PROFESSIONAL LEARNING NETWORKS

GETTING STARTED

"Networking is simply the cultivating of mutually beneficial, give and take, win-win relationships. It works best, however, when emphasizing the 'give' part.“

–Bob Burg, Author and Speaker.

Online Communities

http://www.slideshare.net/rmunkler/developing-your-pln

There are so many options; Find one or two that are right for you and EXPLORE

WHAT IS A PLN?

Personal Learning NetworkProfessional Learning Network

"Personal Learning Environments are systems that help learners take control of and manage their own learning. This includes providing support for learners to

• set their own learning goals • manage their learning; managing both content and process • communicate with others in the process of learning and thereby

achieve learning goals.

A PLE may be composed of one or more subsystems: As such it may be a desktop application, or composed of one or more web-based services."

van Harmelen, Mark (August 2006). "Personal Learning Environments". http://octette.cs.man.ac.uk/jitt/index.php/Personal_Learning_Environments. Retrieved 2006-08-24.

Professional Learning Environment

WHAT IS A PLN?

Not a new concept Traditionally limited by geography and not often timely

Today, transcends distance, role and expertise

The first goal of a PLN is to

CONNECT

Once you get connected, you can begin to

COLLABORATE and

CONTRIBUTE!

http://jdorman.wikispaces.com/ppln

FUNCTIONS OF A PLN

Connect

Contribute

Collaborate Collabora

te

Stages of PLN Adoption

• Stage 1 Immersion: – Immerse yourself into networks.

– Create any and all networks you can find where there are people and ideas to connect to.

– Collaboration and connections take off.

Stages of PLN Adoption

• Stage 2 Evaluation: – Evaluate your networks and start to focus in

on which networks you really want to focus your time on.

– You begin feeling a sense of urgency and try to figure out a way to “Know it all.”

Stages of PLN Adoption

• Stage 3 Know it all: – Find that you are spending many hours trying

to learn everything you can.

– Realize there is much you do not know and feel like you can’t disconnect.

– This usually comes with spending every waking minutes trying to be connected to the point that you give up sleep and contact with others around you to be connected to your networks of knowledge.

Stages of PLN Adoption

• Stage 4 Perspective: – Start to put your life into perspective. – Usually comes when you are forced to leave

the network for awhile and spend time with family and friends who are not connected.

Stages of PLN Adoption

• Stage 5 Balance: – Try and find that balance between learning

and living.

– Understanding that you can not know it all, and begin to understand that you can rely on your network to learn and store knowledge for you.

– A sense of calm begins as you understand that you can learn when you need to learn and you do not need to know it all right now.

OBJECTIVES To provide a means for students, alumni &

professors to come together to share knowledge.

To provide a common forum for professionals with common interests to meet and discuss relevant topics.

To enable inter-institute interaction among students/professors in real time.

To remove bottlenecks (e.g. time, location) so that knowledge transition happens seamlessly

BENEFITS OF A PLN

Resource and idea sharing Varied feedback Embrace technology Support Opportunities

HOW TO USE YOUR PLN Professional development – learn from content-

area specialists Locate resources for your course, such as free

websites and software Get lesson plan ideas from master teachers Learn about new technology and how to integrate

it into their teaching Find collaborative solutions Find interesting links to education and business

news

GATHER RESOURCES Use your PLN to help you

review and filter resources. ▫ Twitter▫ Social-Networks

Linked-in Facebook Ning

▫ Forums▫ Blogs▫ Websites▫ Online/ Virtual Events

ORGANIZE RSS is the key to organizing

your resources.▫ Social Bookmarking

Delicious, Diigo, Stumbleupon, Edtags

▫ Customizable web pages iGoogle, Netvibes

▫ Online Note-Taking Evernote, Google Docs

PLN TipsA PLN is a two way street – the more you contribute the more you will get back

PLN TipsCultivate your PLN – you don’t want too few or too many

PLN TipsCheck to see who your friend considers friends

PLN TipsUse your PLN effectively but find a healthy balance

ASK YOURSELF…

van Harmelen, Mark (August 2006). "Personal Learning Environments". http://octette.cs.man.ac.uk/jitt/index.php/Personal_Learning_Environments. Retrieved 2006-08-24.

How many Educators can I collaborate with

on a daily basis?

VISIONTo become a world class professional networking community aiming not only to enhance management skills but also develop the overall personality of professionals across all domains.

MISSIONTo create a shared pool of knowledge accessible to all users at all the times thereby helping them gain invaluable insights into real world knowledge.

