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Building Your PLN - INTC Stockton

Author: Douglas Harvey

What is a PLN and How do I Build My Own?

What is a PLN?

A PLN is *your* network of connections for new ideas, for support, and for sharing with other professionals in K-12 education. In most cases you already have established a PLN, as your classmates and professors are professional resources, as well as those practicing teachers you know. You also have, by virtue of the websites you have visited and the tools you have used, also expanded your PLN perhaps without realizing you were doing so.

 

Here are some links to get you started in formalizing your PLN:

http://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/creating-a-pln/

http://www.scoop.it/t/personal-learning-networks

http://www.edutopia.org/resources-growing-professional-learning-network

http://www.cybraryman.com/pln.html

 

 

Going Further: Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach wrote a terrific book called the COnnected Educator about PLNs - if you want to really dig into PLNs it is a great read. You can buy it on Amazon as a print or as an e-book.

There are a number of online interviews and presentations involving Sheryl that you can check out - some are long but worthwhile:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4-lECbA08Y​ - this is a Google Hangout with Wil Richardson as well as Sheryl and many others. It is a good discussion of the topic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSHLKcmLRDk- an interview with Sheryl as part of Steve Hargadon's Learning 2.0 online conference.

https://www.youtube.com/user/snbeach - Sheryl's YouTube channel

 

Your Assignment

Your assignment is to create a PLN plan for yourself over the Thanksgiving break period. This plan is nothing major – just a diagram of the places and people you wish to integrate into your PLN – some examples of the diagrams others have made are available at:

http://www.edtechpost.ca/ple_diagrams/index.php/