1. Analysis
of
Personal Learning Networks
in Support of Teachers’
Presence Optimization
Malinka IVANOVA, Technical University of Sofia
Carmen HOLOTESCU, Politehnica University Timisoara
Gabriela GROSSECK, West University of Timisoara

2. Aim
To study the organization of Personal Learning
Networks (PLN) and to support the optimization
of teachers’ efficacy and productivity

3. Outline
• Networked world
• Related work
• Survey results and analysis
• Discussion and the model for PLN
optimization
• Conclusion

4. Social networks
progress of information and communication
technologies
need of reliable connection and successful dialog
among people with similar interests
Web 2.0 developed tools and social software with
flexible user interface
culture of sharing, promotion of new ideas and
connection
socialization through web-based communicative and
collaborative activities
enhanced instruments for personalization
phenomenon of a networked world
 SNs have a strong impact on teachers’ behaviors - for
self-elaboration, improvement of teaching and collaboration

5. Personal Learning Network
Learning network -
Social learning networks -
describes the gained experience of
can utilize social software and social
students and teachers when they
networking sites – learning through
utilize computers for learning
interactions among participants
(http://csalt.lancs.ac.uk/jisc/, 2001)
Personal learning networks -
describe “the sum of all social capital and
connections that result in the development and
facilitation of a personal learning environment” ,
(Couros, 2010)
 The social interactions of every person could support his currently emerged
or future planned needs for learning, shaping the individual features

6. Research Questions
Whether What is the How
and how dependence a PLN could be
a PLN could between optimized to
facilitate the network stimulate the
teacher’s structure and teacher’s
practice? the teacher’s productivity?
efficacy?

7. Used Method
• about the impact of social networking and social media
literature on personal and professional development
exploration • research reports and scientific papers with
experimentations focused on teachers’ online presence
creation of a • to understand teachers’ engagement and motivation for
participation in social networks
tool for data • to comprehend the ways of PLN building
collection • to catch up the purposes of use
• to support the teachers practice in the directions of
model personal learning network optimization and further
elaboration
development

8. Literature Exploration
Social media potential
• A report of organizations : edWeb.net, • A report about relationship
IESD Inc., MMS Education, and MCH between professional
Social networks use
Inc. about personal and professional development of educators
usage of SNs by school principals, and social media (McCulloch,
librarians, teachers and students McIntosh, Barrett 2011)
• Benefits of SNs for education are: • Social media potential for
information and resources sharing, improvement of teachers’
professional learning communities’ quality and performance -
creation, improvement of school-wide identified through case
communications , (Final report School studies and through
Principals and Social Networking in presenting the social media
Education, 2010) benefits for business

9. • A paper for Ning use in
Microblogging for personal development
Social Networks in distance learning
Social media in Higher education
• Exploration of social • A paper for the role
support of topics
media for personal of microblogging for
discussion, community of
practice forming and and professional use personal
students’ social presence • Findings - educators development and
building are active users of organization of social
• advantages of social Facebook, YouTube, networking
network range from LinkedIn, blogs, wikis, • several possible
“increased levels of Twitter, 90% of them learning scenarios are
communication and have a stake in social proposed, (Holotescu
collaboration to deeper media, (Moran, and Grosseck, 2010)
levels of reflection”, Seaman, Tinti-Kane,
(Brady, Holcomb, Smith, 2011)
2010)

10. Scientific Events Exploration
• the importance of
scientific events related
to the PLE/PLN concepts :
– the conference from
Barcelona, Spain (2010)
– the conference from
Southampton, UK (2011)

11. Social Network Analysis (SNA)
SNS - a method for understanding the formal and informal relationships in a social
network (its structure) and how connections could facilitate or cumber knowledge
gathering and learning occurring, (Serrat, 2009)
Web crawling method - for analysis of online social networks like Flickr, YouTube,
LiveJournal and Orkut - suitable in the situation when the users’ data is not directly
accessible, (Mislove et al., 2007)
Content-based SNA - for the reaching data from mailing lists - a network is divided
in subgraphs organizing participants according to the discussed topic, (Bohn et al.,
2011)
Personal network analysis - to explore the structure of relations among
young people and to find the connections in personal networks and
discourses, (Aguilar, 2003)

