Journal Six

NETs 3, 4 and 5

Warlick, David Grow Your Own Personal Learning Network (March/April 2009) Learning and Leading with Technology. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-march-april-2009.aspx

This article talks about the role of personal learning networks as an educator and how to create your very own PLN. These can be helpful by allowing us to communicate with various people and tools to grow in knowledge about our specific field. Through the use of a PLN we areable to grow not only in our personal lives but also in our professional ones. The use of PLNs are not new, supplemental knowledge through friends and family has long been around but with new technology we are able to develop new and diverse PLNs. There are three types of PLNs these include personally maintained synchronous connections, personally and socially maintained semi synchronous connections and lastly dynamically maintained asynchronous connections. Through these three distinct types of PLNs we are able to create a network of knowledge that can help us professionally but also show future generations how they can retrieve their own information.


Are PLNs only related to Web 2.0 tools such as wikis and blogs?
No, PLNs have been around for awhile and can involve traditional tools such as phones and e-mails.

How can PLNs be affected by the world wide component?
Now that the Internet allows us to be connected all parts of the globe we have easy access to information from other cultures and people. The downside to this is that approaches vary by culture and not everything could be applied to our lives, or understood by our own culture.