Analysis of personal learning networks in support of teachers presence optimization

Abstract

The activities of teachers in social networks have a certain place in their personal advancement and professional progress. Studying the organization of Personal Learning Networks (PLN) could support the optimization of teachers’ efficacy and productivity. For this purpose, an analysis is performed after a literature review and taking into consideration the opinion of the international educational society including teachers from Primary schools, High schools and universities. The received data shows very different PLN structures consisting of preferred and favorite social networking sites, online authoring tools, search engines, software for communication and collaboration, socially-oriented learning management systems. Most often used and very popular among teachers are the social networks Facebook and Twitter that are studied in detail in the form of friends number, reasons for adding/excluding someone from friends’ list, frequency and directions for usage, influence on personal efficacy, impact on teaching practice. All gathered data and performed analysis result in a created model for social teachers’ presence optimization.