Creating your PLN is easier than you might even thought. Most of you are already familiar with some social media platforms such as Twitter, Google+, Facebook, Diigo, LinkedIn, but do you really know how to use them to create a personal learning network ? We have several guides to walk you through all the tips and tricks you need to know to start a powerful PLN. Check them out and share with us your feedback.
Guides
- How Technology Helps You Build a Personal Learning Network: Explore technology’s new role in building personal learning networks through this guide.
- 50 Great Ways to Grow Your Personal Learning Network: Our very own guide to growing your personal learning network has lots of great ideas for tapping into social media.
- The Innovative Educator: 5 Ways to Build Your 1.0 and 2.0 Personal Learning Network: Check out this post from the Innovative Educator to see how you can use blogs and other social media to build a personal learning network.
- How to Use Twitter to Grow Your PLN: Here, Edutopia shares an insightful post on why educators should use Twitter to grow their PLNs, plus a great list of chats to join.
- 21st-Century PLNs for School Leaders: Take your PLN into the next century with this guide for using social media tools like Twitter and blogs to grow your PLN.
- How to cultivate a personal learning network: Chuck Frey’s post explains how you can cultivate a strong personal learning network, through social media and beyond.
- Tools for Building Your Personal Learning Network: Check out this LiveBinder to find several great tools for building a personal learning network.
- Using a Twitter Chat Channel to Support a Personal Learning Network: Check out this guide to see how one Texas school district is using a Twitter chat channel to support a PLN.
- Using Social Media to Develop Your Own Personal Learning Network: This presentation from Sue Beckingham and David Walker is a great resource for learning about the many ways you can use social media to grow a PLN.
- Nuts and Bolts: Building a Personal Learning Network: Jane Bozarth’s article on building a personal learning network hits on the need for interactivity in PLNs.
Tools and Resources
- Classroom 2.0: In this networking group, you can get connected with other educators who are interested in Web 2.0, social media, and more in the classroom.
- Ning: On Ning, you can create your own social website to bring your PLN together all in one place.
- Diigo: Collect, highlight, remember, and share all of the great resources you find online with your PLN on Diigo, and annotation and online bookmarking tool.
- Google Reader: With Google Reader or any other great RSS tool, you can subscribe to blogs and stay on top of it all.
- Slideshare: On SlideShare, you can upload presentations to share with your personal learning network.
- Twitter: Perfect for finding people to add to your PLN, participating in chats, and sharing what you’ve found, Twitter is one of your most powerful tools for growing and maintaining a personal network.
- Facebook: Another powerhouse for PLNs, Facebook is a great place to connect, share, and grow your network.
- Scribd: Read, publish, and share documents on Scribd with your PLN, whether you’re sharing classic novels or lectures you’ve delivered. Plus, you can find documents and get connected with their owners.
- Yahoo! Answers: Find and share information, connect with others, and build upon your personal learning network on this popular answers site.
- LinkedIn: The gold standard in professional networking, LinkedIn is a great place for education professionals to get connected.
- Quora: Similar to Yahoo! Answers, Quora offers a professional place to share your knowledge and grow your network.
- Google+: Often overlooked in favor of Facebook and Twitter, Google+ is a growing network that offers lots of great possibilities for developing PLNs.
- Pinterest: Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ get a lot of love from personal learning networks, but Pinterest offers a great way to find other educators, and great resources.
- Delicious: One of the most popular social bookmarking sites on the web, Delicious makes it easy to share what you’ve found and find new followers for your PLN.
- Paper.li: Using Paper.li, you can curate and share your favorite PLN tweets on a daily basis.
- Scoop.it: Like Paper.li, Scoop.it is a great tool for curating an engaging PLN magazine based on resources from your network.
- AddThis: Become a sharing machine with the AddThis toolbar, a great way to immediately share web resources on the web’s most popular social media tools.