WHY START NOW?

Establish a strong network of professionals and supports prior to entering your first classroom

Supplement (or in some cases supplant) induction supports

Begin building your professional “brand”

cc. Alec Couros

cc. Alec Couros

Consider using Twitter as a Professional Tool

Begin by finding two or three like-minded educators to follow

The best people to start with are those who only use twitter as a professional tool. Otherwise, you may end up with too much “noise”

NSDC STANDARD – COLLABORATION SKILLS

The StandardStaff development that improves the learning of all students provides educators with the knowledge and skills to collaborate.

“While collaborative, face-to-face professional learning and work are the hallmarks of a school culture that assumes collective responsibility for student learning, technology will increasingly provide a means for new and different forms of collaboration. Technology will enable teachers and administrators from around the country and world to share ideas, strategies, and tools with one another in ways that will dramatically increase the number of collaborative links among educators. But electronic forms of such work will also present teachers and administrators with new challenges whose outlines are only becoming dimly visible as larger numbers of educators begin to use these processes to strengthen their teaching and leadership practices.”

http://www.nsdc.org/standards/collaborationskills.cfm

Social-oriented applications and professional networks - new opportunities for learners and educators

W3C “Social Networks Interoperability Roadmap” Incubator Group (XG)

Federated Interoperable Framework

Role

sAc

tivi

tie

sSt

art

page

en

viro

nmen

tTo

ols/

Serv

ices

Proc

esse

s

Searcher

Assemblator

Learner Researcher

Innovatorof data, information, knowledge

of subject matter, technologies, how to learn

Create

Share

Commu-

nicate Conne

ct

RSS feeds

, links

Search

engines

Blogs,

wikis

Feel and look

Social book-marki

ng

Images/AV

Chat/AV confere

nce

Email, forum

Facebook/

Twitter/ Ning

To-do list,

notes, commen

ts

calendar

Design learning strategy

Plan activitie

s

Perform activitie

s

Document

results, analyze

Share results, evaluate

Choose technology/ application

Arrange environmen

t

Extend/modify

environment

Share environmen

t/ collaborate

Search Gath

er Aggre-

gate

Productivity

improvement

Customi-

zation

Compo-

nents, panels, tabs, widget

swidgets

Goals, needs,

interests,

motivation,

problems

Blog, wiki

Learning

resources

DesignerA

mod

el o

f PLE

Bu

ildin

g

More of the students who are deeply involved in the subject matter of the course and think in perspective are interested in:

more professional information contact to experts and specialists they joint to groups with special interests, professional networks they receive professional network services they can discuss interests stay informed share knowledge

Professional Network Organizing

• Add tools/services• Connect to data, information, knowledge

• Create artifacts

Personal Learning

Environment

• Connect to peers, educators, family and friends

• Share thoughts, ideas, resources, artifacts

Personal Learning Network • Connect to

professionals and experts via professional organizations and networks

• Collaborate• Contribute Professional

Learning Network

Professional Network Organizing

LMS, Social network, Start page

Development of Professional Learning Network

Personal Learning Environment

Personal Learning Network

Professional Learning Network

Receive professional network services

Self-arrangement of network services

Professional Network Organizing

PLE as part of Personal Learning Network and Professional Learning Network

ONLINE/ VIRTUAL EVENTS There are always free virtual events and webinars going on.

BLOGS Many Experts, Authors, Companies, Organizations and the list goes on and on… ▫ Great place to get up-to-date information, how-to,

what is new, what is good, reviews, resources

Find other great expert

blogs by looking at the “blog roll” of the blogs you

already read.

FORUMS Online discussion forums are a great place to get questions answered, discover resources and network with new people. ▫ Just about any online software or service you

use will have a forum. ▫ Many of the social networks include a

discussion forum, utilize them.

Professional Learning Networks = Breaking

through Teacher Isolation towards Collaboration

Start small – How do you eat an elephant?

ONE BITE AT A TIME

REFFERENCES

BibliographyAttwell, G. (2008). Personal development. wales.Attwell, G. (n.d.). Personal .Butler, C. W. (2010). PERSONAL LEARNING NETWORK.crofort, s. (2009). Professional (Personal) Learning Networks. uk.Dorman, J. C. (2009). POWER UP YOUR PROFESSIONAL LEARNING NETWORK.Gray, L. (2009). Developing Personal. University of Chicago Urban Education Institute.John G. Breslin, S. D. (2008). The Future of Social Networks on the Internet: The Need for Semantics. San Jose, USA .