Journal #6 - "Grow Your Personal Learning Network"

Warlick, D. (2010). Grow your personal learning network. Learning & Leading with Technology, 30(6), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-march-april-2011.aspx

In this article,David Warlick discusses personal learning networks (PLNs). Prior to the internet, our PLNs were are family, friends, colleagues and any other people we had contact with. Knowledge was shared and developed by this circle of people. With the internet our PLNs have greatly expanded to include people across the world. Warlick identifies 3 main types of PLNs: personally maintained synchronous connections, personally and socially maintained semisynchronous connections and dynamically maintained asynchronous connections. Each of these have to be refined separately either on your own or collaboratively. Monitoring your own PLN is a responsibility because you are a part of contributing to another persons PLN.

How does someone find the time to commit to a PLN?
I think if you start out small it will turn into something bigger. The initial time dedicated to developing a PLN can be 15-30 minutes here and there. This time can be spent getting use to the website you are using and find and few people to network with. In the end the time and effort is worth the gain.

Is contributing to a PLN really worth it?
I the end, your PLN will contribute to your success as a teacher and enable you to work smarter and not harder. It will also allow you to collaborate outside of the box by working with educators in other states and even other countries. This would give any teacher a fresh approach to teaching a subject matter and possibly coming up with more innovative ways to introduce new material.