Personal Learning Networks

A couple of recent posts by Miguel Guhlin -- see Vastness of You - Plurk Me No More and To PLN or Not -- and a comment on the latter by Paula Nagle, made me think about personal learning networks, or PLNs.

What IS a PLN?

A PLN can be great for supportClearly, it’s the group of people with whom one interacts, online in the first instance. I have to say I have a bit of an objection to the term, because it gives the impression of being rather self-centred, as though everyone in your learning network is there to help you learn. Help you learn. What about them?

We learn most when we’re discussing or teaching, and although that’s what goes on in PLNs, it’s not exactly explicit from the name. Perhaps Personal Interaction Network (PIN) would be better (which would no doubt lead some people to talk about their PIN numbers…).

Can your PLN be too large ?

I wonder if this term, “too large”, has any real meaning in an asynchronous world? I can put out a message on Twitter this morning, and have a response from someone over the other side of the world this evening. In that sense, is there such a thing as “too big”?

Can anyone join?

What is the qualification for becoming a member of someone’s PLN? For me, it’s having something useful and relevant to say. I don’t care if someone has been blogging for only five minutes: if their first few blog posts are interesting, I’ll follow them. I find it embarrassing, though obviously flattering, when people follow me by saying they really look forward to reading even more wisdom, or who, when I follow them in Twitter, express the hope that I’ll find it worth my while. We should try to get away from this sort of hero worship: it’s not healthy. It’s not even accurate: someone who has been active in the “edublogosphere” for five minutes can be just as “wise” as someone who has been here for years. Perhaps even more so, because they come to it all with fresh eyes. In fact, a member of your PLN could be the guy who runs the café down the road!

What other value of PLNs are there, apart from learning?

As Paula has pointed out (see post and comment referred to earlier), it’s wonderful when people in your PLN make themselves known to you – and vice versa – at conferences. A PLN can also be a great source of support, especially when the trolls are having a feeding frenzy.

So what are your thoughts on PLNs?

Related articles by Zemanta

• How's your PLN health (slideshare.net)
• 10 Things to do when someone follows you in Twitter (ictineducation.org) (Read the comments also)

Update on Thursday, July 15, 2010 at 8:13AM by Terry Freedman, Educational ICT Consultant

Must be a sign that certain ideas buzz around networks at a similar time, prompting a wide array of thoughts and ideas.

So says Graham Wegner in his post PLN Semantics – More Out There Thinking because, astonishingly, at least three of us posted an article about personal learning networks independently of each other on the same day!

Read Graham's PLN = Perplexing Linguistic Notion, and Jennifer Jones' Embraced by the Cult | PLN | Embracing the Cult.

Finally, the seemingly indefatigable Shelly Terrell has provided a repository of links and videos concerning PLNs, which makes a very good reference point.

Comments

[Graham Wegner]

You must have been reading my mind. I posted about the PLN concept http://gwegner.edublogs.org/2010/07/13/pln-perplexing-linguistic-notion/ earlier today. I actually don't mind the idea of the PLN being centered around myself - but it is important for others to understand that everyone has a totally unique PLN, that not everyone reads my favourites, and that I will never really know my own position in regards to other people's PLNs.

[Terry Freedman, Educational ICT Consultant]

Thanks, Graham, I just read your post and left a long-ish comment there. I think it's brilliant, and I urge anyone reading this to to pop over and read it. I think your point about everyone's PLN being totally unique is absolutely right.

[John McLear]

My PLN got too big and too "top heavy". By top heavy it was filled with people senior to me IE la leaders, technical leaders and it turns out they are the people I should ignore and I should focus on the teachers in the classroom (as these are my customers and who ultimately will determine if a service I create is viable or not).

I trimmed it and now things are a let more classroom focused =) It is too easy to get distracted..

I'm not a huge fan of the term PLN, as for me PLN = crowd sourcing. Say I'm using crowd sourcing for information, learning, resources or man power, it's all crowd sourcing so I scrapped the term PLN.

One of the things I noticed early on is educators isolate themselves by creating buzz words or their own branding of an item, IE in the UK we have VLE/LP instead of the US' LMS and all of those are "just" websites. IMHO we should avoid buzzwords and use generic globally accepted terms/words.

