From Isolation to Innovation: Social Media's Role in Professional Learning

 Photo Credit: theeducatorsroom.com

Many studies and journal entries have been written about teacher feeling like they are teaching on "Islands" of isolation with in their school.  It is true, from a teacher point of view, once the newness of the year wears off, we seclude ourselves to our own routines.  Year after year we do the same routines and rituals.  Every once in a while we attend a mandated PD in which we see other adults but all in all, our students are our reality.

Professional Learning Communities (PLC) or Professional Learning Networks (PLN) maybe the answer.  

Daniel Krutka in his 2016 article Published in TechTrends (Click here for Article) elaborates on the key features such as People, Spaces, and Tools that are needed in order to form a PLC framework. Krutka hits on one specific detail that is often times over looked by administration:   

"If PLNs become seen as a top-down requirement, rather than a learner-driven endeavor, they will likely lose much of their appeal in the eyes of educators."

This is a difficult process for administrators.  It takes an administrator to become vulnerable in front of their teachers and do the work along side their teachers for a bottom-up change to be implemented from a PLC. 

But what if we could get around all of that?  What if we could put administrators and teachers on the same level, having the same conversations, doing the same work with out the distraction of hierarchy? 

Venessa Dennen in her 2009 article about online Alter Egos (Click here for Article) finds that at least in the blogosphere even with pseudonyms the bloggers become what their audience expects.  

What if, through the anonymity of pseudonyms and the technology advances of social media, online PLN and PLC's could put all levels of admin and teachers in the same place, doing the same important work?