Why A PLN?

I speak regularly to educators from all over how I discovered the power of the Personal Learning Network (PLN), how I built mine and how other educators can do the same. Whenever I do sessions like this I always get the question, why? Why a PLN? Why do I need to connect to other educators? What is the point? For me, the advantages are obvious. But just like when I do a technology workshop, the points of view of other educators are more important. I can stand up all day long and tell how wonderful they are and give evidence of that but there is something about hearing it from another classroom teacher that makes it meaningful.

So how could I do this when I talk about PLN's? I guess I could secretly fill the audience with members of my PLN and I could "call" upon them randomly and ask them. But educators are smart and they might get wise to that. I could Skype a some teachers but that can get complicated. Then it dawned on me. Voicethread. I recorded what I needed and put it out to my PLN. I wanted to hear stories of how the PLN did something for them or if asked the same sorts of questions, what do they say. I got an overwhelming response and I wanted to share what was shared with me. So below is the Voicethread that I will share in my session. I encourage you to listen to and read every response. They all tell the story of Why A PLN.




If you have a story or a reason to Why a PLN please leave a comment on the Voicethread. The more comments the better!