Journal #6: "Grow Your Personal Learning Network"

Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) pull together data from many different online and technological tools and resources to provide users with information relevant to whatever topic they are looking at. PLNs help users to stay connected while they gain information necessary to what they happen to be working on. Some examples of PLNs are Twitter, Skype, Second Life, Diigo and Delicious. These networks open doors to information sources that weren’t available in recent years, and are making it easier to capture and tame the information overload that occurs.
There are three main types of PLNs: personally maintained synchronous connections, personally and socially maintained semi-synchronous connections, and dynamically maintained asynchronous connections. Synchronous connections are the traditional networks that include people and places you consult for answers to questions, solutions to problems and goal accomplishment. These networks can be enhanced with tools such as chat, instant messaging and Twitter. Semi-synchronous connections are connections that aren’t completely synchronous, but almost are. Synchronous is used as collaboration that does not have to happen in real time. Asynchronous connections are networks that connect us with content sources that we’ve identified as valuable. They bring us information that helps us to do our jobs.

Q1. What are some major educational benefits to using these PLNs?
A1. Some educational benefits from these PLNs are that we can talk with other classes from around the world – time is not an issue, we can obtain fresh information for reports or lessons that won’t bore us to tears, and we can visit places we could never take a field trip to through virtual tours.

Q2. What are some examples of how we can use these PLNs educationally?
A2. Some good examples of how to use PLNs educationally would by a class blog, asking students to upload photos to Flickr, using Google Docs for collaborative efforts, or to use Skype to share information and activities with classrooms from around the world.

Warlick, David (March/April 2009). Grow Your Personal Learning Network. Learning and Leading with Technology, Vol. 36, Retrieved 07 April 2009, from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Publications/LL/LLIssues/Volume3620082009/MarchAprilNo6/36612w.pdf