Face-to-face interaction has its benefits, but busy educators who want to ask advice, offer opinions, and engage in deep discussions with colleagues are increasingly turning to professional learning networks鈥攐nline communities that allow the sharing of lesson plans, teaching strategies, and student work, as well as collaboration across grade levels and departments.
鈥淵ou get a chance to see what some of the best teachers in the field are doing, and you can do it on your own time at home,鈥� said Kellie Viera, a reading teacher at the 2,330-student Manatee High School in Bradenton, Fla. 鈥淚 used to stay in my comfort zone and only go to people in my department to find out what they were doing in the classroom, but now I interact with other content-area teachers I might not have contact with in other settings.鈥�
As budget cuts continue to limit district-level training opportunities, PLNs take an organic, grassroots approach to professional development. Administrators and teachers say such networks reduce isolation, promote autonomy, and provide inspiration by offering access to support and information not only within the walls of a school but also around the globe.
Professional learning networks have energized a movement of sorts, as educators create meaningful connections on their own through social networking that encourage innovation and help them model what it means to be a lifelong learner.
鈥淭his is a really good shift because it puts teachers back in a place where we鈥檙e recognizing them as professionals,鈥� said Steve Hargadon, who created , the largest education site on the social-networking platform . 鈥淭he deeper message here is that this is a complete reversal of how information typically has gotten transferred, and it鈥檚 a reversal that represents a larger story in education.鈥�
鈥楾hey鈥檙e Catching Fire鈥�
Also known as personal learning networks or professional learning communities, PLNs can be part of a self-contained, password-protected schoolwide effort or a mixed bag of social-networking and bookmarking sites such as , , , and . The past four years alone have seen the launch of thousands of personalized education sites that allow threaded commenting, immediate feedback on teaching methodologies, and extended professional development through videos, blogs, podcasts, webinars, and slide shows.
Edmodo鈥檚 growth has been fast and furious, in part because it looks, feels, and acts so much like . Since launching in September 2008 with an announcement on Twitter, the secure social-learning network had amassed 3 million users worldwide by September of this year and was on track to hit 4 million by the end of October, up from just over 1.5 million users in February. In August, more than 2,000 educators attended EdmodoCon, its first one-day global virtual conference, with an average stay of 4 hours 10 minutes. (Organizers had expected about 200 attendees.)
Teachers in Nevada鈥檚 310,000-student Clark County school district, which includes Las Vegas, have been using Edmodo as an instructional tool for two years; students can be given a secure, password-protected username to share homework assignments, conversations, and class notes. But the teachers recently discovered how it can also serve as a tool for sharing best practices in such a geographically dispersed school system. Math and science teachers, for example, started separate online groups to talk about ways to raise student achievement. Administrators plan to experiment with cross-content connections sometime this academic year, though participation will be voluntary.
Some of Clark County鈥檚 elementary school principals turned to Edmodo last spring after the district announced plans for new common-core standards and several other initiatives. Their discussions lasted through the summer and are ongoing, for which administrators are thankful.
鈥淔rankly, in a district this size, to get that many people together on an ongoing basis would be impossible,鈥� said Sara Stewart, the district鈥檚 project facilitator for instructional technology. 鈥淭his is coming from the bottom up, so these are people working on the front lines saying, 鈥楾his is what we need. Let鈥檚 talk about it and learn from each other.鈥� That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 so powerful.鈥�
Some schools are creating their own PLNs to help time-strapped teachers pool resources. For example, Florida鈥檚 Manatee High started one three years ago to ease the transition to a new core curriculum and other mandated changes.
鈥淲e use back-end information to see what our teachers are clicking on, so we can meet their needs and offer more resources,鈥� said Assistant Principal Laurie Kitchie, a co-author of Constructing an Online Professional Learning Network for School Unity and Student Achievement, published this fall by Corwin. 鈥淎nd with an electronic file cabinet, things don鈥檛 get lost. We have a record of what we did two years ago, so we never have to reinvent the wheel.鈥�
The school鈥檚 PLN has been such a success that administrators recently launched with resources available to the public.
The Denver public school system, meanwhile, is creating separate PLN groups for new teachers鈥攖here are more than 400 this year鈥攁nd instructional superintendents.
鈥淲e want them to be contributing on a districtwide level without feeling like someone has a thumb on them saying yes, no, or maybe all the time,鈥� said Michael Wacker, the district鈥檚 coordinator of online professional development. 鈥淲e鈥檙e just launching these, but they鈥檙e catching fire.鈥�
Learning the Ropes
For all their conveniences, professional learning networks are not always easy for newbies to navigate.
鈥淚t is so easy to get lost and become aimless and not accomplish anything,鈥� said Vicki Davis, a technology teacher and information technology director for the 435-student Westwood school district in Camilla, Ga. She stays on track by aggregating her favorite sites with Google Reader and syncing RSS feeds with iGoogle, her personalized home page.
鈥淎 lot of people start building a PLN and then get overwhelmed, because they鈥檙e getting all this email from different networks that don鈥檛 have anything to do with them,鈥� added Ms. Davis, whose draws a quarter-million hits a month. 鈥淎 PLN is more like planting a garden than planting a tree鈥攁 tree is going to grow no matter what, but a garden you have to tend.鈥�
Developing a virtual green thumb may take some time.
Pernille Ripp, a 5th grade teacher for the 450-student West Middleton Elementary School in Middleton, Wis., recalled her early attempts to join the Edchat crowd on Twitter: 鈥淚 felt like the new kid in a small high school who didn鈥檛 know the social rules. I knew something cool was happening, but I had no idea how to be a part of it. In essence, I was standing in the cafeteria with my tray held high, hoping someone would take pity.鈥�
Someone eventually did, and now many of Ms. Ripp鈥檚 projects stem from online discussions she has with teachers around the world, including one that links her own students with 5th graders in South Korea and Egypt.
One of the hardest parts of developing a PLN is remembering that virtual conversations can present unique challenges, according to Shelly Terrell, a co-creator and co-organizer of , which features Twitter discussions for educators, and other online education projects.
鈥淲e have to be careful what we say and how we say it, because the tone or message could be misread,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e also must realize what we write is published online for a large audience. If we encounter situations where someone disagrees with us in a rude way, we have to take steps to cut off the interaction.鈥�
鈥楥reative World Out There鈥�
The way PLNs are being used continues to evolve, with applications for mobile phones and other hand-held devices gaining in popularity.
Yet despite their breakneck growth, PLNs are still not legitimized in many districts, where 鈥渢he outlook has always been that professional development is something that is done to people,鈥� said education consultant Lucy Gray, who started the , a network with more than 5,000 members in some 120 countries.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think this is rocket science, but you won鈥檛 understand it unless you participate in it,鈥� Ms. Gray said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all about professional generosity, spontaneity, synergy, and synchronicity. There really is a richer, more creative world out there.鈥�
A world that, with all its digital possibilities, seems to hold most of the answers for people like Theresa Allen. A teacher and the technology coordinator for the 550-student Cathedral of St. Raymond School in Joliet, Ill., Ms. Allen heads straight to the keyboard when she gets stumped. Two hours after posting a dilemma recently, she鈥檇 received six responses from several states, including one accompanied by a step-by-step instructional guide for solving the problem.
鈥淕osh, how would I have handled things before?鈥� she wondered aloud, thinking back to her early years as an educator. 鈥淚 probably would鈥檝e asked the other teachers in my school. And my mom鈥檚 a teacher, so I鈥檇 ask her鈥攁nd then I鈥檇 have to ask her to ask the teachers in her school. This way is so much easier.鈥�
