The Digital Learning Environment

Image by Luisella Planeta Leoni from Pixabay

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to physically close and thrust educators and learners into the Digital Learning Environment (DLE). How schools, educators and students fared was largely based upon how successful they were in setting up their DLE. This brought a key concept into focus – digital citizenship – and how students and educators developed their skillset to become collaborative, participatory, responsible and productive digital citizens.

With schools physically closed and ‘social distancing’ or the catchphrase, educators and administrators discovered new ways of connecting, collaborating, communicating and learning. Educators and administrators began developing their digital Personal Learning Network (PLN).

A PLN is a self-created and self-managed network of learning opportunities (Trach, 2017).

Traditionally, educators’ PLNs included colleagues, professional contacts and groups. Technology, however, has enabled educators to broaden their PLNs, providing instantaneous, worldwide communication, collaboration and sharing of best practice. The benefit of a PLN is learning can happen every day, anywhere, anytime (Welsh, 2015). It’s flexible and as PLNs are participatory, it enables a more personal 1-1 approach to learning and a community-based learning approach of 1-many. Moreover, PLNs provided a format for at-home learning for educators and administrators, worldwide, during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Social networking, as part of a PLN, provides numerous opportunities for educators to connect with educators and prior learning experiences, extend their practice through new learning experiences and different/broad perspectives, and magnify their experiences through sharing best-practice with a larger audience.

The first step in developing your PLN is identifying the need for one.

  • Are you wanting to develop a network of educators to broaden your practice?
  • Are you looking to develop and grow professionally?
  • Do you enjoy interacting with educators around the world?
  • Do you enjoy sharing your teaching experiences and reflecting upon successes?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you are ready for Step 2.

This web guide was created for educators and administrators 
(hereafter referred to as 'educators'), K-12, seeking to 
develop their PLN to access professional development through
social media and networking.