Google. Moodle. This post explores Personal Learning Portfolios [PLPs], an extension of a Personal Learning Environment. I review briefly PLPs for professionals, but focus on the potential and promise that PLPs hold for our students. I wrote recently about Personal Learning Environments [PLE], Personal Learning Networks [PLN] and the need for educators to develop both as a means to support their professional and personal growth and learning.
A PLE can be viewed as a system that is built on the concept of creating a personalized framework for learning, tailored to one’s goals and interests. Personal Learning Portfolios for Professionals Both posts generated meaningful discussion— with many comments coming from participants in the Education Technology & Media course (#ETMOOC). The topic of the course last week was ‘connected learning’, and discourse focused on PLEs and PLNs. “….my “hub” all of my digital work [this educator uses her blog as her ‘hub’, a platform for her portfolio]. David A. Resources. Personal Learning Networks. What Are The Top EdTech Tools For Personalized Learning? Personalized learning is an ambitious concept that engages students of different backgrounds, interests, and ability levels to champion their educational success. Without educational technology ranging from digital content to adaptive learning software it would be difficult and extremely resource-intensive to implement.
We have been conducting a survey to learn the best practices of schools around the world as they implement personalized learning programs. One of the areas that the survey probes is technology for personalized learning. Results are still coming in, but we took an early peek at the data to help those planning to get started or even in the early stages of their personal learning implementations. Please share your thoughts and experiences of personalized learning by taking our short survey. At the core of personalized learning are a range of digital content and the personal devices that display and interact with it. Learning Management Systems. Personalized learning should replace higher education's unfair fixation on speed (opinion) Faster students are smarter students. So declared Edward Thorndike of Columbia University’s Teachers College a century ago. You would think we are more enlightened today.
Unless you looked at Mingus Union High School in Cottonwood, Ariz., where students are required to wear a red badge that “publicly identifies and shames underperforming students.” (The policy has since been dropped.) It is patently true that “Society rewards rapid thinkers!” As my high school humanities teacher, Mr. Sabo, said many times, usually as I searched my suddenly blank mind for an answer.
During a recent training to develop online instruction for students with disabilities, our instructor, who was blind, demonstrated how a screen reader worked. “You were listening at about 80 words a minute,” our instructor said. You get the point. Judgements like Thorndike’s can seem out of touch with modern sensibilities, much as the speeches of supporters of segregation in the 1940s and ’50s are cringe-worthy today. What Is Personalized Learning? A Complete Guide to Individualized Education in the Classroom | Xello.
Students and educators work together to create customized learning plans for the classroom. By leveraging technology, it’s possible to create a personalized learning experience to suit the learning style of each student, while keeping students motivated and engaged without leaving teachers overworked or overwhelmed. What Is Personalized Learning? Personalized learning takes a different approach from the typical one-size-fits-all classroom model that teaches a standard curriculum to all students, with little differentiation. Instead, it tailors personal learning plans to the individual knowledge, skills, interests and learning styles of each student. An important element of these individual plans is that they’re developed through a collaborative approach between students and educators.
The US Department of Education defines personalized learning as: “instruction in which the pace of learning and the instructional approach are optimized for the needs of each learner. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 7 Personalized Learning Strategies and Examples | Prodigy Education. How to effectively build and leverage a personal learning network (PLN) Mirjam Neelen & Paul A. Kirschner This blog was inspired by a workshop on personal learning networks (PLNs), led by Helen Blunden, and attended by Mirjam in Ghent, Belgium at Learning Tech Day.
Intuitively, the usefulness of building and leveraging a PLN to continuously learn to improve your work makes a lot of sense (at least, it does to us). But what does the research say? We start by exploring what a PLN is and why it’s important in today’s work world. What’s a PLN and why is it important in today’s work world? We define a PLN as a trusted network of current and former colleagues or other people that are valuable to you as a professional or in other areas of your life. Of course, there can be other reasons. Rory Sie and his colleagues (2013) explain that there are two approaches to PLNs, namely top-down and bottom-up. How to build and leverage a PLN effectively Let’s see what the research has to say about this. 1. Consume Create Connect Contribute 2. 3. 4. References Sie, R. . (2013). Personal Learning Networks for Educators: 10 Tips.
