Blog Assignment #5

Personal Learning Network (PLN)

Reading the instructions for this blog post is the first time I have ever heard of a "Personal Learning Network." A PLN s the set of people and tools that you can call upon for help, consultation, collaboration, or other assistance. I've actually had a PLN for well over the last 5 years. Many of us have a social network through Facebook or Twitter, but I actually had to utilize a social learning network during my time as a Marine Corps Recruiter. The other recruiters in my area and myself were required to interact and share job related experiences and learning opportunities with each other through a shared drive in Microsoft Outlook. Now, we didn't call it PLN and I didn't even know that that is what we were doing, but it was exactly that. We would share sales techniques, links to leads and interesting articles pertaining to our sectors, among many other things. It was specifically a network to learn more about our jobs and be constantly improving ourselves. That is exactly what a PLN should be.

This same sort of network will be a very valuable asset as a future teacher. It's an amazing age that we live in today. I would have never thought it possible to have real time communication with colleagues anywhere in the world, just 10 years ago. Now, the abundance of peer communication and sharing of knowledge is just a few clicks away. Not utilizing an asset such as this would be like not spending free money that expired at the end of the day.

A PLN can be utilized using any media outlet. I'm a member of several groups on Facebook that deal with multiple different topics. I follow a multitude of sports writers on Twitter (obviously I'm not learning academically there, but I am constantly learning about the current activities in the sports world). It really only takes a group of like individuals to find a medium through which they can share knowledge and experiences. I just created an account on Symabaloo to start my own PLN. You can check it out here.

When I eventually get my first teaching job I will probably try to join some already established PLNs. I also will keep one of my own. So far, I really like the Symbaloo site. I can keep both professional and pleasure activities from one home page. I like that I won't have to have two different sites or pages to conduct my life. This is probably one of the cooler things I've been able to experience so far in EDM310. I'm looking forward to exploring into it much further.