Welcome to our professional learning series on building a PLN.
This self-paced free course guides you step-by-step through the process of setting up your own PLN.
We have an optional PDF workbook that will help to keep you on track and focused as you work through the 7 steps of this course. Scroll down and click on the ‘download’ button under the document to save it to your computer.
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Open in new tab The aim of this first step is to:
- Unpack the definition of a PLN and “connected educator”
- Help you understand why educators create their own PLNs and how they use them
What Is A PLN?
Back in 1998 when the internet was in its infancy, Daniel R. Tobin wrote an article about the term “Personal Learning Network” which was abbreviated to PLN. This term was used to describe a network of people and resources that support ongoing learning.
Whether or not Tobin actually coined the term PLN is up for debate. As Clint Lalonde has pointed out, others, such as Dori Digenti, also wrote about the term in the late 90s.
Digeni said,
The PLN consists of relationships between individuals where the goal is enhancement of mutual learning. The currency of the PLN is learning in the form of feedback, insights, documentation, new contacts, or new business opportunities. It is based on reciprocity and a level of trust that each party is actively seeking value-added information for the other.
The term has evolved and is now sometimes referred to as a Professional Learning Network — taking into account that fact that most “connected educators” use their PLN for professional growth and interaction.
As Tom Whitby has pointed out, there can even be a hybrid of the personal or professional learning network — the Personalized Learning Network.
…the shift in nuance maintains that participants are both personal and professional learners. A PLN is a tool that uses social media and technology to collect, communicate, collaborate and create with connected colleagues anywhere at any time. Participating educators, worldwide, make requests and share resources.
Are PLNs Exclusive To Education?
PLNs don’t just exist in the education world. They are important in all aspects of the business world, various vocations, and hobbies.
We contacted Daniel R. Tobin to ask him about how he came up with the term Personal Learning Network. We wanted to find out if he coined the term in relation to a particular industry or field.
Daniel told us,
It came from my own experience.
As I was thinking about how I had learned to do the various jobs I had over the course of my career, I realized that I had built an extensive network of people who had helped me learn. These included managers and colleagues and people I had met while doing research for my books, speaking at conferences, attending workshops, etc.
As I started writing about corporate training and development, I realized that what I had learned from my PLN was greater and more important than what I had learned from my formal education.
Interestingly, many teachers who are active online have remarked that they’ve learned a great deal more from their PLN than from any professional development session they’ve attended.
Are PLNs Something New?
All teachers know successful teaching and learning does not occur in a vacuum. Teachers have always relied on others for guidance, ideas, inspiration, support, and new perspectives. Naturally, some teachers are more active in their interactions than others.
Traditionally, all this interaction might take place in one school community. Teachers might have rarely connected with educators from other locations — apart from an occasional conference or professional development opportunity.
Technology changed all this.
Like in many other industries, educators now have access to people from all corners of the globe 24/7. This may largely be through social media but other platforms as well, such as blogs, online communities, and news sites.
So many barriers have been removed — geography, culture, language, timezones, travel, costs, logistics.
Embracing new networks and building a PLN doesn’t mean throwing out your old connections. Of course, it will always be valuable to talk to the teachers next door and down the hall. But imagine the possibilities of building on that network in diverse ways!
Video: What is A PLN?
Want to learn more about what is a PLN? This is Marc-André Lalande’s take on the matter in less than two minutes.
Being A Connected Educator
A connected educator is someone who collaborates online and uses a range of tools to build their own PLN.
Watch the following five minute video to learn more about being a connected educator. It shows interviews with educators who explain the importance of being “connected” in order to be effective teachers and leaders.
Why Create A PLN?
There are many reasons why all teachers should develop a PLN.
Here are eight benefits of having a PLN:
- You are in charge of your own professional development. PD is no longer something that you have to “sit and get”.
- You can explore your own interests, needs, and passions (or your students’). You might have a student who is struggling with reading, or you might have heard of makerspaces and decide you want to learn more about that, maybe you have a student who wants to research global warming, or perhaps you want to find a better system for running a sports day at your school. You can turn to your PLN for advice and support with all these sorts of things.
- 24/7 learning offers the flexibility to learn and connect at a time that suits you. You don’t have to wait for a PD or conference. And 24/7 learning certainly doesn’t mean you have to be constantly online either — you decide how much time you want to invest and when.
- You can learn and connect in a way that you enjoy. This might be via videos, podcasts, text, social media, Skype, blogging … the list goes on.
- There can be light and shade to your PLN. You can engage in a general chat about education (or anything) to debrief, laugh, or unwind. Or, you can engage in deep discussion, debate, and reflection that can really challenge and transform your thinking and teaching. The choice is yours and there will probably be a time and place for both.