By Dr. Mark Wagner I often begin my workshop on personal learning networks (PLN) for educators by asking these questions: Who is in your learning network? Who do you learn from on a regular basis? Who do you turn to for your own professional development? I usually ask these questions at conferences, which are frequently only annual events – and rare treats for many educators. Learning to Network and Networking to Learn 1. 2. 3. 4. Networking Tools and Anecdotes The four tips above are the core activities of building a personal learning network, and they can be applied using various tools to connect with others online. 5. 6. 7. 8. Final Thoughts These final two tips will help keep your initial frustrations in perspective, and help you avoid the temptation to focus on unimportant metrics as you grow your network. 9. 10.
Note: For more on this topic, you might also want to explore Jeff Utecht’s book Reach: Building Communities and Networks for Professional Development. How Do I Get a PLN? What is a PLN? Will Richardson was the first person to clearly explain to me about six or seven years ago what a PLN was. Back then, PLN stood for Professional, or Personal Learning Network.
A better label today, one that might quiet the nitpickers, is Personalized Learning Network -- the shift in nuance maintains that participants are both personal and professional learners. A PLN is a tool that uses social media and technology to collect, communicate, collaborate and create with connected colleagues anywhere at any time. Participating educators, worldwide, make requests and share resources. Each individual educator becomes a potential source of information.
Collecting these sources in a location to access them is the PLN. PLNs Develop Thought Leaders Many early adopters of the PLN have gone on to become thought leaders in education, not surprising given that PLNs seem to promote a great deal of reflection and collaboration. Barriers to Mass Adoption PLNs Are Collaboration PLN Resources. Personal Learning Network - EdTech Update.
Helping Students Develop Personal Learning Networks – Etale – Exploring Futures & Innovations in Education with Dr. Bernard Bull. I had a great time this week connecting with people around the world at the Global Education Conference. This free and open online conference is one of best that I’ve seen, including participants and presenters from seemingly every continent. As part of the event, I had a chance to present on a couple of topics: one about global perspectives on grading and assessment and a second on helping students development personal learning networks. This post is a chance to recap and reflect further on that second topic. Personal Learning Networks have been around for some time. However, there is a smaller and potentially even more significant conversation about personal learning networks that is taking place. What if learning communities and organizations made student personal learning networks an integral part of the learning experience? A Little Learning Theory Background Alongside the influence of behaviorism we saw the development of cognitivism.
Self-directed Learning Self-blended Learning. What is a Personal Learning Network? As an educator, it’s important to understand everything that shapes your students’ education, both inside and outside of the classroom. You’re trained to study lesson plans and develop learning strategies and abide by district-wide standards. But what about your own development as an educator? What rules exist to help you maintain your professional growth? As a student, it’s also important to understand what impacts your intellectual growth. Believe it or not, the people you interact with have as much of an impact on your education and mental well-being as the worksheets you diligently tackle, the essays you write, and the textbook chapters you’re assigned to absorb. So how do we create opportunities outside of traditional tools? Where can students collaborate and learn from a variety of different professionals? Many believe the answer is in personal learning networks. What’s Personal? A PLN is personal for two reasons.
You also pick the platform. So, what’s personalized? How to Learn? What are Personal Learning Networks? If you assume students are only learning from eLearning courses, you are failing to leverage a huge part of the learning process. Ask yourself where do you learn? Most of us might answer “in a classroom”, but, in reality, the majority of learning comes from other places, like Personal Learning Networks. And these networks are personal, meaning there are no two PLNs that are equal; each of us has a unique range of people we learn from including peers, coworkers, supervisors, experts and other professionals.
Today more learners use tools like Google and Wikipedia to acquire new skills and knowledge. They subscribe to personal and professional blogs. Or they ask questions through their social media networks to get the most relevant answers from the members of their PLN. Defining PLN's PLN stands for Personal Learning Network. A PLN is further defined by intention. PLNs are not new, but technology has, however, changed how we connect to others and have expanded their reach significantly. 1. What Is A Personal Learning Network? Personal Learning Network (PLN) Benefits, Tools, and Tactics.