What:
A PLN is called either a personal learning network or a professional learning network. They are both the same thing and are a community of people with similar interests and passions sharing resources, lesson plans, and ideas. Education often feels like a silo. Teachers are in their classrooms day in and day out teaching, planning, conferencing, etc. A PLN breaks the silo by offering a community of educators from all backgrounds interested in the same passions available at the click of a button (or in this case the opening of a social media platform).
Get Started:
In order to create a PLN, you must first create a social media account. You can choose Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. Most of us already have personal accounts on one or all of these platforms. If you do not currently have an account, access quick tutorials on creating accounts by clicking on the desired social media platform: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.
Connect:
Once you setup your account, the next step is to connect with people who will inspire you and help you grow. PLNs are not built overnight. It is a steady process of connecting with other people. You can start by following someone you know personally and by seeing who they follow. Then, you can branch out and follow popular educators or organizations like ISTE. The more people you follow the more people will be suggested to you by the social media platform.
The most efficient way to connect with like-minded people and to grow your PLN is to follow hashtags. Hashtags are a topic or idea categorized together by using words after the number sign. For example, #edchat, #designthinking, #digcit. You can search for specific hashtags to read through the content and can follow people you see posting often. Facebook has groups for like-minded individuals like Facebook for Educators and BreakoutEDU. Instagram uses hashtags for content or people and can be found by searching. Twitter has scheduled twitter chats where educators can connect at the same time using the same hashtags. Usually, one hour long, twitter chats consist of a moderator posting questions for educators to answer and respond to one another’s post. A calendar of Twitter’s scheduled chats can be found here.
Engage:
The last thing to grow your PLN is for you to engage with the community. Post, like, comment and retweet or share things that inspire you or have challenged you using the appropriate hashtag. If you see something on social media interesting, try it in your class and then post about it. The more you engage online the easier it will become and the faster you will grow your PLN.
Next Steps
Interested in learning more? Check out the websites below for great information.
References:
All sourced information is hyperlinked as applicable above.
TLDR (too long didn’t read):
A PLN is called either a personal learning network or a professional learning network. They are both the same thing and are a community of people with similar interests and passions sharing resources, lesson plans, and ideas. Education often feels like a silo. Teachers are in their classrooms day in and day out teaching, planning, conferencing, etc. A PLN breaks the silo by offering a community of educators from all backgrounds interested in the same passions available at the click of a button (or in this case the opening of a social media platform).
@hollandkaylah