- You can stay current on research and best practice, regardless of whether this information is being discussed in your own school, district (or even country!).
- A PLN allows for broad brainstorming or fine tuning. You might know very little about a certain topic and ask your PLN for any/all entry points into exploring the concept. At the other end of the spectrum, you may have already done a lot of work on a topic and use your PLN to fine tune your ideas and resources.
- Globally connected students need globally connected teachers. Having your own PLN is a key way to also help your students connect with others and start developing their own networks. We know this is important to enrich student learning and help students thrive in the changing labor market.
Feel free to use the following graphic on your blog or share it with your colleagues.
Four Big Ideas Around The Connected Educator
Silvia Tolisana (aka Langwitches) has written about four big ideas that surface when thinking about connected educators.
I think about the isolation of a teacher within their classroom walls and how connectedness to a global network of experts and peers could expose and add multiple perspectives to their world view and professional practice.
I am amazed every time by the transformative nature of teaching and learning, when harnessing the power of a network to crowdsource authentic data, resources, connections and collaborators.
Last, but not least, the idea of being able to model for our students what connected learning in an interconnected world means is a moral imperative for educators who are charged to prepare our kids for their future.
You can unpack these concepts further by reading Silvia’s post.
Building Your Own PLN
The great thing about a PLN is that it’s personal!
You make all the choices:
- What tools you use!
- Who you connect with!
- How you want to learn!
- When you want to learn!
The idea of this series is to guide you through the process of building your own PLN and give you a taste of the opportunities that are out there.
Remember, we each have our own preference of what online tools work best for us.
Throughout the seven part series, we’ve included popular tools for building a PLN to help get you started.
Conclusion
A PLN is a network of people and resources that support ongoing learning.
We believe all teachers could benefit from having a PLN.
You might be in a fantastic school but in some ways, schools can become echo chambers for the same beliefs and viewpoints. It can be easy to go with the status quo and fail to really question things or bring in new ideas. A simple conversation with someone from a very different community can be so eye opening.
Your Task
PLNs are all about sharing, collaborating, and learning from each other. So here’s your chance to ask a question, comment, and get involved!
We’d like you to add your voice and ideas to our ongoing conversation about PLNs by undertaking one or more of these challenges:
- PLN Definition: Watch the video What Is A PLN? Leave a comment on this post to explain what a PLN means to you. You might like to share your thoughts on “lurking”. What are the pros and cons of this approach? Or, you might like to explain what you think PLN stands for — personal, professional, personalized … or something else?
- PLN Benefits: Choose one or more of the eight benefits of having a PLN that’s listed above to explore in a comment. Tell us why this is a benefit that resonates with you.
- Connected Educators: Watch the Connected Educators video. Leave a comment on this post to explain why it’s important to be a connected educator and how a PLN can help you. You might like to give an example of one person in the education community that you’d like to follow and learn from or with. This could be a thought leader, or just someone you find interesting.
- Go Deeper: Write a blog post to explain what you have learned about PLNs. Perhaps your post could be a way to educate or persuade others on the benefits of PLNs. Or you might like to summarize some of the information from this study on PLNs for teachers. Leave a comment with a link to the post so we can have a look at how you went.
Also feel free to leave a comment to ask any questions or share your tips.
How to leave a comment: Scroll down to find the comment box. Write your comment, then enter your name and email address (email addresses are not published). Enter the anti-spam word. Press submit and we will moderate your comment ASAP.
The following information on PLNs was adapted from an original Teacher Challenge post by Australian teacher, Michael Graffin. You can check out Michael’s original post — What The heck Is A PLN.
This resource was updated by Kathleen Morris in 2018.
I would like to join you
Michal Petrycki
A Personal Learning Network is an online gathering of people who are eager to support each other by sharing expertise and interests on a given subject or subjects. There are many groups to join and participate with where you can share your knowledge and opinions and just generally chat with like minded people. Educators are a great group that benefit from such networks. I am a member of a couple of networks of this type and I learn a lot of information from them. They have given me a group of online experts and friends that I can turn to literally at any hour of the day or night!
So glad you’ve been able to develop your own PLN, Angelia!
To me a PLN is the network that perhaps we use everyday as teachers/learners, as we connect to others (as said in the video and in the voicethread) with similar interests and share best practices. It can be both personal or digital, maybe the use of blogs, websites, social networking enhances our PLN everyday in different forms.
I think it is really important to be part of a PLN, because of what I mentioned before, to identify best practices and share ideas, connect (projects as well with students in different countries) and mainly to improve our educational standards and ways around the world.
Hi Alejandra, good point about a PLN being both personal and digital. It’s always found it great when you end up meeting people you know online at conferences etc. It often feels like you already know them! 🙂
I’m a math teacher since 1997. Many changes in education have taken place since then.
