Growing a PLN

photo by H. R.

This post is in response to reading How to cultivate a personal learning network: Tips from Howard Rheingold an assigned reading that once again has led to learning in digital literacy.

I want to begin by asking all you several questions.  Yes, I will answer as well, I wouldn’t ask anything of you that I wouldn’t ask of myself.  Don’t panic we are growing our PLN not gaining weight.

How do you cultivate your Personal Learning Plan (PLN)?

Do you feed it weekly?  Do you feed it randomly throughout the month?

What do you feed you’re your PLN? 

Are the food bits of multiple Gifs comically connected to your passions?  Is your fuel, focused research articles that require your current understanding of something to be stretched?  Do you feed your PLN by sharing your own journey or sharing the journey of interesting professionals?

What piece of your PLN is most difficult to feed?

Is ‘the time factor’ a cause of anxiety that morphs into a barrier for growth?  Is feeling that you are not sufficient as a learner or leader cause to stunt growth?

I don’t identify with all of the above questions I have asked of you however, I do identify with some 😊.

Answers to the questions I asked you above

I plan to cultivate my PLN by responding, engaging and inquiring in the initial stages of building it.  My food will be these three for now because I am new to PLN and very green in the education field were my passion resides.  Until I am able to gain footing in the education world I will need to begin by using 3 of the 8 tips Howard Rheingold offers in the article.  For now, I am feeding my PLN daily with diligence and digesting valuable information from those in my PLN.

The past few days I have feed my PLN with my WordPress blog.  I have Tweeted on topics related to digital literacy and have encouraged others by re-tweeting and replying words of encouragement.  I am hopeful that a day will come when I can offer my PLN original content that is useful in the classroom.

The challenging part of creating and growing my PLN is overcoming my own self-doubt.  I wonder if what I am sharing is relevant? I think twice about disconnecting with people who are not exploring similar interests?  Howard Rheingold says that is important to “turn over” your PLN, now that I have begun the process it is clear why turn over is in out best interest.

I have all but dropped out of one social networking site to “turn over” and I must admit there is some guilt associated with that?  Has anyone else experienced guilt in divorcing a social platform?

I plan for my PLN to grow in depth and breadth by spending time ‘lurking’ & sharing with all you!