Teachers - It's time to develop your own Personal Learning Network

Education is dynamic and ever evolving. To keep pace with the rapid changes, teachers need to be a lifelong learner. A school endeavours to provide regular hands on training to teachers but many a times it is not able to do complete justice. The day school reopens, the constant flux of students attending range of academic and non-academic classes, parents entering and leaving with doubts and concerns resolved, the magnitude of co-curricular events, regular assessments, remedial help, school excursions, community reach out leaves one with less time to devote themselves to CPD [Continuous professional development]. In such cases, having a Personal Learning Network or PLN is extremely useful.

Video link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=91&v=hLLpWqp-owo

Source: https://hacklibraryschool.com/2014/01/29/pln/

As per Dori Digenti, 'The PLN consists of relationships between individuals where the goal is enhancement of mutual learning. The currency of the PLN is learning in the form of feedback, insights, documentation, new contacts, or new business opportunities. It is based on reciprocity and a level of trust that each party is actively seeking value-added information for the other'. 

Sources to build PLN?

1. The net offers various links to educational forums like https://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/partner-school/teacher-forums, https://educationinnovations.org/program/subject-teacher-forum, https://community.tes.com/ and so on. 

2. LinkedIn allows you to be part of many like minded groups wherein you can share latest updates and concerns. https://in.linkedin.com/

3. Online learning courses  https://education.microsoft.com/, http://www.scientix.eu/, https://teachercenter.withgoogle.com/, http://www.eun.org/, and many more communities allows one to access free courses for self enhancement. 

4. Social media apps like Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Twitter, Instagram and many more helps you get connected to other educators and share resources freely with each other. 

5. Your personal connections with teachers, educators, peers and friends. My personal network of global friends helps me get connected to all that education has to offer. 

Benefits of PLN

1. You are resourceful, knowledgeable and connected and that builds your confidence.

2. Your lessons are more connected to the present, are interdisciplinary and you prepare students to be future ready. 

3. You are a lifelong learner and therefore more connected to your students as you understand their learning journey implicitly. 

4. You have a choice to connect with people with whom you are comfortable and therefore more at ease with the learning process.

5. The learning is spaced at your own convenience and you are the master of your learning process. You may choose to accept or decline the learning material.

6. You develop a growth mindset as different people offer different views and perspectives and make you look at a problem or issue with varied lens and aspects. Thus, your horizon broadens. 

7. The networks and relationships are more goal oriented or process oriented and thus it allows one to focus more on positive thinking and focused direction. 

It is time to develop your PLN's soon as with the advent of the 4th Industrial revolution, with new technologies and new revolutions, one needs to be prepared for rapid changes and immense upheavals. Thus, a group of networks and groups will offer concrete directions and meaningful resources for one to adapt themselves to a bright future which is unknown and mysterious. 

Resources:

https://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-define/