12. participate
in different SNA
social
networks • A survey with questions
grouped into three categories:
– current PLN structure
– its dynamic view
every PLN use a wide – regular usage for personal
consists of variety of development and for
several Teachers social educational purposes
social learning • This survey is distributed to
networks platforms
teachers from Primary
schools, High schools and
universities over the world
have
specific (Thanks to @pdonaghy)
individual
interests

13. Survey Results
Teachers’ gender: Teachers’ ages:
70%
59%
60%
50% 10%
41% 24% 32% 25-35
40%
male 36-45
30%
female 46-55
20% 34% 56-65
10% Average ages of surveyed teachers: 43
0%

14. 45% Teaching subject/s: Language as a foreign
language
40% 39%
Computer
science, Information
35%
Systems, Mathematics
Educational
30% technology, eLearning
Natural science
25%
20% Humanities
17%
15%
15%
12% 12%
Primary education
10%
Social science
5% 5% 5%
5%
2%
Entrepreneurship and
0% Business

15. Nationality: Romanian
Bulgarian
Spanish
2% 2% 2%
New Zealand
2%
2%
2%
2% 10% Irish
7% Greek
5%
American
5%
Brazilian
17%
5% Indian
Canadian
12% 7%
British
10%
German
2% French
Egyptian
2% Argentinian
Italian
Portuguese
Turkish

16. What kind of social software do you use in your personal learning network?
120%
social networks
100%
98% 85% authoring tools
80%
78% 78%
66% analytical tools
60%
search engines
40% 32%
software for
20% 15% communication
software for collaboration
0%
Other: Managed learning environment (Google Apps for Education
including Teacher Dashboard (Hapara)), LMS Moodle, software for
curation / storage (Scoopit, Diigo, Mendeley), mobile applications

17. What social networks do you use? What social educational platform do you use for
educational purposes (teaching/learning)?
100%
78% 76% 90% 80%
80% 68% Facebook 80%
60% 70% Google Docs
Twitter 59%
60% 54%
40% 32% Linkedin Wiki
24% 50%
Classroom 2.0 40% Ning
20%
other 30% 24% Moodle
0% 20% 17% 17%
Edu 2.0
10% other
0%
Other:Tuenti (Spanish social
network), Edublog, Google+, YouVersion
(Bible), School Management System, PB Other: Wordpress, Etwinning Blogger, FROG
Works, SoundCloud, Ning, ConnectYard, VLE Kidblog, NING, Haiku (google
aPLANET, EFL Ning ap), Blackboard, Edmodo, Wall.fm, tried
Classroom, Flickr, Pinterest, Blogger, Logn Grou.ps in the past, Google
et, Xing Sites, Netvibes, cirip (microblogging
platforms), Twitter, Moodle. Edu 2.0

18. Do you have an account in Twitter?
10%
yes
90% no
Do you have an account in social network Facebook?
100% 93%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50% yes
40%
no
30%
20%
10% 7%
0%

19. How long do you use Twitter?
5%
16% 8% < 1 year
1 year
16% 22%
2 years
3 years
32%
4 years
> 4 years
How long do you use Facebook?
0.45
39%
0.4
0.35
< 1 year
0.3
24% 24% 1 year
0.25
2 years
0.2
0.15 3 years
10%
0.1 4 years
0.05 3% > 4 years
0

20. How often do you use Twitter?
30%
27% continuously
25%
several times in a
day
20% 19%19%
daily
15% 14% How often do you use Facebook?
several times in a
11% week
10% weekly
30%
5% 5% continuously
26%
5% several times in a
25% 24%
month several times in a
0% rarely day
20%
daily
16%
15% 13% several times in a
week
10%
10% 8% weekly
5% 3% several times in a
month
0% rarely

