Building and Maintaining a Personal Learning Network (PLN)

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Building and Maintaining a Personal Learning Network (PLN)
Can a modern educator operate effectively without a PLN? It may be possible. However, - with advances in multimedia technology and the revolution of social networking posturing as a disruptive technology - a wise educator will seize every opportunity in learning to integrate the benefits of social networking with new teaching paradigms. Consequently in this research, a review of historical developments is provided as a foundation for understanding the implications of PLNs. Then an example of a personal professional profile is shown to indicate the typical personal data items that can be made available to members of a social network. After a public presence has been established, you then need to add resources to your network. Therefore, in the closing sections examples of resource groups including advice on how to search for the specified resource has been provided. Finally, a summary of key points is provided in the concluding remarks.
An Evolutionary View of PLNs
The transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 ushered in major paradigms shifts in the software industry. Software evolved from being a licensed product to being a subscribed web service. Development efforts slid from the tight control of specialists, for example systems analysts and programmers, towards a collaborative project between end users and technology experts. Learners are now required to teach themselves and teachers are there to facilitate the learning process. The dissemination of knowledge and wisdom would gravitate away from the puritanical filters of rigorous scholastic scrutiny towards a mashed-up crowd sourced assembly such as Wikipedia. Personal websites would now encompass a social networki...

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...mbership of the PLN. Also, the membership provide a platform for filtering communication threads and developing congruent positions. Finally, a PLN could be very useful, but its still too early to determine if it is necessity for every educator.

References
Beach, S. (2012). The connected educator: learning and leading in a digital age. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
Cooke, N. A. (2012). Professional development 2.0 for librarians: developing an online personal learning network (PLN). Library Hi Tech News, 29(3), 1-9. doi. 10.1108/07419051211241840
Drachsler, H., Pecceu, D., Arts, T., Hutten, E., Rutledge, L., Van Rosmalen, P., Hummel, H., & Koper, R. (2009). ReMashed–recommendations for mash-up personal learning environments. In Learning in the synergy of multiple disciplines (pp. 788-793). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. doi. 10.1007/978-3-642-04636-0_85

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