Based on Utecht’s 5 stages on personal learning network adoption, I believe I am still firmly in the immersion phase. My personal learning network is currently limited to my university subjects, online blogs that contain information I’m searching for, and professional contacts. Most of my personal learning comes from interacting with other professionals either online or in person, with connections made through my professional work.
In this regard, I’m missing the benefits of a PLN, and I want to make a conscious effort throughout the rest of this course to begin to build my PLN. A challenge I’ve found with developing a PLN is finding the motivation to consistently engage with specific online blogs and resources. I find non-committal discussion resources more to my liking then following a specific blog. Rather, I find it easier to engage with topics that are currently gaining traction on sites such as Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, and easy access forums such as Hacker News. Hacker News acts as an aggregator for content, often related to computer security, but not exclusively.
To begin building a PLN, and exploring the concept in earnest, I’ve installed the “RSS Feed Reader” for Chrome, which allows you to see all of the blogs you’re subscribed too in a single feed. I’ve also started a Substack account, and tracked down some blogs there relating to the Information Studies profession. I can actually put the Substack mailing list into my RSS feed, which is useful. Two resources I’ve followed that I find interesting are the Internet Archive Blog Feed (https://blog.archive.org/feed/?format=xml) and the AI School Librarian’s Newsletter on Substack (https://elissamalespina.substack.com/).
While I’m only just starting my PLN journey, I believe it will have a positive effect on my understanding of the profession, and give me a chance to see the thoughts and perspective’s of information professionals on contemporary topics. With university study, my perspective is often focused on the past or the future, where we’ve been and where we’re going. Developing a PLN will hopefully allow me to get in touch with the current issues and news of the information world. I’m also hoping it will help me find solutions to questions that arise in my continuing study, a benefit outlined in Gutierrez (n.d.).
References
Gutierrez, K. (n.d.). What are personal learning networks? SH!FT. https://www.shiftelearning.com/blog/personal-learning-networks#:~:text=Provide%20a%20continuous%20stream%20of,the%20technology%20involved%20in%20PLNs.
Internet Archive Blogs. (2024). Internet Archive blogs RSS feed. https://blog.archive.org/feed/?format=xml
Malespina, E. (2024). AI School Librarian’s Newsletter. https://elissamalespina.substack.com/