I don’t have a PLN yet, but I realize it’s very important to have one because it helps you to grown as a teacher. Sharing ideas, make connections between teachers, learn new ways of using technology.
I’m sure being connected to other teachers will help me a lot in my own way of teaching.
Nowadays, being a connected educator is a crucial part of education. If we are connected, our students can have the opportunity to enrich their knowledge and experience with the knowledge and experience of all the educators we are connected with.
For me the real challenge of having a PLN is relating with the correct people, that have the same interests and objectives that you may have for an specific course. Anyway it is really interesting to meet people around the world and to share our practices, experiences and know how. With the information and videos in this blog now I have a more sensitive image of the value of sharing.
Having a PLN gets you connected to people interested in your topic / activity, in this case teaching. So you have an unlimited source of information and connections that helps your learn form others and improve your teaching practice in the same way that others learn from you and improve their teaching practice.
Cheers!
TC
A PLN is a great way for educators to learn from each other. I have been inspired by other educators on Twitter and want to continue developing my practice. As teachers we know two brains are better than one. A PLN allows educators to reach outside of the four walls of their schools and learn from others all around the world.
Well said, Brittany!
I learned what a PLN is. It is sharing, ideas and resources, collaborating and learning. It is two way learning. A person learns and contributes to learning
I teach in a small private elementary school. There is one of each grace PreK-8. The staff is great and we collaborate as much as we can, but sometimes you just need to connect with an educator on the same grade level. A PLN will surely help with this isolation!
Good point, Dolores. You’re lucky to work in such a great school. I guess sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know too!
As a PE teacher having a PLN is important to me. New games, new teaching methods are all important to me
We grow ourselves through our learning networks.
Absolutely!
PLN is important and helpful because educators can share ideas and facilitate discussion, like being at a seminar.
A PLN would help to support my students and collaborate with educators from around the world. I think it would be great to share ideas and help one another.
A PLN is a e-space where teachers and pupils can contact after school, colleagues discuss about the school and communicate their ideas.
I think the most interesting thing that I have learned in digging into the idea and concept of a PLN is that even though it is a personal thing, it need not reflect a person to person contact. I think the first time the curtain was really pulled back on this for me was in my MAT program. One of my professors exposed his PLN and how he had created it over the years. I’m new to the world of teaching, four-years-new anyway, and I have been working at creating my teaching PLN which isn’t really much of a different process from creating my military PLN. The main difference between teaching and military has been the person to person aspect and how genuinely open the networks are by comparison.
Hi Keith,
What an interesting reflecting comparing teaching and military. Some people probably haven’t thought about professional networks in other industries. I hope you’re enjoying your career change!
A Personal Learning Network (PLN) is when teachers, school personnel, experts, and others collaborate to share resources, ideas, and projects to create more learning in an environment.
A PLN would mean being able to connect with other tech assistants on how I can better help my team in the office, and the staff in my schools.
I listened to the voice thread and was excited to hear people from all over being connected through education. I noticed that many of the people who shared their stories benefited from being connected to a PLN whether personally or professionally.
From VoiceThread, I was able to understand that as teachers, we all agree on the benefits of a PLN. We are able to communicate our ideas across and gather new insights that are beneficial.
I am particularly interested in using a PLN to see how other teachers are using technology to engage student interest, make connections between subjects, encourage problem solving, and inspire creativity in a high school setting. If this is your thing, please introduce yourself.
It is important to be a connected educator to collaborate with other educators in creating and discussing new teaching strategies. Also have the opportunity to have open dialogue and be connected with all parties (educators, students, and parents) to create the optimal learning environment. Using a PLN can assist in increasing participation in growing music programs.
Hi James,
Great points about having a PLN and growing a music programs. Many people who teach more specialist areas (like music) find it useful to have a PLN when they’re the only one at their school in that area.
Since the 21st century is technology based, a PLN give educators the chance to connect across the world,enhance each others skills and build relationships. A PLN allows the educator to discuss educational issues, ideas, and receive feedback on those ideas.
I have learned that a PLN is essentially a way to share resources and ideas with educators around the world. It is a way to learn about the latest educational trends as well as a way to motivate and become inspired by fellow educators.
To me, PLN is awesome because it can help to keep me motivated, learn new ideas and connect with people all around the world.
I like the idea of a PLN. I guess I have a PLN and didn’t know it! I follow several bos on Pintrest, am friends with educator friends in another state and I use You Tube learn new ways to teach Pre-K skills!
A PLN means to connect with others online and to build relationships to further educate myself.
A PLN is a way to connect with other educators. You can share ideas and ask questions. What is neat about this is the ability to communicate with others around the world.
