My Personal Learning Network

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For my LHA1194 class (The Internet, Adult Education and Community Development) at OISE, one of my assignments is to create a Personal Learning Network on a personal topic of interest. A PLN is a connected informal learning network where the learner forms an interconnected web of various resources (people, websites, books, etc.) around a particular topic of interest, with the intention of gaining knowledge and information through these connections. It encourages self-directed, independent learning around our own areas of interests and what we are passionate about. PLNs are important for the real-world connections they form, especially because learning “inside of the classroom” is no longer the only avenue. Lisa Neilsen wrote a great article explaining PLNs and a step-by-step guide on how to develop a PLN if you wish to read more.

The topic I chose for my assignment is preparing for study abroad, and more specifically for me, preparing for study abroad in Scotland because I have hopes of studying at the University of Glasgow for an academic year. My goal is to create a PLN that will help me prepare for what life will be like studying and living in Glasgow for the long-term. More broadly, I hope this PLN can act as a model for future exchange students to use when preparing for their own study abroad, or for others who wish to study or work abroad. I also hope that documenting my experience can provide insight on the administrative aspects of applying and participating on the Student Exchange Program and the support provided by both home and partner institutions. For this assignment, we are asked to use the following to form our networks:

  1. A social networking platform — I will be using Twitter
  2. A news aggregator to organize blogs and websites and read new posts — I will be using Feedly
  3. A blog to document what I learn — I went with WordPress
  4. A social bookmarking platform to keep track of it all — I will be using Delicious

Some of the people/groups/organizations I will be following:

Websites
Spotted by Locals – Glasgow
Pat’s Guide — Glasgow West End
Visit Scotland

Personal/Travel Blogs
Girl in the City Glasgow
A Girl in Glasgow
An American in Scotland

Twitter Accounts
Glasgow University (@GlasgowUni)
Glasgow Life (@glasgowlife)
About Scotland (@AboutScotland)

Please feel free to follow how this PLN unfolds by following the posts under the “JB Goes to Scotland” tab, as well as the #PLN tag on this blog.

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