21. How many friends do you have –
following/followers in Twitter?
20%
18%18% 18%
18% > 1300/1500
16% > 900/1300
14% > 1900/800
12%
12%
> 800/800
10% 9%
> 200/300
8%
6% > 100/100
6%
4% 3% 3% < 50/50 How many friends do you have in Facebook?
2% < 11/11
0%
25%
20% < 50
20%
51-100
15% 15% 15% 15%
15% 101-200
10% 201-300
10% 301-400
7%
600-700
5% 3% 800-900
> 1000
0%

22. What is the structure of your friends in Twitter?
90% real friends
80% 78%
73%
70% family members
60% 57%
50% 46% colleagues
40%
30%
30%
other interesting for you
22% people that you do not
20%
know in real life – in
personal aspect
10%
other interesting for you
people that you do not
0%
know in real life – in
professional aspect

23. 60%
54% search tool
50%
43% 41%
40% recommendation tool
How do you expand
your Twitter network? 30%
24%
web sites
20%
functionality (Twitter
10% add button)
other
0%
Other :
“I receive an email from twitter that someone new is following me. So, I click on their profile. I read their
recent tweets. If I am interested, I follow them”.
“Now I only add people if they follow me and if they look interesting I follow them back. Or I add a person
now if I actually meet them F2F. Or if I read an article or email and their twitter handle is there I may add
them”.
“Nearly always following people of my people, I'm following re-tweet”.
“I really don't plan to expand my Twitter network”.
“People find me when I present at conferences”.
In case of “personal recommendation.”
“I mostly watch the timeline for interesting info, and then add those users. Sometimes I also add people that
start following me, but not always”.
“I just follow the serendipity”.
“I especially expand my twitter through people - if I follow someone who I think he or she is interesting I
follow as well the people they follow”.

24. What is the structure of your friends in Facebook?
90% real friends
82%
80%
74%
family members
70% 68%
66%
60%
colleagues
50%
40% other interesting for you
34% people that you do not
30% know in real life – in
personal aspect
other interesting for you
20% people that you do not
11% know in real life – in
10% professional aspect
strangers
0%

25. How do you expand your Facebook network?
38%
search tool
Other :
37%
37% “I do not try to expand it”
“ I add friends in real life”
36% “I accept request”
35% recommendation “I do not wish to expand, only use it an
34% 34% tool
alternate mode to broadcast my activities
34%
and ideas”,
33%
web sites “I add family members”
32%
32% functionality “from joining other people's
(Twitter add conversations”,
31% button)
“I do not actively expand my Facebook
30% other network”,
29% “I normally ask actual friends”,
“ I add the same of twitter”,
“I rarely use it”
“I add people that I have met in real
life, and lately researchers that (I guess) find
me through their own networks. I also have
lots of students and ex-students, something
that is not included in the options for
previous question”.

26. How often do you add a friend to your
Twitter network?
often
3% 3%
17% sometimes
19%
rarely
58% How often do you add a friend to your
never
Facebook network?
wait somebody to
add me
often
5%
8% sometimes
45% 42% rarely
never
wait somebody to
add me

27. When do you do that?
(Twitter)
70% when I need info
62%
or advice
60%
49% When do you do that?
50% when I meet an (Facebook)
40% interesting person
30% 80%
when I feel need 71%
20% 14% to learn 70%
11%
10% something new 60% when I need info
50% or advice
other
0%
40%
Other – “I do not add people”, for “professional 26% when I meet an
30%
development” interesting
20% 13% person
10% other
0%
Other – “if and only if I know the person”, “Friends from my village and friends from my job”, “I do
not use it for friend but a s a delivery mechanism”, “when I hear a family member or long lost real friend
has an account”, “when I find a person I know”, “It’s random - if I like the look of them”, “ I add less and
less people lately, I guess I have been using it for a long time so I more or less have covered my "old"
acquaintances. Now I add new people when I actually meet them, if there is interest from both sides. I
also accept requests.”, “Like to meet the person in real life before add him/her”,
“When I find someone I know in real life and want to connect to”, “onl if I know in real life that person”,
“When friends ask for friendship”

28. How often do you remove a friend from your
Twitter network?
14% often
27%
sometimes
rarely
59%
never How often do you remove a friend from your
Facebook network?
6%
26%
often
sometimes
68%
rarely
never

