Personal Learning Network

A Personal Learning Network is just that: a network one builds to connect with other people doing the same or people doing something similar to what one does. It may not seem important to some people, or perhaps at first sight, but if we think that when we are teaching there's no one around us whispering the solutions to problems in our ears, and that we are teaching people something that should be useful to them and there's little, if not any, room for mistake, then being on our own sounds quite scary.

But it's not a matter of discouraging ourselves to teach because we may be wrong or because there's no one to help us. Reflecting upon this can be a good starting point to build a personal learning network. There, we will find people around the world who share our passion for teaching and may have better ideas. Perhaps not even better, just ideas to help us when we're stuck and can't move forward.

For the subject I'm attending at the moment, ICT for ELT, we've been working on our very own PNLs little by little. I had never thought of connecting with teachers around the world, or peeking at their blogs and their curated contents on Scoop.it, for instance. But then I started doing it and now I know there is still a long way to go, but I'm on the right track to have a personal learning network. I have enriched my background and the way I think of interaction now is totally different.

My Personal Learning Network, so far, consists of some groups on Facebook, a Scoop.it account, some accounts on different webtools I'm planning to use with my students from now on (when the chance comes up), a growing list of experts on the field of education I'm following and my mates' blogs as well.

So, if you're a teacher and you haven't built your PLN yet, start now! It's 100% benefitial not just for you, but for your students.

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