This document discusses personal learning networks (PLNs) and how they can help improve professional learning. It begins by defining a PLN and explaining how PLNs allow learners to set their own learning goals, manage their learning process, and communicate with others. The document then outlines various tools that can be used to build a PLN, including social networks, blogs, wikis, and collaborative documents. It also discusses different stages of adopting a PLN, from initial immersion to finding a sustainable balance. Finally, the document proposes a PLN implementation plan and addresses potential barriers to building an effective personal learning network.

1. Improving Your Professional Learning
Network
Tunning into a multisocial educational
system
Presentation Adapted from Powering Up Your Professional Learning Network by Jen Dorman jendorman@discovery.com http://jdorman.wikispaces.com/

2. What is discussed.
• PLN- function, networks, etc.
• Professional networks that assist in
learning
• Web 2.0 and the Future of Higher
Education
• Problems faced and solutions

3. Ask Yourself…
How many
Educators can I
collaborate with
on a daily basis?
van Harmelen, Mark (August 2006). "Personal Learning Environments". http://octette.cs.man.ac.uk/jitt/index.php/Personal_Learning_Environments. Retrieved 2006-08-24.

4. What is a PLN?
"Personal Learning Environments are systems that help learners take control of
and manage their own learning. This includes providing support for learners to
•set their own learning goals
•manage their learning; managing both content and process
•communicate with others in the process of learning and thereby achieve
learning goals.
A PLE may be composed of one or more subsystems: As such it may be a desktop
application, or composed of one or more web-based services."
ersonal Learning Network
Professional Learning Network
rofessional Learning Environment
van Harmelen, Mark (August 2006). "Personal Learning Environments". http://octette.cs.man.ac.uk/jitt/index.php/Personal_Learning_Environments. Retrieved 2006-08-24.

5. Title
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jutecht/2384289406/

6. Stages of PLN Adoption
• Stage 1 Immersion:
– Immerse yourself into networks.
– Create any and all networks you can find where there
are people and ideas to connect to.
– Collaboration and connections take off.

7. Stages of PLN Adoption
• Stage 2 Evaluation:
– Evaluate your networks and start to focus in on which
networks you really want to focus your time on.
– You begin feeling a sense of urgency and try to figure
out a way to “Know it all.”

8. Stages of PLN Adoption
• Stage 3 Know it all:
– Find that you are spending many hours trying to learn
everything you can.
– Realize there is much you do not know and feel like
you can’t disconnect.
– This usually comes with spending every waking
minutes trying to be connected to the point that you
give up sleep and contact with others around you to be
connected to your networks of knowledge.

9. Stages of PLN Adoption
• Stage 4 Perspective:
– Start to put your life into perspective.
– Usually comes when you are forced to leave the
network for awhile and spend time with family and
friends who are not connected.

10. Stages of PLN Adoption
• Stage 5 Balance:
– Try and find that balance between learning and living.
– Understanding that you can not know it all, and begin
to understand that you can rely on your network to
learn and store knowledge for you.
– A sense of calm begins as you understand that you can
learn when you need to learn and you do not need to
know it all right now.

11. PLN on the MOVE

12. PLN Implementation Plan
•Stage 1 Immersion:
–Immerse yourself into networks.
–Create any and all networks you can find where there are people and ideas to connect to.
–Collaboration and connections take off.
PLN Action Plan Steps
1. What Tools Will You Use?
2. Timeline
3. Resources
4. Potential Barriers

13. Tools
• Discovery • Mind mapping
Educator Network • Google Docs
• PBS Teachers • Zoho Tools
• Linked In • Collaborative File
• • Podcasts
Facebook Sharing
• • Delicious •
Ning Attend a Webinar
• • Diigo •
Google Tools Use Skype or
• • Set up or join a blog ooVoo
Twitter
• • Set up or join a wiki • Join Second Life
Plurk
• Use Slideshare
• You Tube or other
video sites
• Flickr or other photo
sharing sites

14. Functions of a PLN

15. Brain Rules Book Group
http://www.flickr.com/photos/discoveryeducation/

16. Growing Your Network

17. PROFESSIONAL NETWORKS

18. http://www.linkedin.com/
LinkedIn Groups:
•ISTE
•Discovery Educator
Network
•Edubloggers
•Learning, Education and
Training Professionals
Group

19. Ning
http://www.classroom20.com/
http://edubloggerworld.ning.com/
http://education20.ning.com/
http://eduwiki.ning.com/
http://education.ning.com/
http://necc2008.ning.com/
http://linkedteachers.ning.com/
http://teachingntechnology.ning.co
m/

20. Professional Organizations
• Consider what your national, state, and
regional professional organizations offer
for educators
• List of Professional Organizations:
– http://snipurl.com/proforg

