Laura BechardDr. Stella Lee

Using your Personal Learning Network (PLN) to Shift your Career to the Next Level

CSTD Calgary – April 15, 2014

Today’s Outline

•Engage in discussions to strengthen and deepen your personal learning network (PLN)

•Examine examples of how learning professionals use Twitter and LinkedIn

•Brainstorm your own ideas on developing a PLN

•Create at least one action step to expand or develop your PLN

Activity 1

What is Personal Learning Network?

A Personal Learning Network (PLN) is an informal learning network that consists of the people a learner interact with and derives knowledge from in a personal learning environment (PLE).

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_learning_network

It is a self-directed learning space; a virtual framework that consists of tools to collect, curate and construct knowledge that is customized to an individual’s learning goals and interests.

http://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/how-to-create-a-robust-and-meaningful-personal-learning-network-pln/

What is Personal Learning Environment

(PLE)?

Starting a PLN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqSH5TMYlz4

Build Your PLN

• Join a professional social network (i.e. LinkedIn or Ning)

• Read Tweets at Twitter

• Find 3 blogs you find interesting and start reading them

List of Blogs

http://c4lpt.co.uk/resources/social-learning-handbook/workplace-learning-professionals-who-blog-andor-tweet/

Why should you build and expand your PLN?

What tools or techniques do you use to build or develop your PLN right now?

Various Ways to Participate

Lurking

Commenting

Sharing

Contributing

Collaborating

Creating

Lurking is Learning

“Learning is a process. Lurking could be equated to reading, interpreting, synthesizing or augmenting for purposes of gaining further acumen, insight and understanding”

Source: http://www.danpontefract.com/lurking-is-learning/

Group Brainstorming

What are some of the social media tools currently used in your group? With a focus on PLN?

Who to follow

Using Twitter list

Using hashtags (#)

Using Twitter

Twitter Lists

A list is a curated group of Twitter users. You can create your own lists or subscribe to lists created by others.

To Create a List

• Go to your List page. This can be done via the gear icon drop down menu

• Click Create list

• Enter the name of your list, and select it as private or public

• Click Save list

Source: https://support.twitter.com/articles/76460-using-twitter-lists#

Hashtags #

A hashtag is simply a way for people to search for tweets that have a common topic.

Example: If you search on #Education (or #education or #EduCaTion, because it's not case-sensitive), you'll get a list of tweets related to the topic of education.

Using LinkedIn

Join and participate in LinkedIn Groups

Maintain and update your profile regularly

Continue to build your network

Share items with your network

LinkedIn Groups

Maintenance

Growing your PLN also requires tending to the maintenance of it.

Some Trends

• Convergence of social, mobile, analytics and the cloud

• More social tools to choose from: Facebook, Google+, Snapchat, Pinterest, YouTube, Vine, Delicious

Action Planning

By Tuesday, April 22nd, I will _________

Example: By Tuesday, April 22nd, I will invite each of the people at my table to connect with me on LinkedIn

Closing Thoughts

Developing a PLN takes effort and time – yet it is a rewarding activity. You are no longer limited by resources and geography; PLN allows you to connect to other learners and communities around the globe.

Further Resources

How to create a robust and meaningful personal network - http://www.bottomlineperformance.com/elearning-trends-fizzled-elearning-trends-sizzle-2014/

Why (and how) you should create a PLN - http://www.edudemic.com/build-personal-learning-network/

Personal Learning Networks on Pinterest - http://www.pinterest.com/esheninger/personal-learning-networks/

Thank You!Stella Lee

Email: stellaylee@gmail.com

Twitter: @stellal

Academia: http://athabascau.academia.edu/StellaLee

LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stellal/

Laura Bechard

Email: l1bechard@gmail.com

Twitter: @bechardl

LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/laurabechard