Personal Learning Networks: Finding Curated Content

Image Credit: EduBlog

How do you find high-quality content for your Personal Learning Network?

Building a Personal Learning Network (PLN) supports your professional development, as a teacher, PD facilitator, teacher educator, or an administrator. With it, you will become a part of a much larger community of practitioners, who are passionate about improving practice. A key component of a successful PLN, both for contributing to and learning from it, is finding curated content.

Today, there is a vast amount of information available to educators, which presents both a great potential and a great challenge, as noted by Sue Waters of EduBlog in her tutorial on developing a PLN. How can you tell what information is the latest, most accurate, and most useful?

A good first step is to find leaders in education who both have a track record of success, and who are committed to the use of evidence-based practice. This might include exemplary teachers, PD coordinators, administrators, or other staff at your school, to begin with. After identifying these individuals and collaborating with them, a next step involves looking outside your community. This might mean exploring institutions of higher education, district or state education resources, publications, educational organizations, or even social media, for PD content and examples of best practice.

PowerUpWHAT WORKS is one of those resources. The Teacher Playlists and PD Playlists provide a targeted blend of vetted resources. Share the playlists with your PLN. Adapt them to your own practice! 

Let us know how you use our resources, and if you find new ways to combine the content to suit your own needs, by commenting below!

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