So with all of these social networks out there, you’re bound
to hear the phrase Personal Learning Network. And maybe at first glance you
think, “wait, ANOTHER network I need to join?”
- but no, this isn’t its own website like Twitter or Facebook or
LinkedIn – this is a group of people who help you on a professional level to
learn various things. And in my experience, a majority of the interactions are
online via social media sites. Although it’s a bonus if you get some face to
face interaction!
So how can YOU get yourself a Personal Learning Network?
Get out there! Sign up for a Twitter account (it took me
months to finally relent and stop thinking it was silly and who wanted to hear
what I had to say!? ), create a Facebook page, and most importantly, INTERACT
on them – the interaction is the key element to maintaining your PLN.
But HOW do you do it? How do you manage the time to be on
these sites and establish a relationship with fellow professionals?
Well…there are several different ways to go about it – you can
dedicate an hour or so to it each day – after all it *can* be considered work
related since you *are* building your network professionally. Or, you could
concentrate on it on your off hours at home. Whatever you do – if you create an
account, and you realize that you can’t spend the time necessary to get out of
it what you want, don’t be afraid to delete that account and try something else
that you can handle and maintain – in my opinion there’s nothing worse than
finding someone on Twitter to discover that their last tweet was 3 months ago –
I mean really – why bother.
Once you’re online, work on creating a reputation for
yourself – follow others – post articles relevant to your industry, and join in
on chats (twitter is famous for their various chats, varying from readers
advisory to author chats in the library field). And most of all – have FUN –
you never know who you will meet and who you will teach and learn from!
Here is a great article that goes a bit more into depth
about PLNs if you want to take a peek
And this article talks about social media in schools - which is another spin on the PLN
And this article talks about social media in schools - which is another spin on the PLN