Stages of PLN adoption
David Warlick wrote a post the other day about being able to zip up or turn off your Personal Learning Network (PLN). I too have been thinking about how one goes about starting a PLN, how do you monitor it, and how do you learn to shut it off. We all continue to push teachers to start PLNs if they haven’t already. Learning from the collective knowledge of educators around the world.
I have noticed an emerging trend of what one goes through when adopting a PLN for the first time. I myself continue to look at the stages I am going through in adopting this new way of learning, interacting, and teaching in a collaborative, connected world.
As I’ve helped others start their PLNs I have found that many of them go through these same stages. I am still trying to wrap my head around this but for now here’s what I see as emerging stages of PLN adoption.
Stages of Personal Learning Networks Adoption
Stage 1 Immersion: Immerse yourself into networks. Create any and all networks you can find where there are people and ideas to connect to. Collaboration and connections take off.
Stage 2 Evaluation: Evaluate your networks and start to focus in on which networks you really want to focus your time on. You begin feeling a sense of urgency and try to figure out a way to “Know it all.”
Stage 3 Know it all: Find that you are spending many hours trying to learn everything you can. Realize there is much you do not know and feel like you can’t disconnect. This usually comes with spending every waking minutes trying to be connected to the point that you give up sleep and contact with others around you to be connected to your networks of knowledge.
Stage 4 Perspective: Start to put your life into perspective. Usually comes when you are forced to leave the network for awhile and spend time with family and friends who are not connected (a vacation to a hotel that does not offer a wireless connection, or visiting friends or family who do not have an Internet connection).
Stage 5 Balance: Try and find that balance between learning and living. Understanding that you can not know it all, and begin to understand that you can rely on your network to learn and store knowledge for you. A sense of calm begins as you understand that you can learn when you need to learn and you do not need to know it all right now.
Personally I continue to struggle with balance in my life between being connected and being here in person. I force myself to put down the computer and pick up the guitar. I force myself to take Screen Free Week off and reflect (I write blog posts on paper…a very strange experience) and I almost enjoy going on vacation with no Internet access and being “there”. PLNs are very powerful, but they are not all there is to life…and I’m just glad I have a wife who reminds me of that from time to time. 
I’ve created this image as a way to show what I’m thinking. I believe there is also a correlation here with learning. As you immerse yourself into the network your learning increases, the more you learn, the more you want to learn, the more immersed you become within the network. Until you reach a point that you understand the fundamentals of Web 2.0, the direction of Education, or whatever it is that interests you and you have in your PLN to begin with.
I also do not believe you have to go through all these stages. Some people jump from stage 2 to stage 5 or do not become so immersed into their PLN that they ever reach stage 3, that sense of having to “know it all.”
If nothing else I hope this helps to frame some thoughts in your head around your own PLN. I’m just throwing this out there as a starting point…what are you thinking?
Technorati Tags: davidwarlick, PLN, jeffutecht
Jeff,
Very nicely explained, I especially like the visual. I’m trying to get immersed and deal with everything I can with Web 2.0. Hoping to have a steep climb! I do appreciate your updates. Thanks,
Mark
Great post Jeff. Thanks. I am currently in Stage 3 feeling as if there is so much to learn and not enough time in the day to learn it. I guess like anything else in life, it is about finding the right balance. What my PLN has reinforced for me is that life is one big learning experience and in all aspects of my life, I try to improve and surround myself with people who make me a better person. I appreciate people such as yourself who put themselves “out there” to help others think, converse, and better themselves.
Jeff,
I like your stages and the graphic. Will reference it with my Prof. Dev. network.
Sharon
Jeff,
Very interesting. I was just having a conversation with my principal the other day about what you articulate in stage 3. It’s nice to know that it is alright to “disconnect”. It is unfortunate that so many of our colleagues have not made it to stage 1 yet.
Cheers,
Brett
Jeff,
Thanks for posting this. I am a high school administrator who, aside from other duties, teaches teachers how to get connected and utilize Web2.0 applications and network. Your post will be given to them at my next tech session as a way to keep all that I teach in perspective.
My teachers are great and enthusiastic. But, now that they “get it” (sort of like finding religion!) I have seen them begin to get a bit overwhelmed. They are in stage 1. A cognitive map such as yours will greatly help them – and me – navigate and understand their learning.
Your insight reminds me of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’ ON DEATH AND DYING – a true help in understanding a major shift.
These stages are dead-on accurate. I, myself, am just now emerging from stage 4 — having a nine-month-old at home will do that to ya! I am in the process of retrofitting and refining my PLN, which is what drew me to your post (by way of Sharon Betts’ PD network).
I would only urge you and others who work with pre-service and inservice teachers to please express it to teachers in terms of “expanding” their networks, not starting anew. Teachers become easily overwhelmed, but if a PLN is framed in terms of “growing” something that already exists, then we will make more strides in changing mindsets. The networks have always been there, as Warlick pointed out in his cover story for ISTE’s Learning and Leading with Technology. Our learning networks are largely synchronous and personal at first (parents, friends, siblings), as we mature we continually expand our networks to include colleagues and other professionals near and far. The problem, as I see it, is most schools still rely on email to connect, plan, collaborate.
Hmm, this feels like a post I need to finish at my own blog. But thanks for the ideas!
Stages of PLN adoption /U Tech Tips/ – David Warlick wrote a post the other day about being able to zip up … http://tinyurl.com/2cqwh6Quote
[...] Stages of PLN adoption (blog post by Jeff Utecht at U Tech Tips) I have noticed an emerging trend of what one goes through when adopting a PLN for the first time. I myself continue to look at the stages I am going through in adopting this new way of learning, interacting, and teaching in a collaborative, connected world. [...]
@chelucana Gracias, no, no, ya digo, PLN: http://bit.ly/Xs1NG http://bit.ly/2Zu126 http://slidesha.re/3JdZaM http://is.gd/3wzG2Quote