Educator's Are Communicating And Collaborating More And More...
A Professional Learning Network (PLN) is a series of connections that educators create and engage in aimed to enhance their PD or professional development (Poth, 2023), and their collaboration with other professionals in their discipline. From the choice board, I felt choosing "Research PLN" was the perfect choice since I didn't know much about a PLN and it would be beneficial to learn more about it. One of those elements learned was that from a study, back in 2019, educators were really just beginning to use social media as their PLN or PLC's, professional learning communities, to connect and collaborate with colleagues. The concept of a PLN is to create and curate a web connection of an individual's professional discipline with other individuals in the same discipline to learn from each other best practices, trends, Professional Development and share successful student enhancement learning strategies. The benefits of a PLN is that they appear to be more effective than learning at a PD Day within their school district as teacher's use social media as their first choice for advice or attempt to resolve a situation. Professionals can grow and gain knowledge through their PLN by initiating an online relationship with peers, staying engaged in conversations to learn for yourself, learn from others, and to teach others what they have learned, attempted, and successfully or unsuccessfully achieved, even if the professional chooses to "lurk" or just read / watch other individuals conversations, an individual may learn from observing, but it is most beneficial to interact when you can.
Through building a network, it is suggested professionals need to create their hype by pushing their own boundaries, making effective interactions within their PLN, and developing a variety of peer relationships to maximize the use of a PLN, be it a learning network through an organization or some type of social media (Poth, 2023, Wong, 2017, Perez, 2012, Hurt, 2021, and Prestidge et al, 2019). This blog will also have the input of management tips for an effective PLN from a Network Library Coordinator for Chicago Public Schools, Dept. of Libraries.
In addition to PD enhancement, PLN's also provide a larger network base of other educators across the world, it is an online space that Educators can exchange ideas, collaborate, and share resources, engage in meaningful discussions about teaching practices and discuss the latest trends in education. Poth (2023) also states the outcome of PLNs may broaden horizons, push professionals beyond their comfort zone and foster continuous learning. Poth went on to explain that after a year communicating on Twitter and LinkedIn with other professionals, conferences would come up and meeting other professionals there led to bigger networks and more ongoing collaborations (2023). Places to look for PLNs include National and International Educator Organizations, (~100 sources), State Educator Organizations, and social media networks as in Facebook, LinkedIn, X, and Edmodo.
What Would Your Hype Include?
The next article,#CreateYourHype, (2017), by author Tracey Wong, I loved the title of this article, and I love the message that it gives as well - Libraries need to "CreateTheirHype" and build their own brand, because communities look to their local Library for technology advances and uses to improve learning outcomes. It has been through blogging, skyping with experts around the globe, participating in twitter edchats, Edmodo to collect and manage student data, and promoting via live stream to stakeholders, parents, and community to keep them in the loop of advances and technology. Wong also pushes to advocate for Teacher Librarians to expand their expertise and become more effective leaders by joining a good Listserv (2017) and belong to a professional library organization and be a part of a PLN. Libraries need to keep their leadership role to help transform learning communities worldwide (Wong, 2017) and two ways to achieve that on a world wide basis is a Listserv or being a part of a professional learning network.
Some tip advice from Lisa Perez, Network Library Coordinator for Chicago Public Schools, Department of Libraries is for Teacher Librarians or Librarians, is to join professional groups within Facebook, Google+, Edmodo (password protected), and specialty sites such as, Diigo (bookmark sharing), Goodreads, Shelfari, LibraryThing (book information sharing), Slideshare (presentations), and scribd (documents) for another route of professional learning networking within librarianship (2012). Perez also shares management tips of a professional learning network:
- Manage PLN actively - regularly add new people to your network that inspire you
- Flesh out your profile - others can get to know you more professionally
- Don't try to read everything - read only 5-10 minutes daily
- Separate your private and personal life - decide who you want to see and what
- Don't lurk, give back to others - PLNs only work when everyone contributes wisdom
- Post comments that are professional - comments should reflect your school district or employer
- Use mobile devices - provides greater access
- Use aggregators to post and monitor multiple accounts
- Review your district policy in friending students - if you create a presence for your school library in Facebook or X (twitter), making it a one-way to share information may be an option (Perez, 2012).
