Blog 5: PLN in Practice

My Personal Learning Network (PLN) is one of the most essential sources of information and knowledge that helps me survive college. PLN is actually not very complicated and everyone can make their own PLN depending on their purpose and intention. According to Bianca Woods, “A PLN is simply an informal group of people who you learn things from on a regular basis.” (71) This means that for as long as a learner can create a group that can help her learn new things everyday, then that can be considered as a PLN already. With the rise of social media, creating PLN online became rampant. One of the possible reasons is because connecting with different kinds of people online is very easy and convenient which means that it can happen in a single click. Another reason why online PLN became popular is because the PLN does not follow the teacher-student structure that schools commonly follow (Woods 71). With a more casual structure, the students do not feel shy to ask “stupid” questions and they were also not pressured to follow the class’ timeline. Even if PLN is easy to create and it can be a positive learning environment for learners, learning in PLN shall be done right for it to be more effective. Accordingly, in creating my own PLN, I will make it sure to follow legitimate accounts, report any forms of misinformation, and encourage others to be polite in participating in thread discussions.

Following a legitimate account is integral in creating an effective PLN because you would not be able to learn anything from dummy or sockpuppet accounts. Dummy and sockpuppet accounts are dangerous because there will be no way of tracing the real owners of these accounts. If they have done anything illegal or unusual online, other users will not be able to make them accountable because they are not using their real names nor pictures. In identifying if the account is legitimate or not, Facebook and Twitter use blue verified badge to help users know that an account of public interest is authentic. In private accounts, it would be better to add users who are using their real photos. In creating professional network particularly, it would be safer to add people who has formal headshots than those who are using the default avatar photo or any random photo. Aside from adding legitimate accounts, one will be able to create a reliable PLN is he/she is vigilant in reporting any forms of misinformation. If a PLN is filled with a lot of misinformation, the purpose of PLN will be defeated because one cannot learn from misinformation. After reporting any forms of misinformation, it would also be better if PLN users will notify the other members to report the same information so others will be aware of it as well. Last but not the least, just because people do not meet face-to-face online, it does not mean that they do not have to be particular with their manners. Being polite is still encouraged online, not only because one wanted to show respect but to also create a positive learning environment that can encourage others to be active learners.

PLN is not something that people just decide to do one day and then that is it. Maintaining PLNs also requires commitment especially when one wanted to be a life-long learner. In my case, I wanted my PLN to last until the time I graduate so that I will be encouraged to pursue my graduate school as well.

Work Cited

Woods, Bianca. “Building your own PLN: seeking new insights and ideas? Expand your personal learning network.” T+D, vol. 67, no. 11, Nov. 2013, p. 70+. Gale OneFile: Business, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A348998538/ITBC?u=uvictoria&sid=ITBC&xid=1010abdf.