21. PODCASTS

23. Lifestream
• Tumblr
– http://www.tumblr.co
m/
• FriendFeed
– http://friendfeed.com
/
• Storytlr
– http://storytlr.com/
• Twine
– http://www.twine.com
/

24. WIKIS

25. Education-Friendly Wikis
• Wikispaces
– http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers
• PB Wiki
– http://pbwiki.com/education.wiki
• Wet Paint
– http://www.wetpaint.com/category/Education--Ad-
Free

26. http://jdorman.wikispaces.com/

27. VIDEO
Educational videos can be broadcast on you tube

28. http://www.youtube.com/

29. INTERACTIVE PUBLISHING

30. Presentations
• SlideShare - http://www.slideshare.net/

31. COLLABORATIVE WORKSPACE

32. Mind
Mapping
http://bubbl.us/
http://www.gliffy.com/
http://www.mindmeister.com/
http://mindomo.com/
http://www.mind42.com/
http://www.wisemapping.com/
http://www.glinkr.net/
http://www.mywebspiration.com/

33. http://docs.google.com/

34. Personal Learning
Environments, Web 2.0 and the
Future of Higher Education

35. PLE: More than a Technology
• Web 2.0
• Open Source/Access Movement
• Self-publication /Creativity
• Mobility
• Personalization
• Connectivity

36. Things Have Changed
Analog ⇒ Digital
• Instant access
• Customization
• Modularization

37. Then vs Now
Analog ⇒ Digital
Comprehensive ⇒ Modular
Tethered ⇒ Mobile
Isolated ⇒ Connected
Generic ⇒ Personal
Consumption ⇒ Creating
Closed ⇒ Open
Adapted from Wiley, D. (2008). Openness and the Disaggregated Future of Education. Retrieved January 14,
2008 from http://www.slideshare.net/opencontent/openness-and-the-disaggregated-future-of-higher-
education-presentation

38. Web 2.0
• Accessing
• Connecting
• Controlling
• Producing
• Equipped learning

39. Learning Management Systems
LMS is a system largely set in place to
restrict access
• Restrict access only to students who
have registered
• Restrict access to current courses
• Restrict access to copyrighted materials
• Restrict access to student work
(FERPA)
• Restrict access to faculty currently
teaching
• Provide security from unsuitable
materials

40. Problems
• Learner coordinates of technology
• Learner coordinates own learning
• Learner manages own resources (content
& contacts)
• Unrealistic expectations for education

41. We Understand Our Students
Only 20.7 percent of the 150 students from the class who attended the
University of Massachusetts at Boston - the most popular four-year public
college for Boston high school students - graduated by the spring of 2007.
By contrast, the most popular private school, Northeastern University, has
handed degrees to 82.5 percent of the 80 Boston students from that class
who enrolled there by the fall of 2001.
The rates at other popular public colleges were even worse. Bunker Hill
Community College graduated 14.2 percent of its 155 Boston students,
while Roxbury Community College had a graduation rate of 5.9 percent for
its 101 Boston enrollees,…
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2009/01/08/city_grads_falter_in
_public_colleges/

42. Yet we don’t adjust to the
situation
• Faculty teach at multiple institutions
• Students take courses at multiple
institutions
• Faculty bring external experiences to
classroom
• Students bring external experiences to
classroom
• Faculty have valuable connections
outside SSC
• Students have valuable connections
outside SSC

43. Ideal Situation
• Shared student /faculty locus of control
• Learning Communities
• Experiential learning
• Connect learning <- -> experience
• Interconnected courses
• Life-long connection with students
• Personalized learning / mentoring

44. Solutions
Content
• Clear Objectives
– Majors, minors, concentrations
– Courses
• Competency/Proficiency Assessments
• Modular materials
• Individual mentoring
• Flexible programs

45. Personal Learning
Environments
• Needs of lifelong learners
– Assume multiple institutions of higher learning
– Formal mentoring
– Informal Learning
– Portable: Maintain portfolio of information and learning
compatible with multiple institutions
• Collaborative
• Openness is highly desirable
• Personalization highly desirable
• Locus of control shared between students and faculty
members
• Extra-institutional
• Integrative

46. Bricolage
“The culture of everyday life is to be found
in ‘ways of using imposed systems’: ‘People
have to make do with what they have’.
‘Making Do’ (or bricolage) means
constructing our space within and against
their place, of speaking our meaning with
their language.”

47. Constant Change
“The education system is constantly searching
for better ways of coopting learners’ perceived
needs by devising new courses for students to
enroll in, developing new learning strategies for
them to use, creating new materials for them to
consume.
But classroom teachers know that it is a losing
battle… educational thought underestimates
the incredible resources, both affective and
cognitive, of the ‘popular culture’ of the
[language] classroom.”

