Professional Learning Networks

Professional learning networks (also sometimes called a personal learning network) do not exist only within education, every profession has them. In the teaching field, a professional learning network is created when several educators join together to plan, experiment with new ideas, and develop quality learning activities for their students. A single network can consist of people all from the same school or even stretch across the country with hundreds of educators joining. It is even considered beneficial to have people in a professional learning network that do not all share the same profession. For example, why would we only include teachers in our network when counselors, principles, and media specialists might also have fantastic ideas about education. 

By creating these networks, teachers are introduced to new ideas for teaching, different resources, and the newest strategies in the education field. They also allow for teachers to share their thoughts and ideas with other educators and receive constructive feedback on their ideas. For anyone to be an active member of a professional learning network, one must both take away information as well as contribute their own knowledge. With technology today, professional learning networks are easier to keep up because communication can occur online via email, Skype, or any other digital communication means. Teachers involved in these groups must be imaginative, innovative, determined to better the education of students, and encourage a changing environment in order to see what works best in the classroom.

When I started learning about personal learning networks, I had no clue what they were or how to build one. I find professional learning networks to be extremely useful in the world of education and very easy to become a part of with the help of social media. In order to offer students the best education possible, we must stay up to date on all new teaching strategies and not be afraid to explore different options and methods for teaching. The video below shows viewers exactly what a professional learning network looks like, how to get one started, and the tools needed to keep the network running.