Personal Learning Network and Digital Identity

A Personal Learning Network (PLN) is how someone uses online technology to make connections to “support their life-long learning” (Rajagopal et al., 2012). A personal learning network is a tool supports learnings to build and connect with others of similar interests that can help expand their learning. How we perceive ourselves and what we take away is dependent on our Digital identity. Our digital identity is how we present ourselves online. Our digital identity is not just how we use social media but how we use our digital wallets to present ourselves in our economy. We are in the digital age and it is important to be aware of how we perceive ourselves in our professional and personal digital world.

As an educator it is important to understand the difference between professional and personal identity using social media. Using social media in a professional stance is beneficial when looking for inspiration or building new relationships to learn and expand your knowledge. Social media is a great tool when connecting with other educators or looking at learning resources where they can now Zoom call in and teach the class from a greater distance about a topic. Using public communication provides multiple new pathways for educators to gain more resources to learn and contribute to how they can educate their students. However even though social media accounts can be privatized, it is important for educators to still be aware of their personal uses of social media because there are still ways for people to access your account or a privatized account would not be so privatized. There have been instances where social media is very beneficial when wanting to establish yourself to be interviewed for a job but can also be detrimental if the user is not careful.

I believe using technology and social media is a great tool when creating your personal learning network. Knowing that there are many sources of support for our life long learning a motivator to why we want to participate in networking. However, we also need to be aware of how public our network is and how even though it lets you connect and learn, no matter if it is privatized, we have to be aware of what we are sharing in our online networks.

References

“View of Understanding Personal Learning Networks: Their Structure, Content and the Networking Skills Needed to Optimally Use Them: First Monday.” View of Understanding Personal Learning Networks: Their Structure, Content and the Networking Skills Needed to Optimally Use Them | First Monday, firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3559/3131.