PLNs Revisited

In an earlier post in my second Master’s program, I first delved into what exactly a PLN (Professional Learning Network) is, and documented an activity that I partook in to expand my PLN-creating an educational Twitter (or…X) account, and participating in a Twitter chat. While I did enjoy the experience, I ended the post with a question of whether or not I would continue as an active member with this new social media profile, within this part of my PLN. In terms of what I have contributed to a PLN, I honestly haven’t kept up my end of the deal (admitted PLN leech). But, I have continued to follow those same accounts I originally followed, and have used my educator account for the cognitive benefits that it offers. In this video, Dr. Torrey Trust outlines these cognitive benefits of a PLN-new resources, strategies, and acting as a source to reflect upon the qualities and resources of my own practice. As someone who isn’t a major social media user, that is the main aspect of my career that I seek out support with on different social platforms-finding new, creative ideas for how to teach materials, or new lessons to try with students, especially if they involve social aspects, technology, or some new sort of gamification (if I can make something into a challenge, competition, or race, the engagement seems to ratchet up about three levels for my students). Linked below are a couple of favorite gamified activities that I’ve been inspired by from a resource I found on a social site (all are created by the blog post owner):

-Types of phrases question trail

-Tic Tac Toe

-Escape room

MOOC-It’s No Fluke

As I noted above, cognitive benefits of a PLN are what I seek most. However, my lack of engagement in certain aspects of my PLN mean that I have not been finding as many of these cognitive resources as I might hope. That is, until I happened upon MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)-free courses on a huge variety of topics, which can provide exactly the type of cognitive benefits that I might be looking for in a PLN. I had never heard of the term before, and of course had never actually registered for a MOOC. There are a few different resources that offer MOOCs, but two that I have spent the last few days browsing are Coursera and The Friday Institute. 

Coursera

Image Source: Screenshot from Coursera, 2024

Coursera struck me from the very beginning as something that I think all teachers, and really all human beings, could get a lot out of. They have their courses broken down into different subjects, you can work toward specific certifications, and their coursework can range from being completely free to being the start of a graduate degree program. I am not sure how much of the courses offered would be accepted, for example, as a form of professional development for teachers, but there is so much more to Coursera than just what can be used for teachers. I decided to do some browsing for what I feel could benefit me both personally and professionally-that was my original plan, at least. However, as I dug deeper and deeper, I realized there was no way I could get a great grasp on the offerings, because it literally felt like almost any type of knowledge of skills you’d want to build, you could find a course for it. So, I instead offer a ‘top 5’ list of courses that I could imagine taking on Coursera:

“Creative Thinking: Techniques and Tools for Success” from Imperial College London

“Innovative Teaching with ChatGPT” from Vanderbilt University

“From Freedom Rides to Ferguson: Narratives of Nonviolence in the American Civil Rights Movement” from Emory University

“The Science of Well-Being for Teens” from Yale University

“Mindfulness and Well-being Specialization” from Rice University

As you can imagine, some of these would apply to my professional practice, some to my social life and personal well-being, and others likely to both! Each course is broken down by experience level needed, how much time it will take to complete, and what the course schedule it like. By the way, all of these courses are also showing as free on Coursera, so this breadth of knowledge is something available to anyone, and can be started just by browsing the website. 

The Friday Institute

Image Source: Screenshot from The Friday Institute, 2024

This website was not nearly as extensive as Coursera, but that’s primarily because it is only put on by North Carolina State University, and is not a collection of courses from all over the world. Their website does offer a handful of free MOOCs, all of which are applicable to education. A couple currently open as I write this post that I could imagine benefiting me in my professional life are “AI with the FI: From Awareness to Advocacy” and “Learning Differences”. As a MOOC resource specifically created with teachers in mind, I could imagine the Friday Institute being something that teachers could readily find more available and applicable to their own practices-the one issue I’d say I had with Coursera was that it did sometimes take a lot of clicking and scrolling to find something relevant to me, although very specific searches could likely help mitigate that. But the Friday Institute page, it’s pretty much show up, see if any courses ‘speak to you’, and then click to sign up.

Overall, I feel like providers of MOOCs, like these two websites (and I’m sure many others), are an excellent resource for teachers (or for Coursera…humans), especially those looking for more of the cognitive benefits of a PLN. The amount of resources and information that could be found and learned about more deeply from these providers was honestly incredible (and a little bit overwhelming, in all honesty-there’s a lot of things out there to learn). After finishing up my current Master’s program, especially if there was any sort of PD or reimbursement credit (and even if not), I think these MOOC providers are ones I will have to try out for myself.

Here is list of 10 great MOOC resources from Education World. You can also Google MOOC for a variety of other providers, including specific universities or sites that are more broad resources, like Coursera.

*As a final note-I could also foresee some of these courses being ones that groups of teachers who have similar interests could attend and work through together as part of work for a school improvement team, PLC, etc.-as so many are free and available in an asynchronous format, they could be really helpful. And again, if schools are looking for opportunities to provide teachers with additional ways to earn professional credit or salary schedule hours, there is a ton available here that would only need to be audited and then could be used immediately.

**Final, final note-I thought this article from Harvard Business Review was interesting (although perhaps dated since it was published in 2015). The TL;DR version is that at time of publishing, most people who started a MOOC did not ultimately finish it, but that MOOCs seem to hold great value especially for those in developing countries, and that most people who participated in a MOOC did report some gained value.

Image Citations

Coursera. (2024). Choose the Free Course That Aligns Best With Your Educational Goals [Screenshot]. https://www.coursera.org/courses?query=free

NC State College of Education. (2024). Online Professional Learning Courses. [Screenshot]. https://place.fi.ncsu.edu/