Personal Learning Networks: Making Global Connections to Transform Learning

Reflect on how your personal learning network has changed and grown during the course of this workshop. Discuss your plans for how you plan to continue to grow your learning network and how you hope to contribute to the professional learning of your administrative colleagues.

 

Wow! I think the new educational phrase should now be “Don’t be Left Behind: Develop a Personal Learning Network. I think PLNs have been around for a long time where one may have received advice from friends or colleagues, but now the words friends, collaboration, and communication have taken on new meaning.

Prior to enrolling in this course, I had already begun to develop my PLN; but as a result of my participation in this e-learning professional learning community, my PLN has expanded exponentially with Twitter. I am amazed with the individuals I follow and their generosity of spirit and the community of trust. This new social media has allowed me to connect with a lot of friends whom I’ve never met and never spoken to. Although, I was thrilled to meet several virtual friends who I follow on Twitter face-to-face last month at ISTE. I’ve exchanged a few tweets with them or commented on a blog article. As a result, I consider these individuals, my friend, in Web 2.0 terms.

A Personal Learning Network is the perfect companion to a Professional Learning Community; PLN + PLC = A Whole New Level of Learning. I have been able to acquire a wealth of knowledge to increase my professional develop using Twitter than attending many face-to-face workshops. The amazing thing about using Twitter is that it is able to polarize and motivate people from all over the world. Having this huge forum to exchange ideas and information is phenomenal.  

Developing and expanding my Personal Learning Network has put me in charge of my own learning; being a life-long learner should be the ultimate goal for every individual. Incorporating social media provides me with a non-stop educational social consciousness of information, opinions, and resources. My PLN challenges me to think beyond the “what” of professional learning and deeper into the “why.”  I am globally connected to educational leaders in terms of pedagogy, thinking, and the future of education. Now, I can’t imagine learning without it!

I firmly believe that knowledge should be shared with others; therefore, it is my plan to spread the word about developing a Personal Learning Network with administrative colleagues in my district as well as the classroom teachers in my school. I hope to accomplish this goal by conducting “Tech Tuesday” professional learning sessions with small and/or individual groups of educators.