Benefits of Building a Professional Learning Network by Kathryn Steele

Enhance Students Learning

kmsteele — 2014-09-23 04:32:07 UTC

A PLN can be used to enhance your students learning by creating discussion forums and sharing resources to reinforce their learning while simultaneously giving them the opportunity to share relevant material that they have found.

Access to a Global Community

kmsteele — 2014-09-23 04:33:51 UTC

A PLN provides you with access to a wealth of perspectives, techniques and knowledge from other experts in your field that you may not have within your own school, city or country. Like-minded people from around the globe can connect and discuss relevant topics, problems and approaches that may or may not work. Also it is likely there will always be someone on line because there are people participating from many different time zones.

Develop a Teacher Identity

kmsteele — 2014-09-23 04:34:54 UTC

By having the freedom to choose what you would like to learn more about, a PLN allows you to create your own teacher identity. You can see how other teachers approach a problem, and then critically reflect on your own approach so that you can decide which one works better for you. You can also ask for feedback about an idea and learn about meet-ups related to your interest area.

Stay on top of your field

kmsteele — 2014-09-23 04:36:11 UTC

A PLN is a place where people share resources, articles and other relevant material related to their field. While it would take a long time to look up each article yourself, your PLN is a place where everybody contributes what they know so you have access to that knowledge much faster.

Build your Local Community

kmsteele — 2014-09-23 04:40:23 UTC

As an educator you are a leader within your community. Through your PLN you can network with parents, other teachers, administrators, etc. You can also use your PLN to share information related to events involving your students and their achievements.