Personal learning networks

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Personal Learning Networks
Robin Fay @georgiawebgurl
LOR/Portal Manager
ATC / ATCx3 Consortia

Personal Learning
Network
Resources for staying current in the
ever-changing field of technology,
professional networking tools and
tips, case studies, and suggestions
for building your own personal
learning network (PLN).

Robin Fay, LOR/Portal Manager @georgiawebgurl

Personal Learning Networks for IT professionals
Not THAT kind of network, this kind of network

•Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) aren’t really new;
however it is a way of looking at learning and organizing the
process
•PLNs is about making a connection.
•PLNs can be informal or formal.
•Learning can be scheduled or at your own pace.
•Learning can be face to face, virtual, or hybrid.
•Anyone that you interact with can be part of your PLN:
mentors, supervisors, peers, colleagues, teachers,
instructors, conference presenters, bloggers, discussion
forum leaders, Facebook friends, Twitter followers, the list
goes on….


Example of
PLN
visualized

PLN example

Staying current is a huge challenge in technology fields. So, how do you
do it?
Join a meetup. Check out meetup.com, Facebook & listservs for face to face learning opportunities. Unconferences and meetups are super cheap
(ThatCamp, WordCamp, WPCamp, DrupalCamps, GLAMLOD – a Georgia Linked Data Group, etc.)
o

Social media: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Quora, Google+ . Join groups that are relevant to your field and join in discussions (Twitterchat – I like blogchat
on Sunday evenings but there are many others). http://blog.tweetchat.com/calendar/
o


Personal Learning Networks for IT professionals - Resources
Sign in to tweetchat.
Find a hashtag for a
conversation.
Follow that discussion (you’ll
only see the discussion)

Robin Fay, LOR/Portal Manager
@georgiawebgurl

Connect with experts. Check out their websites and connect with them in social spaces. Linkedin (http://www.linkedin/robinfay ) and Google+ are both good,
but academia.edu for higher ed is another choice.
o

o

Find a mentor. (UGA EITS Mentoring program, Women in Technology http://www.womenintechnology.org/career-development/, etc.)

Discussion forums: Many software, especially opensource, have discussion forums. Join the community but also check the forums for answers to your
questions.
o

o

Watch: Youtube and slideshare are treasure troves of educational resources


Category 5 Technology TV
http://www.category5.tv/ hosts all
kinds of programs related to
technology (also videos from tv
such as CNN; radio shows are
often streamed as well.
o

@georgiawebgurl

o

Play a game like Rails for Zombies, http://railsforzombies.org/



o

Earn some badges

o

http://beta.openbadges.org/share/d5878443ed409da8461a07e71e320f46/

@georgiawebgurl

Get step by step instructions: Check out wikihow: Great tips on how to learn a programming language :
http://www.wikihow.com/Start-Learning-Computer-Programming ), starting programming in python http://www.wikihow.com/Start-Programming-in-Python and
much more.
o

o

Build a portfolio (one just for programmers!) https://coderbits.com/

Find examples and demos. Github https://github.com/ Google code https://developers.google.com/ and sourceforge http://sourceforge.net/ are all useful
resources (and don’t forget the Google Webmaster tools, https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en, Google Labs,
http://www.google.com/enterprise/labs/ , the Bing Webmaster tools , http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmaster, and Microsoft research
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/
o


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Read: Mashable, techcrunch, cnn technology – whatever is interesting to you. I also use keep Twitter searches and Google alerts to keep up with news.

o

Read a book - seriously ! many technology related books are available as ebooks (some for free).
SecondLife and Virtual worlds? Sure, educational groups do meet in such spaces!

o

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Make a playlist - use Itunes or Youtube to make playlists of useful videos.

Use tools: RSS readers (thunderbird, feedly, etc. and bookmarking (delicious, pinterest, etc.) to find and/or save items to read later (I pin on IT, linkeddata
and all kinds of stuff at pinterest) and social media management tools like hootsuite to keep up.
o


oDo

a tutorial : W3C schools http://www.w3schools.com/, webmonkey http://www.webmonkey.com/tutorials/ Opera Introduction to Web Standards
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/1-introduction-to-the-web-standards-cur/#toc , Google University (!) https://developers.google.com/university/, Codeschool
https://www.codeschool.com/ and Team Treehouse http://teamtreehouse.com/ both offer badges, CodeAcademy http://www.codecademy.com/ and specific
sites like alistapart.com and http://stackoverflow.com/


oWebinars ! O’Reilly has a huge list of free webinars on all sorts of technology topics from specific
programming languages to more general IT topics. Archives are also available. http://oreilly.com/webcasts/


Training on the cheap:
•

Inhouse training

•

Training resources purchased by your institution such as Lynda.com (‘like’ Lynda on Facebook for more free content & courses) - & Skillsoft.

MOOCs (Massive Open Online Classes)
Coursera includes topics such as Computer Science 101, Metadata and More. https://www.coursera.org/course/cs101
Stanford’s Engineering Everywhere includes topics such as AI, Natural Language Processing, Programming Methodology, iphone Application
programming, among others. http://see.stanford.edu/see/courses.aspx ; webcast. Berkley http://webcast.berkeley.edu/ includes Computer Science 164
(classes are often posted on youtube as well: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7A7B0FAED3635BAF ) ; UCLA’s free classes include courses on
Project management https://www.uclaextension.edu/pages/search.aspx?c=free+courses ; Harvard; MIT (http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm) & others
http://www.extension.harvard.edu/open-learning-initiative
•


Tips for social media:
•Use social networks to discover new people to add your network
•Use social networks to learn – find answers to tech questions
•Use social networks to find a new job
•Use social networks to find about new resources
•Use social networks to keep up with the news
•Use social networks to stash useful info and resources
•Use social networks to find collaborators


Quick aside:
•Remember as you use webspace publicly, you will be adding to your digital footprint.
So, if you’re contributing code or help to a forum, you can add that to your linkedin or
aboutme page. The more you participate online, the more important it is to develop a
central web presence. (Remember, Google is your resume).


Cheatsheet:
•Read! Articles, guides, blogposts and more
•Use social media management & productivity tools (RSS readers, hootsuite, etc.)
•Start a conversation
•Pay it forward – share and build the network ; share your presentations, documents, projects
•Blog your learning, blog your process – share your process and invite others into the process (can
be an easy way to find users for usability testing)
•Follow and network with experts
•Bookmark it ! Social bookmarking (even pinterest!) can be great resources
•Meetup: Virtual meetups (Skype, google hangout), face to face (meetup.com, unconferences, etc.)
•Take a class!
•Teach yourself – tutorials, videos, and more

Questions?


Personal learning networks

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