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Showing posts from June, 2011

PLNs and PLEs - It's the 'Personal' bit that counts the most

I was writing a comment on an interesting blog post by Cecilia Lemos about what having a PLN has done for her, when I realised that this comment deserved to be expanded a blog post of its own, so here it is! For some time now, I've been concerned about how some people are using this term, which stands for 'Personal Learning Network' and which developed out of the concept of PLE (Personal Learning Environment).  Shelly Terrell has said she prefers the term 'Passionate Learning Network' and others refer to Professional Learning Networks , but for me, the whole point about the term is that it's 'personal'.  The term PLN is bandied about so much these days it's  starting to lose its meaning. Another thing I hear a lot now is people  talking about 'the PLN' , which is fine when people are referring to  'their' PLN, but not if they have a big social club in mind that  people are either part of or not. This is not a PLN. A PLN is