PLN (Part 2) - HOW to develop a PLN

Scott Leslie http://edtechpost.wikispaces.com/file/view/swl_ple2.gif

"PLN is an acronym for Personal Learning Network. The acronym is relatively new, but the idea is not. Teachers have always had learning networks—people we learn from and share with. Teachers are information junkies. We’re also social. Put the two together and you have a personal learning network…. The kinds of discussions I have, and information I share with my PLN hasn’t changed all that much over the years–what works in class, how students learn, how to become a better teacher. How I meet other teachers, where we discuss ideas, and how we share information has changed." (Sakamoto)

“Each person can explain PLNs in a slightly different way. The persistent ambiguity surrounding this concept is actually one of its greatest strengths. PLNs are not a one-size-fits-all t-shirt. They are hand hand-tailored to meet the individual 'ongoing needs of the learner' (http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=2020)." (Cox, p.34)

“Building a professional learning network (PLN) has been touted as the solution to almost every problem that both new and experienced teachers can have in the classroom. It will connect you with the world! It will provide you with resources! It will enhance your practice! It is the miracle cure for every challenge that any student, parent, or administrator can throw your way! But what is it going to take to actually become part of a global network of educators where you, your ideas, and your challenges matter? How does any one teacher make that a reality? The answer is simple—and time consuming. You need to make the commitment to become part of a village. It is more than simply a network; it is a vibrant and growing community.” (Ferguson, p.34)

The key to developing a PLN is to follow the ideas you are interested in and the people who are actively using those ideas. David Warlick advises you “Grow Your Own Personal Network.” Why “cultivate your network?”

"Many of the terms used to describe the 21st-century educator—facilitator, guide, coach, curator—imply an effort to connect learners to the world they are learning about. Of course, that part of our job description requires us to be learners ourselves. That’s why we need convenient and unfettered access to new and emerging communication technologies and applications, as well as opportunities to gain and develop skills not only to operate these tools, but also to shape and even invent networks of learning”. (p15) [Isn’t that WHY we’re taking this Web 2.0 course?]

http://pdstuff.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/4cs1.jpg

It has been suggested that a PLN involves the 4 Cs: COLLECT, CURATE, CREATE, COLLABORATE to which I would add another C: CITE. Citation is important because it allows others to follow the 'breadcrumbs' (or 'gems') you have collected and curated and use them in conjunction with the building of their own PLN. And, in case the concept of curation is new to you: "Curating is a skill needed to sift through the mountains of new content created every day. Students need to know how to discover and discern what is truly meaningful and relevant and discard the rest. This includes 'crap detection' (Howard Rheingold) but also 'gem detection' to determine the truly remarkable content." (Brumley)

“…David [Warlick] pointed to three elements of a PLN:

• Personal—Their shape and function is completely up to the ongoing needs of the learner.
• Both Spontaneous and Directed - Some learning experiences can result from careful cultivation of the network, and some simply happen because you are connected.
• Connective—The network of people and sources are held together not by wires, routers, and HTML links. It is a network of ideas (http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=2020).” (Cox, p.34) [Warlick, David. “Community – Formerly Known as Audience.” http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=2020]

Warlick's Grow Your Own Personal Learning Network categorizes PLNs as having three kinds of connections (p.13-14):

• Personally maintained synchronous connections: The traditional network that includes the people and places you consult to answer questions, solve problems, and accomplish goals. You can enhance this PLN with new tools such as chat, instant and text messaging, teleconferencing, Twitter, and virtual worlds such as Second Life. Think of it as attending a meeting at work, only better, because you don’t need to drive and there is a time-limited and fixed agenda.
• Personally and socially maintained semisynchronous connections: The tools you can use to build and grow this type of network include mailing lists, wikis, Google Docs, Twitter, group discussion boards and comment walls in Facebook, as well as commenting on blogs.
• Dynamically maintained asynchronous connections: The RSS aggregator is the primary tool. In Delicious, it can be your subscription to newly added favorites.

from David Warlick's "Grow Your Own PLN p.15

“Working your PLN involves a great deal of responsibility because you are almost certainly part of someone else’s network.” (Warlick, p.16) "Online connections are only as good as the time you put into them. In the same way that you need to meet and have coffee with a new friend at work, you need to take the time to connect with your growing online community. (Ferguson, p.34)"

Kate Klingensmith provides a nice chart of Web 2.0 Tools which I’ve modified: [Note: In the 3+ years since she wrote her post, some of the tools she suggests no longer exist. Obviously, you have to be careful about choosing 'new' tools, since they might not continue to be maintained and/or might not continue to offer a free service.]

