Me: I graduated from college and I learn new things every day.
Third Grader: Well then you must not have been a very good student.
We all wear many hats and play different roles throughout the course of a single day. Choose one of these roles to build a PLN around. The PLN diagramed above is only for my career in education. I also have PLNs for my other roles in life such as being a gluten-free vegetarian and most recently, a cake pop maker. In short, choose one hat and build your outfit around it.
2. Listening is more powerful than speaking.
I often tell my students, “You have two ears and one mouth. This means you should listen twice as much as you speak.” This holds true in reference to personal learning networks as well. As you collect sources and build connections you take in a lot of information. Hence, before sharing information with others, you must evaluate which are the best sources and synthesize the information within them.
3. In a noisy world, customers embrace clarity.
People are bombarded with information all day long. Therefore, it is important to say what you have to say as clearly as possible. I think people who talk a lot (and by talk I mean post, update, tweet, favorite, like, etc) are often ignored. News feeds become cluttered by the same people and it becomes annoying. I know I have unfollowed people for this reason. If you want your voice to be heard, you must think about what you want to say before you take to the keyboard. My high school yearbook quote applies here, “It is often the softest spoken who have the most to say.”