A PLN means I have global resources, ability to collaborate with other, the ability to share my strategies and ideas with like minds. PLN also with provide me with great professional development opportunities. I also think that PLN is very important to all communities. It will help communities gain resources to build safer places to live and develop relationship with each other to help build a strong nation.
I watched all three videos but I’m choosing the What is a PLN video. As a tech asst., I believe that having a PLN would be huge. Being able to ask for help when troubleshooting or getting tips from other technicians would be a great advantage.
A PLN means that you always have someone to turn to when you need feedback or need to get new ideas. It’s a great way to keep your teaching fresh and never get stale.
I learned from the Voicethread that in a short amount of time educators have been able to grow their PLN and have really expanded the information they have access too.
It’s important to be a connected educator in order to be the best educator you can be. I enjoyed the fact that you can even try to connect during the late hours of the night and someone (might be on the other side of the world) will reach out.
A PLN is a global way to collaborate with other professionals. I like the fact that as a member of a PLN you get to decide how much time is needed to dedicate yourself to it. As a member of a PLN the professional has the choice of what they want to learn.
In response to the “Connected Educators” video, I would say that one of the biggest advantages to being connected is that you have constant access to a worldwide support network. Having such accessibility to so many diverse, helpful voices is remarkable, and has obviously become integral for educators. Through this video, I learned that I can use a PLN not only to help me when I am teaching, but also to find jobs.
Sure wish this was available in my “younger” years. PLN- you are NEVER disconnected!! I have always said, “stay humble when teaching”. I/we are not the smartest person in the room. Students, because they are always connected too, use PLN probably more than us. In either case, we learn from others and this is a perfect way to get more knowledge and share!
I have learned that a PLN, or a Personal Learning Network, is available at all times a day because a network can be global and there will be teachers available at any given time. This will be really helpful as a teacher, because I have a tendency to do a lot of work and run into problems late at night when most people in my area are not awake to help me.
I have always been a proponent for universal learning because I overstood that It would take me to places that I could only image. Now, through the PLN, I am able to travel the world and engage in phenomenal informal exchanges of ideas, with educators, without ever leaving my computer.
Hi Eddie, it’s funny to think that it wasn’t all that long ago that it was really difficult to connect with educators outside of your own school. It’s an exciting time to teach!
It is a very cool way to stay connected with other teachers in your content area globally, learn different ideas from others as well as share your thoughts and ideas with others too. It’s just a give and take.
You’re right. Give and take is very important!
A PLN is a Personal Learning Network. It is used to share your ideas, resources, collaboration and learning experiences with one another. This network is also used to build relationships with educators around the world. Educators can support each other and share different experiences that they have learned. It is a network focused on learning and how to accelerate your learning.
As the only dance educator within my district, having PLNs through social media has been extremely helpful over the last eleven years. I’ve been able to ask questions, provide answers, give and receive support, learn new things, communicate with other dance educators, ask questions, share videos, and much more. I do agree with the teacher in the connected educator video that stated, “Using social media is the 21st century teacher tool.” It really is.
I love the idea of joining a PLN. Even though I have stayed connected through face book and other social media sites with my fellow classmates, I did not know I was apart of an PLN until watching the video. In the future, I will connect with more educators to share and receive ideas to better serve our students.
Watching these videos showed me that I have a global team of educators that I can call on for inspiration and support. This opens up new opportunities for me to collaborate globally and provide my students with additional resources and learning opportunities.
The video helped me to understand the importance of being connected to other professional around the world. Being able to get ideas and sharing perspectives can only enhance my professional skills.
I have always wanted to upload a video in the utube community but never knew how to do it. I enjoy the comments to videos that have been shared.
I enjoyed the voicethread video. It inspired me to use technology to help my students prosper in the global world.
I love being a connected educator! Instagram is my favorite way of connecting with teachers from all over. The coolest part is that it is possible to become “friends” with teachers that are in your exact grade level/content area. Instagram directs me to blogs, providing great lessons and FREE resources!
Hi Katherine,
Instagram is certainly getting more and more popular with teachers. What a great way to share and learn! 🙂
Follow me at https://dblackwood1956.edublogs.org.
Great start to your blog!
The connected video showed me how important staying connected to peers is needed .
I feel that the PLN helps with connecting educators globally. It gives you a vast of ideas
in the educational arena. Using Twitter, Facebook, and Blogs help with ideas that I can connect with educationally 24/7.
It helps me to keep growing in my field. There is an enormous difference between “connected” teachers who have established their own Personal Learning Networks and the instructors who subsist primarily on the antiquated, impersonalized modes of traditional development. I
A personal learning network for me is one or any number of social media outlets through which fellow colleagues, students, friends, family, and I communicate or share knowledge with one another, which helps us grow.
Hi Bryan, I hope you enjoy building your PLN!