Category	Benefit	Examples and Guides
Blogs	Great sources of information such as classroom best practices as well as personal opinions; Blogs monitor the heartbeat of new trends in education and the commenting back and forth leads to many great ideas and relationships	Google Blog Search; Blog Search Engine; Stephen Downes’ OLDaily ( OLDaily is delivered five days a week and features the latest news and information on e-learning and related fields. OLWeekly is a compilation of the week's newsletters and is published on Fridays. Both newsletters are available by email or as RSS feed.)
Microblogging	To keep up with educators from around the globe who share best practices and resources in short bursts	Twitter; A Teacher’s Guide to Twitter (by Klingensmith herself)
Nings	Communities of people interested in similar topics, with forums and messaging	Classroom 2.0; The Future of Education; The Educator’s PLN
Professional Profiles	Find other professionals and experts in your field	LinkedIn
RSS Reader	RSS means “Real Simple Syndication” – an RSS reader is a tool that allows you to keep up with many of your favorite blogs, all in once place	RSS in Plain English; Klingensmith's NetVibes (a dashboard application example); Google Reader
Social Bookmarking	Share bookmarks with others, see what others are bookmarking; you can join groups and get email updates on new bookmarks	Delicious (not only a good way to carry your own bookmarks/favorites from computer to computer but a great way to 'subscribe' to new 'finds' from others who are interested in the same topic. WARNING: be creative with your tag searches for synonyms and/or phrases and/or acronyms or abbreviations); Diigo (features include: Annotate webpages with highlights & sticky notes; Organize your digital items by types, tags, and lists; Share your findings, complete with your annotations, by email, RSS feed, twitter, permalink, widget, etc.) Diigo Groups - Education
Social Networking	Keeping up with personal and professional contacts	Facebook
Teleconferencing	Real-time talk with personal/professional connections	Messages on the Mac (replaces iChat; includes ability to send photos, videos, documents, and contacts and additional features) and Facetime (which allows you to videoconference with other Mac users); Skype (in addition to offering international calling, free video calling includes group video); UStream (share and record your broadcasts and communicate with your followers in realtime via the Social Stream -- Ustream’s live chat module that syndicates comments to your viewer’s Facebook friends and Twitter followers; free service offers 10 Gb video storage but is ad-supported) VoiceThread (conversations in the cloud With 3 minutes of phone commenting, 3 VoiceThreads at-a-time with up to 50 slides each, unlimited voice and text comments, and a sizeable webcam commenting storage limit, Free VoiceThread account has potential)
Webinars	Live, on-line presentations or conferences, with real-time chat, hosted by experts on specific topics; Great way to learn about new things and to meet new people	Classroom2.0 Live EdTechTalk Training Magazine Network Webinar calendar and  Webinar Archive
Wikis	Community-monitored sites that can function as websites or for group organization and projects	Wikis in Plain English Wikispaces (For ideas, look at Educational Wikis’ Examples or at Wikis in Education. However, I think Wetpaint is way too commercial) PBWorks (For a list of sample educational wikis, see PBWorks Educator Wiki Directory or  Sue Waters’ PLN Yourself [don’t join – it’s not actively being maintained by Waters or wiki members])

References:

Brumley, Mark. "Move Over Three R's, Here Come the Three C's." Digital Learning Environments. Tech & Learning, n.d. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. <http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/blog_mark_brumley/move_over_three_r_s_here_come_three_c_s_0>.
Cox, Ernie."Building A Future-Ready Personal Learning Network." School Library Monthly 27.3 (2010): 34-35. Education Research Complete. Web. 8 Oct. 2012.
Ferguson,Hadley J. "Build A Village." Learning & Leading With Technology 39.4 (2011): 34-35. Education Research Complete. Web. 8 Oct. 2012.

Klingensmith, Kate. "PLN: Your Personal Learning Network Made Easy." Once a Teacher … N.p., 5 May 2009. Web. 3 Oct. 2012. <http://onceateacher.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/pln-your-personal-learning-network-made-easy/>. [Has a very nice Blogroll but most current weblog post is 2010 and see my caveat about the resources she refers to in her table.]

Sakamoto, Barbara H. "What is a PLN, anyway?." Teaching Villiage. N.p., 3 Jan. 2012. Web. 8 Oct. 2012. <http://www.teachingvillage.org/2012/01/03/what-is-a-pln-anyway>.

Warlick, David. 2¢ Worth: Teaching & Learning in the New Information Landscape. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Oct. 2012. <http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/>. [While I haven't referred to his blog as a resource, I thought it would be worth mentioning, since it shows Warlick's PLN in action.] 

-----. "Grow Your Personal Learning Network: New Technologies Can Keep You Connected and Help You Manage Information Overload." Learning & Leading with Technology 36.6 Mar./April : 12-16. Web. 8 Oct. 2012. <http://landmark-project.com/workshops/handouts/gypln_ll.pdf>.