PLN: Personal Learning Networks

When it comes to the idea of having a Personal Learning Network teachers may wonder why it would be convenient to have one. In fact, there are strong reasons why a professional in education should develop this virtual resource: as they connect, interact and construct knowledge with other professionals from the learning environment they develop professionally. Besides, teachers involved in a PLN will always have a colleague available to provide a piece of advice, suggestions and to share ideas and links.

As Nik Peachey explains, the 3 main characteristics of PLN's are:

• Availability
• Knowledge
• Willingness to share

This way, you can not only connect knowledge inside a big community but also obtain instant information. This information is varied and diverse, so you have plenty of possibilities to choose what you want to use and what suits your needs. 

Why is it so great? First, when we look for information on the internet not everything is quality information but when we are part of a community of professionals who share their discoveries, their tools and ideas we have access to really good quality data. Moreover, we need to find what we want when we need it. The solution to that issue is "Connectivism", Nik states ( http://goo.gl/6fQv4B). Through the PLN's we can form bonds of friendship and solidarity with colleagues even though they might not be physically available to us.

In my case, my PLN is made up of a facebook group called Profesores de Inglés de la República Argentina

My pinterest account

My Scoop it account

My Diigo account

And of course, this blog.

Through all these different social networks I can get in touch with colleagues and professionals of educations who can answer my queries and provide new ideas and support. This is the only way you can get in contact with the latest educational trends and be informed about conferences, webinar, meetings, etc.

"Over one billion people and computers networked together collectively producing over 2000 gigabytes of new information per second"...and it is Personal Learning Networks that made it possible!