Creating a Personal Learning Network

Creating a Personal Learning Network
by Patrick Woessner | Tue, 01/13/2009 - 21:30

When I started teaching in the early 1990s, my professional resources consisted primarily of the teachers in my hallway, an occasional journal article placed in my mailbox by the principal, and attending the annual local teacher's conference. My how things have changed....

Over the past few years, the concept of a Personal Learning Network (PLN) has exploded across the web. Tech-savvy educators from around the globe are synchronously and asynchronously communicating and collaborating.  Blogging, micro-blogging, and social networking have created a culture of "connectedness" whose cumulative knowledge, insight, and experience has the potential to revolution modern education. 

If don't have a PLN yet, it's time to get started. 

Although a personal learning network can, over time, grow into a rich and complex resource, a few basic tools/techniques are all that is necessary to begin.  Here's a brief overview of three essential components for building a PLN:

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content.  News sites, blogs (such as those on AcademicInfo), and other online publishers can syndicate their content via an RSS feed.  Bloglines and Google Reader are among the more popular RSS aggregators.  Create an account and when you come across a blog or other dynamic content provider that you like, simply subscribe to their feed and let the RSS reader bring the web to you.

Micro-blogging is a form of blogging built on brief (typically 140 character) text updates.  Twitter and Plurk are the dominate micro-blogging tools, and each is relatively simple to use.  Micro-bloggers build a network of people whose updates they follow, and the stream of user updates creates a steady flow of information. The keys to micro-blogging are to (1) follow people who post interesting/relevant content and (2) be an active participant in the network.

Social Networks bring people together who share common interests. FaceBook and MySpace are well known, but Ning may be better suited for educators seeking a foray into social networking.  There are Ning networks devoted to nearly every topic imaginable; join an established and active network like Classroom 2.0 and then branch out as your interests, and involvement, develop.

Developing a robust PLN is a worthwhile endeavor that will pay dividends many times over for the time invested.  The tools I've highlighted here are merely the beginning and the possibilities are endless.  If you need help taking the first step, feel free to follow me on Twitter, become a colleague on Classroom 2.0, or leave a comment on this post.

 

Tags: Ning, PLN, Twitter

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