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Why Every Adult Education Teacher Needs a Professional Learning Network

 

IET (Integrated Education and Training) programs are relatively new and specific even within the context of adult education. For this reason, IET teachers might feel quite lonely within their field.

To connect with like-minded teachers and to see if I could do it, I created two posts on LinkedIn. The first one missed the mark. The second one, discussing microlearning credentials in adult education, gained a little bit of traction. Perhaps it would have done better if I had used hashtags.

In truth, not very many teachers have LinkedIn accounts, but I decided to build my Professional Learning Network and thought that it might work. I would like to connect my experience with the self-generating professional learning paradigm by Prestridge (2018).

Months before I created my post I had been lurking on LinkedIn, observing what is out there and sometimes finding a useful resource in the field of TESOL. Clearly, I was an info-consumer who had to fulfill self-driven needs. Yet, I did not want to remain one. That said, LinkedIn is a higher-stakes professional social medium than, say, Instagram, which means that the post quality must be higher.

I have seen three kinds of posts on LinkedIn: Facebook-appropriate, likes-generating because of some familiar aspect, and truly professionally oriented. I wanted my post to be of the last type. And in a way, I could feel the drive and the pressure.

After I created the post, I could see how something shifted in me. Prestridge (2018) states that the self-seeking contributor creates professionally related posts to seek specific feedback or validation of their materials. I think I had the self-determined need that she mentions.

My post generated a few replies and reactions from my peers, and it helped me gain over 20 new contacts directly related to my field and it helped me shift my status from lurker to self-seeking contributor. Now, I feel that it is up to me to keep creating meaningful content.

 

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