29. Why do you do that? (Twitter)
50% 46% The friend Why do you do that? (Facebook)
45% annoys me
40% 38%
40% The friend
35% 30% 30% I do not still 34% annoys me
35%
30% interested in this 29%
25% friend 30%
25% I do not still
20%
I do not learn 18% interested in this
15% 20%
anything from friend
10% 15%
this friend 11%
5% I do not learn
other 10%
0% anything from
5% this friend
Other – “Never”, “Not a relevant person”, “When 0% other
the contact unfollow me”, “Person tweets too much
and fills my stream”, “useful tweets”, “Spam”, “I
Other – “if the person is responding badly”, “if I
want to follow people more interesting and can't
think he will be harmful for my profile”, I don’t remve
follow more people because Twitter has its limits”, “If
friends”, “I have only de-friended one person and that
the person is a sales-based entity”, “I don’t know the
was for continually offensive postings”, “I prefer not
language – Asian for e.g.”, “Too much
accept them than remove”, “Most of the time is people
posting, spam, don’t know the language”, “I have
I haven't met in real life and which whom I haven't
only stopped following someone once or twice
ever interacted on Facebook. Also students/ex-students
because they made me feel uncomfortable with their
when the academic relationship ends and it does not
opinions”
extend into friendship”, “Networking with friends that
are not on Twitter”

30. Do you think that the friends’ number influences on your efficacy as a teacher? (in a learning aspect)
Twitter Facebook
80% 70% 100% 92%
60% 80%
60%
40% 30% yes yes
40%
20% no no
20% 8%
0% 0%
Do you think that the friends’ number influences on your efficacy as a person? (in a learning aspect)
Twitter Facebook
100%
80% 73% 78%
80%
60%
60%
40% 27% yes yes
40%
22% no
20% no 20%
0% 0%

31. What are the purposes of Twitter usage?
90%
81% 81%
80% sharing
70% 68%
communicating with
colleagues from your
university
60%
communicating with
51% colleagues outside your
50% university
43% professional community
forming
40%
35%
collaboration
30%
learning new things
20%
14%
10% other
0%
Other – “promoting mself”, “friendship”, “personal brand creation”, “following events”

32. What are the purposes of Facebook usage? 70%
63% sharing
60%
communicating with
50% colleagues from
50% your university
42% communicating with
colleagues outside
40% 39%
37% your university
34% professional
community forming
30%
collaboration
21%
20%
learning new things
10%
other
0%
Other – “connecting with people who are far away”, “Family contact”, “I read news from UGT, FETEUGT, STPV”, “Facebook is an important
tool to keep up with my friends from when I lived in Egypt”, “Connecting to remote places”, “connecting with family and old
friends”, “Communicating, mostly personal”, “Communication with friends”, “generally I use my personal profile for keep in touch with family
and closed friends and the professional profile for all the above points (having two accounts)”, “generally I use my personal profile for keep in
touch with family and closed friends and the professional profile for all the above points (having two accounts)”, “Networking with friends that
are not on Twitter”

33. Do you think that Twitter support your personal
or/and professional development?
70% 62%
60% personal
50% development
40% 35% professional Do you think that Facebook support your personal
development
30% or/and professional development?
both
20% 14% 16%
10% I do not think 50%
0% so 45% 43%
40% personal
35% 32% development
30% professional
25% development
19%
20% both
15%
10% 6% I do not think so
5%
0%

34. Do you use Twitter Do you use Facebook
for educational purposes for educational purposes
to support teaching or students to support teaching or students
learning? learning?
52%
80%
70% 51%
70% 51%
60% 51%
50%
50%
40% yes yes
30% 50%
30% no no
49%
20% 49%
10%
49%
0%
48%

35. How do you use Twitter in your
teaching practice?
How do you use Facebook in your
90% share resources
78% teaching practice?
80% and links
70% announce class 60% share resources
60% events 50% and links
50%
50% give opinion announce class
40% 35%32% 40% events
30% announce class give opinion
30%
results 30% 26%26%
20% 16% 24%
stimulate class 21%
announce class
10% 3% 20%
discussion results
0% 11%
other 10% stimulate class
discussion
Other – “gather the informative resources”, “everyting 0% other
I have in mind”, “do not use”
Other – “My learners don’t need Facebook tool to learn”, “I
don’t use it at all for education”, “spotight people, thank
people, make up-to-the-minute changes/adjustment”, “I do not
use”, “I use it but with a different account - as a
teacher”, “chat, polls”, “I never use Facebook for my lessons”

