Professional/Personal Learning Networks
What is a Professional/Personal Learning Network anyway?
Wikipedia sums it up best:
Personal Learning Networks are informal learning networks which consist of the people a learner interacts with and derives knowledge from in a Personal Learning Environment. In a PLN, a person makes a connection with another person with the specific intent that some type of learning will occur because of that connection.[1][2]
An important part of this concept is the theory of connectivism developed by George Siemens and Stephen Downes. Learners create connections and develop a network that contributes to their professional development and knowledge.[3] The learner does not have to know these people personally or ever meet them in person.[2]
The following is an excerpt from Dryden's and Vos' book on learning networks:[4]
"For the first time in history, we know now how to store virtually all humanity's most important information and make it available, almost instantly, in almost any form, to almost anyone on earth. We also know how to do that in great new ways so that people can interact with it , and learn from it."
Instant updates from colleagues, education gurus, etc on a daily basis. You can "follow" some of the more reputable educational institutions, magazines, newspapers, and theorists to keep up to date with the ever-changing world of learning!
MACUL
Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning: A site created to encourage and support educational technology.
Similar to Facebook, but more geared toward a professional connection and collaboration.
21 Things: Resources for Student Teaching and Beyond by Megan J. Freudigmann is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.