My Personal Learning Network
I have to start this blog post off with an honest confession…I had never really heard of a Personal Learning Network (PLN) before starting my Master’s program. However, I always have believed in being a life-long learner as a teacher and constantly working to improve my practice. After learning more about PLN’s, I strongly believe they will help me as a teacher and in other potential areas of my life.
Personal Learning Networks are most important because they involve professional development and networking. The funny part about PLN’s are they have existed for years, but how you meet, discuss, and share information has significantly changed to online through social networking sites. PLN’s allows teachers to share new ideas involving lesson plans, classroom activities, support from veteran educators, meeting standards, etc. The ideas and options using a PLN are limitless, yet essential. Like any profession, or skill in life, you must practice and seek advice from those who have come before you. PLN’s allow for complete professional development by communicating with fellow colleagues. PLN’s can also help you locate free websites and software for your classroom, collaborative solutions, links to education news, and learn about new technology and how to implement it.
I have selected to expand my own Personal Learning Network by continuing my blog and following other educator’s blogs as well. I also am going to start using my Twitter account for networking with fellow colleagues. The great advantage of using Twitter and a blog will be my ability to collaborate and communicate with teachers all over the world. I am also in the process of learning more about Ning and how I can use that to expand my current PLN. I am excited about the expansion of my PLN, considering they are both networking tools that I really have found fun and interesting.
jherbergblog 
Thanks for sharing your learning process publicly. I always try to tell teachers to take charge of their PLN, and stories like yours bring the concept to life.
I taught a class about social networking for educators last Fall. One of the learning modules was about the PLE/PLN. See: http://openteaching.ud-css.net/sequence/week05-ple/
Hope you find this useful!
Mathieu
I am glad that I wasn’t the only one that hadn’t heard of a Personal Learning Network. I like your idea of using Twitter to network with fellow colleagues. I chose a similar idea of using Facebook since most of my colleagues do not use Twitter yet. Nice post:)
James,
Isn’t it crazy all of the great tools that are out there that we have no clue about. It makes me excited to know that I will never know everything and that there will always be something out there for us to better ourselves as teachers and people. Thank you for your post!
Jake
Your statement that the ideas and options using PLNs are limitless rang so true with me. I think that since PLNs are now so widespread, thanks to technology, you truly can talk to anyone and come up with anything. In the past, PLNs were in person, at workshops, or in the staff room. They were limited to who you knew and could interact with. Now that you can interact with anyone in the world, the sky’s the limit! Nice point!
-Kristin
Thank you for your honesty! I believe that there are many educators out there who are using PLNs without having the term for it. I hope that you find using blogs and Twitter useful next year. Good luck!