Modern Professional Learning: Connecting PLCs With PLNs

Great teaching knowledge dies every day. It retires. It leaves. Perhaps the secret of saving this knowledge lies in a unique melding of two professional learning practices that teachers use today: the professional learning community (PLC) and the professional learning network (PLN). Someone must pass along the knowledge. Someone must "build the craft." Excellent craftsmanship throughout history often happened in places where large professional networks grew.

The same is true today.

The Professional Learning Community

The PLC has long been a mainstay of excellent schools. Jonathon Saphier (PDF) found:

Typically a Professional Learning Community is "a group of educators that meets regularly, shares expertise, and works collaboratively to improve teaching skills and the academic performance of students."

But this isn't a "book group." A PLC is made up of "a school's professional staff members who continuously seek to find answers through inquiry and act on their learning to improve student learning." (Huffman and Hipp 2003)

Why PLCs Are Effective

But, there’s a new element of PLCs and their ability to improve teaching. Matthew Kraft and John Papay (PDF) found:

After their first few years of teaching, those teachers who continue to improve are those in more supportive environments. PLCs can provide that support.

So, to summarize, a PLC is typically:

• Face to face
• High accountability
• Comprised of colleagues from a face-to-face or daily environment
• Comprised of peers with similar professional responsibilities

And educators who work in highly supportive environments (including the collaboration in PLCs) tend to improve more over time than those who do not.

Struggles of the PLC

Sometimes PLCs can experience challenges such as:

• A limited inflow of ideas
• Being a closed network including only those at the school
• Limited in real conversations about real problems by school politics
• An unwillingness to try new things or accept new ideas

The Personal Learning Network

Torrey Trust defines the PLN (PDF) as "a system of interpersonal connections and resources that support informal learning." The PLN is a cornerstone of modern connectivist theories of learning as advocated by George Siemens and Stephen Downes.

Open networks like the PLN are profoundly impactful in the success of the modern professional. When Forbes reported on a study of the impact of learning in open versus closed networks, they said:

Before Twitter, the RSS reader was a primary PLN-building method. Now, PLNs are different for each person. They've become profoundly personal. Some educators log into Twitter and talk about their topic using hashtags. Some teachers love private Facebook groups, others use Pinterest, and still others use Voxer.

PLNs are typically:

• Online and open
• More informal
• Open to a free flow of ideas
• Often welcoming to newcomers

Many educators are finding a supportive environment in online spaces. PLN support could explain why some teachers in non-supportive schools may be innovating anyway.

PLNs' weaknesses are:

• Teachers get excited about an idea but meet resistance in their local school.
• Teachers have no way to share and discuss ideas with their local school.
• Some educators use their PLN inconsistently and have no accountability to keep learning.
• PLNs can be overwhelming because it seems like too much, or users can't focus.
• Authentic conversations can become dominated by a few loud voices.
• Some hashtag founders exhibit territorial behavior that limits conversation.
• Trolls and spammers can derail hashtag conversations.

5 Ways to Connect your PLN and PLC for Greater Learning and Legacy

Creating tighter connections between the PLN's open flow of ideas and the PLC's accountability is not a new idea. In 2009, Barbara Bray wrote an article entitled "Your PLN helps your PLC become a CoP."

Here are five ways to make it happen:

1. Intentionally connect face to face and online.

In his book, What Great College Teachers Do, author Ken Bain found that the best teachers are "part of a larger learning environment. They worked on major curricular objectives and contributed to public conversations about improving teaching in their organizations." (p 20)

Booker T. Washington, the great post-Civil War educator and founder of the Tuskegee Institute said in Up From Slavery:

Great teachers should be part of a PLC and a PLN.

2. Keep it simple.

"Blend" your school's PLC by creating an online space for it. Make this a simple place to share resources and ideas gleaned from participants' PLNs. Many teachers don't collaborate online because it's just one more thing to do. Make it simple to share. Give the less social-media-savvy educators simple options such as an email subscription to a few blogs.

3. Know your purpose.

"He that is everywhere is nowhere," said Thomas Fuller, chaplain to Charles II of England. Knowing what outcome you want helps your organizers and teachers focus on what matters. Otherwise, you may have a flurry of activity that accomplishes nothing but noise.

Encourage educators to share ideas. Set specific goals. You can't be everywhere and do everything. Focus can achieve incredible results if you're all searching your PLNs for new ideas to tackle a troubling issue in your PLC.

4. Encourage new habit creation.

Some schools struggle with PLC and PLN creation because teachers must create new habits. Former Harvard researcher Shawn Achor says, "If you can make the positive habits 3 to 20 seconds easier to start, your likelihood of doing it rises dramatically."

Forming a new habit might be as simple as putting a shortcut on teacher desktops or setting your browser start page to an online PLC or PLN. You might include a PLN/PLC daily challenge and give rewards for those who accept it.

5. Link the online and face-to-face worlds.

Administrators and others should mention the online spaces in staff meetings. Likewise, an online reflection of something said at the PLC helps show continuity. Educators should see both the online and face-to-face spaces as substantial parts of their PLC.

PLCs and PLNs Are Vital Conduits for the Craft of Teaching

Joining a PLC and PLN isn't an either-or choice. I would argue that the best educators have powerful PLCs, but they also bring ideas from their PLN to the conversation.

These two professional development modalities can become even stronger as we link them together in blended learning spaces. Let's get serious about using our networks in even more powerful ways. Let's supercharge our PLCs with our PLNs today!