Week 4

Personal learning network (PLN)

Student’s Name

Institution

Date

Personal Learning Network

The personal learning network is regarded as a group of people or colleague, professionals and mentors that an individual connect with so that he or she can enhance learning and also take charge of their professional development. It is a worldwide online community, which allows members to tap into a broad wealth of knowledge and help members to focus on the most essential learning. PLN is very valuable since new ideas and information are changing the world a bit faster. Building a credible and a good PLN requires a good credential and social media. And therefore, in building a better PLN, social media page such as twitter, LinkedIn would be ideal sites for meeting new people and creating connection. I would first open twitter and LinkedIn account and start following mentors and educator of my interest.

The twitter and LinkedIn accounts are essential tool for creating PLN because of the huge professional followers, which exist in twitter and LinkedIn and therefore, creating the two social media accounts would definitely give me an opportunity to meet new people across different professions and also from the same profession CITATION Edo11 \l 1033 (Edosomwan, Prakasan, Kouame, & Watson, 2011). Twitter has millions of users and several professional groups which can offer the best learning platform. For instance, there are corporate, mentorship, institution and inspirational leaders, which various platforms, which can offer the best learning materials in any field. LinkedIn is also an important tool because of the connections, which it offers. Through LinkedIn I would be able to subscribe to various institutions including mentor groups and learning institutions. Study has also established that there are several groups in social media such as twitter and LinkedIn, which offers trainings on various field of studies and especially on management and therefore LinkedIn and twitter would be the best tool.

In order to build a viable Personal Learning Network (PLN) it would be better to connect with human resource and management personalities. The personalities’ twitters and LinkedIn accounts, which would be useful for PLN, are Chris Mobbs, Chris Mobbs is a director Innovation for Growth, specialising in business research, innovation, and business plan. He provides advisers regarding how to develop a good business plan and innovation skills. Besides he offers training on strategic management and marketing research and therefore, following him on twitter and LinkedIn would provide the best opportunity to learn more from him. Since I have interest in innovation and business, it would be a great opportunity to learn from him. Besides Chris Mobbs has over seven hundred thousand followers, which create more opportunity to learn more from his network. I believe Chris Mobbs would be one of the greatest business oriented personality which I would include in my PLN.

I would also follow Prof. David Costa both twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Prof. David Costa is a renowned educationist. He provide online notes and trainings in the field of management, accounting and therefore, being part of his network would be a learning platform in several areas which are essential for career building CITATION Man13 \l 1033 (Manrai & Manrai, 2013). Career building could be achieved through constant learning and therefore, his social media network, I would be able develop more skills in management and especially in strategic marketing which is always his major focus.

However, these group of personalities could be found on the social and therefore, the first step would be to open twitter and LinkedIn account. Once the accounts have been opened, I would invite and follow the personality of my choice. The invite is sent and an individual has to accept the invitation both on twitter and LinkedIn. It is also important to note that the individuals would be invited based on personal interest, profession and career goals. It ensures that the right, correct and learning information is obtained from the individuals on the social media. It is also important to build engagement with people within the network. This would be obtained by positing various notes and articles on the group and my timeline as well. According to Crowley (2018), it helps in building a strong connection with people within the network and therefore, facilitates sharing of notes and other learning materials, which is crucial for personal learning network. Without sharing, it would be difficult for people within the group to understand what some likes and the topics of reading and therefore, it is important to share with group. I will therefore, post at least a note daily and an article weekly to build a strong network.

After creating LinkedIn and twitter accounts, it would be important to keep it active and engage with other people. Therefore, I intend to invite friends and other people whom I admire to be part of my personal learning network. Creating a network with several followers is a good strategy, which could be utilized to enhance learning. Having several people within the network would also be essential in improving the status of PLN and therefore, it would easy attract other admires which can be a great source of learning. In brief, the process of creating a viable PLN starts from creating an account with clear details and then inviting other people. It is followed by joining group which has similar interest and following personalities who I believe is of great importance and I can learn from their platform. I will also like various pages of personalities in the business community, which provide learning materials, mentors and motivation notes.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Crowley, B. (2018). Steps for Building a Professional Learning Network. Social media

connection Journal , 2-15.

Edosomwan, S. O., Prakasan, S., Kouame, D., & Watson, J. (2011). The history of social media

and its impact on business. The Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, , 16 (3), 2-34.

Manrai, L., & Manrai, A. K. (2013). Social Media: Past, Present and Future.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259528201_Social_Media_Past_Present_and_Future , 2-15.