A personal learning network (PLN) is the broad community of individualsā€”particularly people such as professional colleagues, educational contemporaries, or mentorsā€”that someone interacts with and learns from. In order to understand what a PLN is, it is necessary to examine the reasons as to how an individual gradually develops knowledge over time. For most people, communicating with others is a substantially useful way to accrue information and enhance oneā€™s understanding of academic or professional subjects. To solve peopleā€™s misunderstandings of what a PLN is and entails, it is important to point out that a network of individuals cannot simply be a group of people who are reluctantly engaged in an activity with one another; the process of mutual communication and the expansion of knowledge ought to be organic. It is also crucial to talk about the relationship between the PLN and the epidemic, as COVID-19 has caused individuals to spend a significantly larger amount of time online than they would have under normal circumstances. In this sense, social media and other internet-connected communication platforms serve a vital role in the formation of PLNs during the age of COVID-19.

Furthermore, it is a powerful exercise to combine the learning content of the course and provide examples of the prominent ideas related to the PLN. Shelley Moore points out that there has been an incremental evolution in the process of educating studentsā€”from exclusion, whereby students with disabilities were institutionalized and kept completely separated from their communities to segregation, whereby such students are allowed into the same educational settings as the rest of the students but are separated from them through special programs. She articulates that there has then been an evolution from segregation to integration, whereby disabled students are permitted to mingle amongst the rest of the students but are still socially isolated. She indicates that there must also be an additional step of educational evolution, from integration to inclusion, whereby disabled students are genuinely accepted as equals among the community of students. (Five Moore Minutes, 2018). This highlights the importance of being open-minded and accepting of all individuals from various walks of life when forming a PLN, especially as COVID-19 has confronted many individuals with the reality that life is short. Another example took place when Moore decided to form an online book club with hundreds of individuals on her social media channels, during the harshest moments of COVID-19 when people were mostly holed up in their homes (Miller, 2021). This demonstrates how an accepting attitude and access to the internet can facilitate the meaningful construction and operation of PLNs for individuals from any location in the world.

Reference

Five Moore Minutes. (2018, October 1). The evolution of inclusion: The past and future of education. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQgXBhPh5Zo

Miller. (2021, May 30). EDCI 338 – 20 Minutes Moore. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeSV0rUl1bA

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