Personal Learning Networks Pain Points

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Permalink Reply by Cheska Robinson on June 30, 2015 at 2:17pm

Jim, 

Hmm, I would have to say is that I struggle personally with maintaining my PLN as it continues to grow larger. There's tons of information and resources being shared all the time, and I don't always have the time to read and sift through all of them and organize them. It's a work in progress, but using a combination of tools such as Diigo and Evernote has helped me keep most resources in one place and share them all with my PLN with one click of a button.

Cheska

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Permalink Reply by Shamblesguru (Chris Smith) on July 2, 2015 at 5:41am

Jim

For interest ... I did a visualisation of my own PLN som time agao at

http://shambles.net/csmith/pln/

You'll also find some info to answer your question at

http://shambles.net/pages/learning/infolit/pln/

Have fun ....

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Permalink Reply by Jessica Thompson on July 8, 2015 at 1:40pm

For me, the biggest struggle in developing a PLN is finding the right information. The graduate class I'm in currently is having us building/explore our own PLNs. One of the aspects is looking for nings, like Classroom 2.0. One of my frustrations is that much of the information is targeted towards elementary or core teachers. I've found some good resources for classroom management, but finding helpful information for management/marketing/keyboarding teachers has been difficult.

One of the apps that I've found that helps organize some of the blogs I read (as recommended by my professor) is Feedly. It has a very clean design and is easy to use.

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Permalink Reply by Nick Urban on July 22, 2015 at 11:50am

Hi Jim,

I am also taking a graduate class and trying out some different sites, building my PLN, and gathering information. The biggest pain I have encountered is simply an overload of information. There is only so much you can change in a given year or with your teaching in a year and sometimes one will lose focus on what they are searching for and engaging in. I have found that one I focus on 1 or 2 specific things and search and organize my feeds based on those few ideas that I am able to get more out of my PLN and grow more as an educator. 

Best of luck! 

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Permalink Reply by Cassandra Davenport on July 27, 2015 at 7:37am

Hello Jim,

I would agree with most of the responses already. My struggles would be not enough time and overload. It is easy to get lost in my PLN and read for hours. I think it is important to have a time set to participate in your own learning and PLN work, but also have a goal for that set time. It is easy to become overwhelmed, tag and save a bunch of information but then never use the information in your practice. Great question to think about Jim!

Cassie

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Permalink Reply by Carol Askin on July 27, 2015 at 10:52am

Hi Jim,

I think the biggest problems in creating and maintaining a PLE is balance as you are trying to keep up with new network resources while maintaining current networks. As has been previously mentioned, time management becomes a critical factor.  Prioritizing and focusing on a few key networks that provide automatic links to other networks could be one strategy to maintain multiple connections. Also, making sure you have turned on notifications will keep you informed when someone posts or something has changed. All in all though, it’s definitely a juggling act!

Carol

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