Personal Learning Network Sources

A Personal Learning Network or Professional Learning Network means different things to different people.  In simple terms, your network includes the people or sources that you learn from in your profession. Generally, the PLN is used by teaching professionals to access resources and ideas, develop their skills and lessons, and connect with others in the profession. In your PLN, you can include subject specific experts, websites, social media resources, online or face-to-face groups, conferences or learning communities.

After reading Anna Bartosik’s post, How to Connect the Right Way: Using your PLN on Twitter, I thought about my own PLN.  In 2013, I facilitated a workshop on potential PLN resources. (see the link below) My PLN has changed in two ways since that time: I have updated some of the resources, and I have refined the organization of my PLN for more efficient access.

Personal Learning Networks are quite a complex topic. In this post, I provide a listing of potential PLN sources with a corresponding exemplar.  In my next blog post, I will provide six possible options for pulling together these resources into a one-stop resources bank such as Anna Bartosik’s Twitter PLN. 

Potential PLN Sources and Example Links

Archived and Live Events

·      Webinars http://tutela.ca/Submit+Webinar

·      Virtual Seminars http://www.tesol.org/attend-and-learn/online-courses-seminars/past-virtual-seminars

·      Webcasts http://www.teslontario.net/conference/webcastpresenter-handouts

Conferences

·      Conventional http://www.teslontario.net/conference

·       Online Virtual http://www.virtual-round-table.com

·       Niche online conferences http://www.britishcouncil.org/turkey-english-teaching-stories-for-schools-story-sharing-conference.htm

·      Google Hangouts

·       Live and informal unconferences (i.e. Speed Geeking, Pecha Kucha, Barcamp)

Google Suite

·      Google Scholar https://scholar.google.ca

·      Google News https://news.google.com

·      Google Alerts  https://www.google.com/alerts

Libraries

·      In person http://www.brocku.ca/library

·      Online http://ebooks.nypl.org/B0B04746-19BA-42D7-AD62-093A5015BC4A/10/257/en/Default.htm

Learning Communities

·      Classroom 2.0 http://www.classroom20.com

·      Edutopia http://www.edutopia.org

·      EFL Classroom http://community.eflclassroom.com

·      TESOL Community http://community.tesol.org/welcome.htm

Online courses

·      Commercial http://www.lynda.com

·      MOOCs (massive open online courses) https://www.coursera.org

·      TESOL courses http://www.tesol.org/attend-and-learn/online-courses-seminars

·      Independent teacher courses http://www.freemoodle.org/course/view.php?id=189

·      Learning Communities http://evosessions.pbworks.com

·      ITunesU http://www.apple.com/ca/education/itunes-u

·      Regular focused sessions http://webheadsinaction.org

·      Regular chat sessions http://edchat.pbworks.com/w/page/219908/FrontPage

·      Open courseware http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm

Online journals

·      The Internet TESL Journal http://iteslj.org

·      TESL Canada Journal Online http://www.teslcanadajournal.ca

·      The Electronic Journal for ESL http://www.tesl-ej.org

·      The Language Teacher http://jalt-publications.org/tlt/recent

Online magazines/ newsletters

·      English Teaching Professional http://www.etprofessional.com

·      TESL Contact http://www.teslontario.net/publication/contact-magazine

·      TESL Ontario News Brief http://www.multibriefs.com/briefs/teslo

·      ESL LINC Digital news http://learnit2teach.ca/wpnew/news

Peers

·      Staffroom

·      Lunch & Learns

·      Librarians

·      Authors (web pages) http://webpages.csus.edu/%7Ehansonsm

·      Authors (blogs) http://david-crystal.blogspot.ca

·      Authors (Twitter) https://twitter.com/search?q=krashen&src=typd

·      Slideshares http://www.slideshare.net/search/slideshow?searchfrom=header&q=tesol

·      PodCasts  http://iteslj.org/links/ESL/Listening/Podcasts

Professional Communities

·      Large communities TESL Ontario http://www.teslontario.net

·      Affiliates TESL Toronto http://tesltoronto.org

·      Interest Sections SIGs http://www.tesolarabia.co/sigs/edtech

·      Standards http://www.tesol.org/advance-the-field/standards

·      Resource centres  http://www.tesol.org/connect/tesol-resource-center

·      PD events http://tesltoronto.org/workshopsconferences

·      Publications http://www.teslontario.net/publication

 Social Networks

·      Facebook http://www.facebook.com/tesol.assn

·      Twitter https://twitter.com/TESOL_Assn

·      Blogs http://blog.tesol.org/category/blog

·      LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/groups/ELT-Professionals-Around-World-3460329?home=&gid=3460329&trk=anet_ug_hm

·      Yahoo Groups https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/evonline2002_webheads

Support pages

·      Institutional http://www.admc.hct.ac.ae/hd1/english.htm

·      Government http://www.bbcactive.com

·      Commercial http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com

·      Organisational http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en

Wikis

·      Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

·      WikiHow http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page

·      Pbwikis http://edchat.pbworks.com/w/page/219908/FrontPage

If you are thinking of developing your own PLN, consider which of these resources might be meaningful to your own work. What other headings might you include? Next time, I’ll explain ways organize all of these valuable resources.

Additional Resources

Anna Bartosik’s blog post. Using your PLN on Twitter. (TESL Ontario Blog)  https://blog.teslontario.org/how-to-connect-the-right-way-using-your-pln-on-twitter

Developing a Personal Learning Network https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13vBcqeMHCM

Create your own Personal Learning Network Session.  (TESL Niagara 2013) http://www.slideshare.net/mrpottz/tn-2013

How Do I get a PLN? http://www.edutopia.org/blog/how-do-i-get-a-pln-tom-whitby

What is a PLN? Why do I need one? http://www.teachhub.com/what-pln-why-do-i-need-one