Some say patience is a
virtue and that good things come to those who wait. Others say
that the one who is quick to act prevails. I think Thomas Edison
said it best when he said, “Everything comes to him who hustle while he waits.” I
have heard countless times from professors and other experienced educators that
it takes years to become an exceptional teacher. They have said that
there are so many strategies to learn that you cannot possibly master them all
in your first year of teaching. While I understand that it takes
time to build the skills and knowledge necessary to become an outstanding
teacher, I still want to learn as much as I can to help my
students. I believe that being proactive will help me develop my
skills and knowledge as a teacher more quickly. Creating Personal
Learning Networks (PLNs) make it more convenient to be proactive.
There are many definitions of what a Personal Learning Network (PLN) is. One definition of a Personal Learning Network is "a reciprocal network that you create to learn from, connect with, gather information or resources, create with and finally share what you have learned" (Cassinelli, 2010). Another definition for a PLN is "the entire collection of people with whom you engage and exchange information, usually online" (Wordpress, 2009).
The following is my definition of a Personal Learning Network: Personal Learning Networks are social networking sites where individuals can connect with others with similar interests to share information, ideas, and resources.
The PLNs I have decided to focus on are: FaceBook, Twitter, and Pinterest. I was compelled to sign up for these sites for a variety of reasons.
I have had my FaceBook for almost four years now. I decided to sign up for a FaceBook because most of my friends and classmates had one. I wanted to see what was so interesting about it. Of my four PLNs, FaceBook would be the PLN I check most frequently. I love how easy it is to navigate.
Most of the people in this PLN are family, friends, and colleagues. I love the fact that I am able to keep up with the lives of my sister in North Carolina and my brother in Washington. Many people lose touch with their high school friends and classmates, but I know what mine have been up to as recently as this morning. I have made other friends in college who are on my FaceBook as well as my current co-workers. FaceBook is an additional form of contact to my co-workers.
It contains many personal aspects of my life and those I keep in contact with, so that may be a limitation of my personal page. I do however like the fact that pictures can also be posted and organized into different albums online. Several of my classmates from my undergraduate courses, who are now classroom teachers, post updates (which are usually pictures) of their student's projects, organization ideas, lesson ideas, and so on. I enjoy seeing the ideas that are being done in classrooms on Guam. I posted an update status about my students always losing their pencils and I was surprised at how many people replied back with serious suggestions.
One interesting group I follow on FaceBook is "Ancient Guam". They post pictures of Guam dating as far back as the 1920s. I like to show this to the students in my classroom. I decided to follow this group because of the content they post.
Twitter "allows participants to engage in instantaneous conversations with their PLN" (Lalonde, 2012). I think Twitter is easy to navigate. I was able to connect with companies and people fairly easily. I love how the posts are not too wordy. Many times, I become turned off by articles or websites with too many words. You have options to hide pictures to save space or let them show to add aesthetic appeal to the site. You can find information on just about anything by putting a hashtag in front of a title. You can share the information others have on their page by simply re-tweeting the information. Twitter also makes suggestions of people you can follow based on similar interests. This is an easy way to expand PLN communities.
My Twitter PLN community consists of people with interests in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) lessons, and Promethean Interactive Whiteboard users. I follow individual people and major companies as well such as Promethean, Edudemic, and Discovery Education.
Another PLN I visit frequently is Pinterest. It is very easy to navigate as well. My PLN community on Pinterest consists mostly of other elementary teachers. I decided to follow because of the content they post. It is faster for me to follow people on Pinterest because it has many visuals. If I like a resource and I pin it to one of my boards, the site shows other pinboards that contains the pin I had just posted. This usually leads me to finding more ideas and information by simply browsing other pinboards.
I think the only thing lacking in my PLNs (specifically Twitter and Pinterest) is the lack of local individuals in the communities. I would like to see more of my colleagues and other educators on island in these PLN communities.
Developing a Personal Learning Network is beneficial for many reasons.
Not only is it an innovative way to gain resources, which is fairly easy
to do online, but you get feedback from other professionals- who may
have different opinions than yours- about those resources. Others may
benefit from your input or feedback. It is harder to find people to
connect with and share information (Dunn, 2013). PLNs allow you to
connect with people from all around the world. You can collaborate to
come up with the best ideas, information, or strategies to use in your
classroom or other areas in your life.PLNs allow individuals to share information, meet like-minded people, and solve problems (Curie, 2012). This allows novice teachers to proactively develop their
skills and work towards being the best teacher they can possibly be. Teachers constantly encourage their students
to take a proactive stance in their learning and to push to be the best
possible versions of themselves.Creating
Personal Learning Networks allows us to put our words into action and set an
example for our students.
Reference List
Cassinelli, C. (2010, February 15). What is a PLN and Why do I Need One? Retrieved