Love At First Blog?
I came across a blog, by Karin Hurt and David Dye, (Sept. 6, 2021) that has a really neat story to it. In this particular instance, blogging professionally is how they initially met which ultimately led to their next career adventure and then marriage. In this blog, Hurt explains it is of vital importance to have at least 4 peer relationships within your PLN network community:
ENCOURAGER - Picks you up when you're feeling down
CHALLENGER - Asks you tough and courageous questions that make you think; is honest
ADVOCATE - Brings up your name as the person for the job; also, you need to reciprocate and be an advocate for others which is the best way to attract more advocates
TECH ADVISOR - Always good to have someone with an excellent technology knowledge awareness base to work out tech issues or obstacles
The last article was a study taken part by three authors in three regions across the world, Queensland-Australia, Flemish-Belgium, and Indiana-United States of America, 2019. They interviewed 15 ICT-expert teachers in a semi-structured format, asking a question, "How do teachers use social media in their curriculum design?" All 15 teachers stated they use social media as the primary form of professional learning :
#1 is Twitter - their "Go to" medium
#2 is Facebook
#3 is YouTube clips
#4 is Pinterest
#5 is Reading blogs, articles, readings
#6 is Subscribing to new feeds
Online PLNs are created mostly through education based blogs, wiki's, podcasts, social media sites like Edmodo, Twitter, Facebook, and virtual conferencing tools to talk in real time. Some are public and some are private requiring acceptance into the private space. Distributive Learning, according to the authors, Prestidge et al, 2019, occurs when network practices are collaborative, exploratory, and proactive, what was observed in this study was that less experienced teachers, based on responses of the 15 ICT expert teachers, preferred taking a passive role benefitting from conversations shared by others and their shared materials but rarely expressing their own opinion. Prestidge et al states that collaboration is made possible by four ingredients:
1) Solicitation - Seek assistance to request help & receive recommendations
2) Clarification - Identifying and stating areas of advice and encouragement about curriculum content and debate around curriculum development
3) Discussions - To enhance student learning and to share teaching practices
4) Affiliations - In online communities of practice, reciprocate and provide own wisdom / experiences (Veletsianos, 2011 within Prestidge et al, 2019).
Therefore, in conclusion of this study, more experienced teachers use their PLN through social media as a first source for ideas / resources, the generating of collective ideas and collaborative corroborations and it is most beneficial for individuals, peer professionals, and ultimately the students to provide experiences, successful or not, all may benefit from the shared information.
In conclusion, for best use and practice of initiating and partaking in a PLN, is to find a professional based PLN, that you feel comfortable contributing to, and provide your own wisdom and practices that have worked in the past or break out into brain-storming for new ideas that may work in a given situation. It is helpful to also know what not to do ahead of time or if a similar situation would present itself for another peer professional, preventing the mistake from happening again somewhere else.
Works Cited
Hurt, Karin.
September 21, 2024. “How to Build a Better Network of Peer Relationships”. Let’sGrowLeaders.
Accessed on September 28, 2024. https://letsgrowleaders.com/2021/09/06/how-to-build-a-better-network-of-peer-relationships/?utm_source=feedly
Management Tips. Knowledge Quest. 2012;40(3):22. Accessed September 28, 2024. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=shib&db=lls&AN=82563982&authtype=sso&custid=s8366013&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Poth, Rachelle D. July 28, 2023. “Building Your Professional
Learning Network.” Edutopia. Date accessed September 28, 2024. https://www.edutopia.org/article/professional-learning-networks-teachers/
Prestridge, S.,
Tondeur, J., & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, A. T. (2019). Insights from ICT-expert
teachers about the design of educational practice: the learning opportunities
of social media. Technology, Pedagogy & Education, 28(2), 157–172. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939X.2019.1578685
Veletsianos, G. (2011). Higher education scholars’
participation and practices on Twitter. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning,
449, 336-349.
Wong T. #Create
YourHype. Teacher Librarian. 2017;45(1):36-39. Accessed September 28, 2024. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=shib&db=lls&AN=126080404&authtype=sso&custid=s8366013&site=ehost-live&scope=site
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