48. PLE Compatible Initiatives
• E-portfolios (student, not accreditation centered)
• Clear learning objectives
• Content mapping
• Formative assessment
• Inclusion of Web 2.0, open source technologies
• Learning communities
• Experiential learning
• Online services (library, registration)
• Active, collaborative learning

49. Professional Learning Network
Forming
Professional
network
Aim organizing
The meaning of Forming
social and learning
professional network for
networks for Building PLE competence
education development
on start pages
Conclusion

50. Building PLE on start pages
Personal Learning Environment
PLEs building laid the foundations of some
PLEs building laid the foundations of some
main ideas:
main ideas:
(1)learning is an ongoing process and tools to
(1)learning is an ongoing process and tools to
support this learning are needed
support this learning are needed
(2)the role of the individual in self-organizing
(2)the role of the individual in self-organizing
learning is important
learning is important
(3)learning can take place in different contexts
(3)learning can take place in different contexts
and situations and cannot be provided by aa
and situations and cannot be provided by
single learning provider.
single learning provider.
Attwell Graham
Attwell Graham

51. Building PLE on start pages
Start pages
Web 2.0 applications called “start pages”
Web 2.0 applications called “start pages”
are designed to provide aapersonalized place
are designed to provide personalized place
on the internet where users can mashup data,
on the internet where users can mashup data,
information and knowledge available
information and knowledge available
anywhere, anytime, including mobile login.
anywhere, anytime, including mobile login.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia

52. References
Kramsch, Claire. (1993). Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Oxford
University Press.
Liber, O. (2007). “Inverting the Student - Institution Relationship: the Role of
Personal Learning Environments”. Proceedings of Bolzano Conversation
2007. Retrieved November 24, 2008 from http://www.copernicus-bz-
pionieri.it/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=52
Moore, M. (1997). Editorial. American Journal of Distance Education 1,1.
Retrieved January 8, 2008 from
http://www.ajde.com/Contents/vol11_1.htm#editorial
Sclater, N. (2008) ‘Web 2.0, Personal Learning Environments and the Future of
Learning Management Systems’, Educause Center for Applied Research,
Research Bulletin, Boulder, Colorado, Volume 2008, Issue 13, June 24
2008
van Harmelen, M. (2006). "Personal Learning Environments," icalt,pp.815-
816, Sixth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning
Technologies (ICALT'06). Retrieved
Wiley, D. (2008). Openness and the Disaggregated
Future of Education. Retrieved January 14, 2008 from
http://www.slideshare.net/opencontent/openness-and-the-disaggregated-

53. How technology has
influenced the educational
system.

54. Profound innovations in
technology tend to be reflected in
older paradigms

55. but the changing ways in which
people are using technologies to
communicate and to learn and the
accompanying social effect of such
use

56. We have to review the industrial
schooling model including the
organisation of institutions and
pedagogy and curriculum

57. We have ignored the vast potential of freely
available ‘objects’ of all kinds for learning
purposes.

58. PLEs are not another
substantiation of
educational technology
but a new approach to
learning

59. A response to pedagogic approaches which
require that learner’s e-learning systems need to
be under the control of the learners themselves.

60. and recognise the needs of life-long learners for a
system that provides a standard interface to
different institutions’ e-learning systems, and that
allows portfolio information to be maintained
across institutions.

61. Learning is now
seen as multi
episodic, with
individuals
spending
occasional periods
of formal education
and training
throughout their
working life.

62. PLE are based on the idea that
learning will take place in
different contexts and
situations and will not be
provided by a single learning
provider

63. Using whatever tools
and devices which
learners choose.
the idea of a Personal Learning
Environment recognises that
learning is continuing and
seeks to provide tools to
support that learning

64. The PLE will challenge the
existing education systems
and institutions.

65. Conclusion
• PLE are now seen as an essential tool for
education as they provided relevance in
educating and assist in this process.
• PLE is a new way of learning which
recognises the fact that learning can take
place any where, without analysing the
situation at the point.
• PLE are a convenient way to expand teaching
processes and learning
• The educational system will be better with
this program and useful t learners.

67. REFERENCES
Bibliography
Claire, K., 1993. Context and Culture in Language Teaching. In: M. d. Certeau, ed. Oxford University
Press. s.l.:Oxford University, p. 237.
D, W., 2008. Openness and the Disaggregated Future of Education, s.l.: s.n.
Scalater, N., 2008. Web2.0 Personal Learning Environment and the future of learning Management
Systems. Educause Center for Applied Research, Research Bulletin, Boulder, Colorado, 2008(13).