PLN: Your Personal Learning Network Made Easy | Once a Teacher.... What is a PLN? If I had to define what a ‘Personal Learning Network’ is, I would keep it simple and broad: n. – the entire collection of people with whom you engage and exchange information, usually online. Personal Learning Networks, or PLNs, have been around forever. PLNs have immense value! So, why bother thinking about your PLN? Here are some ways that educators are using their PLNs: - Professional development – learn from content-area specialists - Locate resources for your classroom, such as free websites and software - Get lesson plan ideas from master teachers - Learn about new technology and how to integrate it into your teaching - Find collaborative solutions - Find interesting links to education news Students can also reap the benefits of tapping into their PLNs. When you have a large group of people combing through vast amounts of information and collectively identifying the most useful, entertaining, or valuable parts, it only makes sense to tap into this collective knowledge!
How to Create a Robust and Meaningful Personal Learning Network [PLN] This post describes how educators can develop a personal learning network that supports meaningful and relevant learning. The MOOC, Education Technology & Media, etmooc, is used here as a working example of how to develop a PLN. “My Personal Learning Network is the key to keeping me up-to-date with all the changes that are happening in education and how technology can best support and engage today’s students.” Brian Metcalfe: teacher, blogger at lifelonglearners.com A visual image of participants in an open, online course- etmooc, which shows the potential to find and create personal connections as part of one’s PLN. I wrote a post recently about how to develop a personal learning environment [PLE], the need and benefits of doing so, for educators in particular. What is a PLN? Twitter 6×6 (Photo credit: Steve Woolf) Logo for etmooc from etmooc.org In the etmooc we are primarily using Google+ Community , Blackboard Collaborate and Twitter to interact. Resources Like this: Like Loading...