Marc-André Lalande offers a straightforward look at the attributes of a personal learning network (PLN) in this short video ‘What is a PLN?’ (DevPro PD Flipped, 2012):

The video distinguishes between a professional learning network and one that is more personally relevant and driven by your own needs and aspirations.

Now take a look at ‘Understanding and Creating Professional Learning Networks’ (Miles MacFarlane, 2013).

This video presents some of the research associated with PLNs, including research by Dr. George Veletsianos, Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning and Technology at Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia.

PLNs are personal, or more accurately, personalised. They might be organised around personal or professional learning interests, but they are uniquely yours. For example, you may have a shared interest with someone else around a particular topic, perhaps home-brewing or photography, but the intersecting zones of your PLNs would be different because your own network is based on connections that you form yourself, and conversations that you have with others. You determine who is in your network and how you engage with them.

PLNs are also formed around the goal of learning. They are made up of ‘nodes’ – the people and organisations that you recognise as being important to your learning – and the connections between them. Connections between the nodes are built and strengthened through shared interests, conversations, and other interactions, like posting links to useful articles, sharing resources, or offering insights from your own experience.

You might communicate with your learning network through the same tools you use primarily for social purposes, but PLNs, at their core, are meant to promote your own growth, development, and understanding in an area that is meaningful to you.

Personal learning networks do highlight the social nature of learning, though, revealing that the ways you interact with your network might blur the boundary between your social identity and your identity in academic and/or professional spheres.