PLNs for Educators: Why Do Some Educators Lurk While Others Lead?

Abstract

Through a five-week open online course designed by Dr. Torrey Trust’s students, educators discovered how to cultivate diverse and dynamic professional learning networks (PLNs) that supported their ongoing learning and growth. Surveys, course artifacts, and online community posts were collected and analyzed to uncover why the course participants engaged in learning within and across spaces in varied ways – from lurking to collaborating to leading. In this paper, we present a new model to showcase the complex, multifaceted nature of influencers that shape how and why educators engage in specific actions within and across their PLN spaces as they seek to learn and grow their practice. This model serves as a reflective tool for enriching PLN learning experiences and an analytical tool for changing the way scholars and teacher educators look at and support educator learning in the 21st century.