Personal Learning Network. What is that?


Confused? That's okay.

I know I am probably not the only one struggling to wrap my head around what a PLN (Personal Learning Network) is. And how can I use it to improve my educational skills? Well, lucky for us, PLN are personal, which means they can be as complex or simple as we like. List first break down what an PLN is.


PLN is your personal resource for people who you can ask questions, get ideas from, reflect on or get mentorship from. Most of us already have a network of people that we ask questions about whether it is coworkers, instructors, family, ect. PLN can also include online resources like blogs, tools, youtube videos, Twitter, ect. Your PLN might look completely different from someone else's and that's fine.


But why would you want to start building a PLN? Well, having a well-built PLN, in my opinion, is like building a team for sports. Any good sports team is working together on a common goal in mind. In my situation, I want a PLN that involves welding professions and educating professionals. It is very common in the welding world that there are many great welders, but not many great trainers. Just because you can weld doesn't mean you can teach. On the other hand, just because you can teach doesn't mean you can weld. Having a PLN with this kind of focus allows diverse conversations to happen and allows a better understanding of welding in the classroom, verse in the shop.


I have broken down fives steps that I believe that will help you be successful in building your own PLN.




1: Identify your goals and interests 


Best way to start is to find out what your passionate about, or what it is your trying to achieve. Once you have this as your foundation it helps to build the next steps.





2: Choose The Tools

The next step is to decide how you want to connect with others. Common tools would include Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, Zoom, ect. You can also do discussions in person, like a bi-yearly meeting. 






3: Follow Experts And Mentors


One of the most important parts of an PLN is being able to hear and learn from others in your field who are viewed as experts. Best case is to be able to directly communicate with them and be mentored.





4: Participate And Contribute


Don't forget your voice matters too! You don't only want to absorb information from others, but your own input is needed to create a great PLN.





5: Organize Your Ideas


Lastly, a PLN doesn't do any good if you're not documenting and organizing all the information. A habit I personally developed when starting this class is when I stumble on something interesting I bookmark it. I also have started creating my own folders full of links, twitter posts, blogs, videos, ect.

Comments

  1. Phoebe GreeneJanuary 25, 2024 at 11:04 AM

    Brand, Your work looks so nice! I really like how you break everything down into small segments that are simple and relatable. Your layout lends to an easy read, and all together you have taught me some good things. I have felt like I needed more content to make it acceptable, which doesn't seem to be the case at all. I also like how creative you are with your visuals. One thing that you could possibly add would be thought provoking questions that might add some depth to your posts, while helping us to think a little more about what your content is offering. Thanks for your positive examples of how to make a great post!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brand FoustJanuary 27, 2024 at 12:50 PM

      Hey Phoebe,

      I appreciate the kind words. It takes quite a bit of time to figure out how to lay everything out on the editor, and then seeing how it actually looks on the blog. I love the idea of adding a conclusion or question section, really appreciate the idea.

      Delete
  2. Bakey's January 25, 2024 at 1:33 PM

    Brand - I really like your blog lay out and your blog post itself. I am having a hard time figuring out how PLN's will help my career or my classes. Anyway I enjoyed your blog.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brand FoustJanuary 27, 2024 at 12:52 PM

      Hey Bakey,

      Thank you! I know exactly what you mean... To be honest I am still figuring it out as well. However, it is comforting to know that I am not alone in this. Hope all is well.

      Delete

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