[Terry Freedman, Educational ICT Consultant]

Thx John, I agree that it's easy to get distracted, but not sure I agree with ditching the leaders from your PLN -- don't you need to know what these folk are thinking?

I agree about buzzwords, and using different acronyms in different places. But that's true even of the term ICT itself. I doubt we'll ever change it!

[John McLear]

Think general message for people like me is if I wanna keep working in ICT in schools I have to focus on the classroom, not the senior experts that just got a kick in the teeth by Gove. I think it would be naive for me to ignore that. I'm not ditching all the leaders, just the ones that aren't relevant to my work daily. You for example are relevant, but the leader of Channel 4 learning games isn't.

[Terry Freedman, Educational ICT Consultant]

Fair enough, John, it's better to be selective, and thx for including me in the list of ones you haven't ditched (yet!) :-)

[Paula Naugle]

Hi Terry,

There seems to be a lot of people taking exception to the term PLN lately. I have worked hard at developing my PLN, mostly through Twitter. I have slowly added people that have something to say about things I want to learn. Have I learned from these people? You bet I have. Do I give something back to them? I certainly have made a valiant attempt to add to the learning.

If I was just on the receiving end, then I might agree with your statement "I have to say I have a bit of an objection to the term, because it gives the impression of being rather self-centred, as though everyone in your learning network is there to help you learn. Help you learn. What about them?" However, since I’m traveling on a two-way street through my journey as a life-long learner, I feel that I am not the least bit self-centered when I am refer to my PLN. The conversation goes both ways and so does the learning.

Thank you for adding to the conversation and for being a part of my PLN.

[Terry Freedman, Educational ICT Consultant]

Thx, Paula. From what I've read, everyone seems to treat their PLN as a two-way communication, which is good, obviously. But I think it's good to question terms we perhaps take for granted, even if one ends up back where one started -- though hopefully more self-assured!

And thanks for being part of MY learning network :-)

[Dorie Glynn]

Hi Terry,

I am glad to read your post. Especially this part, "We should try to get away from this sort of hero worship: it’s not healthy. It’s not even accurate: someone who has been active in the “edublogosphere” for five minutes can be just as “wise” as someone who has been here for years." I have some people that I have followed for a year or so and I would like for the conversation to be two way, unfortunately it is not. I have even met one person face to face. I just want to connect with others: to listen, but also be heard. I want to say, "Hey, I have the same interests as you! We might learn something from each other! I will listen in the meantime. I am a good listener. =0)

Thank YOU for being a part of my PLN!

[Terry Freedman, Educational ICT Consultant]

Thx, Dorie

I agree very much about learning from each other, definitely! Do you have a blog or Twitter name?

[elena elliniadou]

I am very much interested in PLN and I totally agree with the post. you might also want to take a look at a video I made for a conference in April. Thank you!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZEEf3uSo14

[Terry Freedman, Educational ICT Consultant]

Thx Elena, that's a really nice video. I like the way you've emphasised starting small, and going one step at a time. It makes the whole process seem much less daunting than it might otherwise. Thanks for drawing that to my attention.

[john, SpellingCity.com]

I have a question about whether there is any research or discussion about PLNs conflicting with formal school hierarchies. Here's a for instance. My website has been marketed entirely through Web 2.0 techniques. It's wildly successful. Over 5% of the elementary school students each month use SpellingCity. It has been disseminiated entirely online with adoption, as far as I know, at the classroom level. It somewhat baffles me that the formal educational hierarchy, all those state and district people, never contact us at all.

The PLNs in this case have led to widespread adoption of a supplementary learning tool in the classrooms which apparently is unknown to the educational hierarchy.

Is this common? is there any literature or discussion of this phenemonon? I'd be interested in people's thoughts. i can be reached as Mayor , www.SpellingCity.com (put an @ sign there)

[Terry Freedman, Educational ICT Consultant]

Thx, John. I'll mention this in my next newsletter, to see if there is any response from readers. I think it's a matter of where people are used to looking. Well done for using Web 2.0 to such effect. What techniques did you use? You mean social networking and tweeting?