36. What do you prefer to read and RT the others posts
or to contribute?
4% observe
14% What do you prefer to read and like the
14% contribute others posts or to contribute?
68% both
do not observe
answer
10%
32%
contribute
53% both
5%
do not
answer

37. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Twitter for you as a person and as a teacher?
Advantages Disadvantages
“Growing as a learner / a better communicator / improving “Time consuming / missing important information / too
my teaching styles” large the PLN”
“Brings down barriers between student/teacher, which can “Can be addictive”, “Overflow of information”
be both beneficial or not, depending on the respect and the
relationship”
“It is very easy to learn so many new things and “It can be very time consuming!”
communicate with inspiring teachers”.
“instant communication” “spams, at times”
“Immediate feedback to followers and friends” “Cannot keep up with twits”
“As teacher, I can learn from people and share my “It has not disadvantages for me”
experience. As person, I don’t use”
“continuous real time learning/collaboration” “can get lost in learning (spend more time then intended)”
“The bigger advantage is the opportunity of growth” “the disadvantage is the impossibility of see everything that
is in the timeline”
“I get to know new things, resources in education” “no impact on my teaching”
“It is at the very heart of my PLN. It allows me to learn new “real time information to many tweets that I cannot read or
information and spread and add to new info” even see”
“It is a way of sharing experiences in few words. It is a way “lack of a good archive; poor conversational potential; 140
of communicating with others.” character limit; URLs in message and not in metadata”
“Connections and learning on a Global basis” “I do not carry a phone around, so it is not easy to follow
twitter”
“Discover new things, Connect to interesting people” “Addictive, consumes much time”
“Remembering to read & follow up leads” “I don't like Twitter. I think that it doesn't advantages or
disadvantages. In future I will use twitter for my students”

38. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook for you as a person and as a teacher?
Advantages Disadvantages
“I can connect with people far away and whom I cannot “Lack of integrity and ethics in the ownership of the
approach through phone calls”. company”
“It helps me to share my proud/emotional moments “The disadvantage I see on my "teacher site" which is
(personal and professional)with my loved ones. It also different and not connected to my personal site, is that
helps me to exchange ideas with each other”. young people feel free to say rude things”.
“It is a tremendous advantage to me to be able to write a “I don’t like Facebook’s lack of privacy”
quick note to my real friends, who are on several different
continents”.
“create a group, share information and find resources” “There’s too much information and not all of it is
appealing; sometimes I just waste time browsing and I feel
gossipy and I don’t like it”.
“I have two accounts. One is personal (to get in contact “I have no control; I can’t use it as a way of getting students
with colleagues and real friends). The other account is for to focus”.
students and their parents. I usually post important
information. I also get to know them (and they get to know
me) in a whole different light”.
“a way to stay connected and available informally” “For me it’s only for personal use”.
“I find people that I know and they are far away “Due to less choice in privacy settings, information cannot
communicate Facebook creates a fake world” be selectively published”
good for swapping ideas, and mutual support though “privacy issues; questionable corporate culture and
practices; breaks the web; silo; navigation issues; bad
archiving”
“It is a creative way of sharing, communicating, and
collaborating”

39. How do you optimize your Twitter network to support the best your personal and/or
professional interests and to stimulate your personal/teacher’s productivity?
“Creating lists, using hashtags to follow, imposing a time-discipline in following the informational
stream”
“ I follow only interesting for me people”
“I try to add only users that add something valuable”
“No real strategies”,
“Use Twitter lists and email notifications, instant communication”
“Use hashtags, post everyday”
“New interesting subjects, collaborative features”
“I always use a column system like TweetDeck, I create columns to follow certain hashtags and
certain people”
“I don't know”
“By using it regularly and contributing in discussions”
“I connect with people that have same interests”
“Feed it to Flipboard in iPad where I can flip through and read the tweets magazine style”
“Finding people that tweets about my interests”
“I follow educators and look to see who they follow. I post updates to my blog, and links to quality
resources. I follow links from others that have promising tweets”
“I try to find new, interesting people to follow; I try to learn from people whose use of Twitter I find
very good; I try to interact with interesting people; I use Hootsuite to manage the Twitter stream”

40. How do you optimize your network to support the best your personal and/or professional
interests and to stimulate your personal/teacher’s productivity?
“Looking for interesting groups to follow, professionals that accept to have students in their network,
etc.”
“Constant monitoring or accepting members by invitation”
“I try to be specific when I want to communicate directly with my colleagues and alumni”
“Regular checks on posts by others, block a few sometimes”
“I ask a lot of questions and learn from the answers I am given”
“I use it to build a bridge between me and other colleagues with their students. We share our cultures,
problems and collaborate to find solutions”.
“I don’t use it that purposefully. It’s a combination of social network and learning tool, so I take what it
has to offer, I don’t try to shape it all that much”.
“I add interesting people”
“I keep my settings very much locked down so only viewable by my friends”
“I usually add interesting people and organizations”
“I add friend, colleagues and sites that support specific educational areas, such as dyslexia”.
“I just connect and share with my friends and colleagues”.
“I try to find new, interesting people to befriend; I try to learn from people whose use of Facebook I
find very good; I try to interact with interesting people”
“I don’t optimize it”

41. If you do not use Twitter, please explain why?
“I think it is a platform to gossip, but dint know it can be used for educational
purpose also”.
“I’m high school teacher, and many students aren’t twitter. But the last months
I have been thinking how I use Twitter in my classes”.
“Because I don’t use in real life, I will not use with learners. My learners age
is from 3 to 12, they dont need Twitter, they need Etwinning, Blogs, Wiki...”
“I don’t use it so much, because I prefer Facebook. I interact with more people
there. Twitter is not so popular in Argentina”.
“There are many other options that appeal more to me, maybe because I
haven’t tried but I am not at all interested”.
“I have all the resources I need from other sources”
“I’m a little afraid I should be using it all the time. My day has less than 24
hours a day because I have children and a husband and other interests such as
reading, walking...”
“I rarely use it because I am able to communicate well and I am comfortable
with the social networks like Facebook”.

42. If you do not use Facebook, please explain why?
“They are children, not teenagers”
“I don´t want people to know me that much”
“too personal”
“It makes me feel uncomfortable that non-educational friends see how
active I am on education”
“I think it cannot fulfill educational purposes with social network”

43. Is there any policy / strategy for social networks usage in your
school / university?
37%
yes
63% no

44. Discussion(s) … well
could facilitate educators in their
connections making, promotion and
defined suitable friends’ recognitions
public
profile
in information and could be saved
identification
friends and definition
time and energy
searching, selecting, automation in doing aimless
of current
filtering, tracking, of several requirements, activities in
and management
activities
PLN goals and
interests
networks
optimi-
zation
what kind of learning
best suits his/her
appropriate nature, mood, style, back
rendering the model of characteristics
of (social) ground and how this is
networks’ dynamics individual and
group learning related to social
and specificities
behavior possibilities of networks

45. Needs for connection, communication and learning
Automation of activities in social networks
Suitable individual and group behavior in a social
environment
Recognition the characteristics of learning
Needs for development
(Pre) Definition of requirements, goals and interests
Setting up of a public profile
Model for PLN optimization in a teachers’ presence

46. Instead of Conclusion
• Most of the teachers like the networked world and wish to develop a
sustainable social presence
• It will work for them only if their personal preferences and social behaviors in
networks are well studied and understood
• They will benefit if understand other PLN factors like static view, structural
dynamics and taking time
• The first variant of a model is created in order to indicate the opportunity for
PLN advancement and to support the quality of the teachers’ participation
• Need future explorations concerning the analysis and optimization of PLN in
support of efficacy use and productivity

47. Thank you for your
attention!
@malinkaiva
@ggrosseck
@cami13