Personal Learning Network - Part 6

So far we have looked at PLN’s from the standpoint of education and the learner. However, there are various other ways of taking a look at it. This posting will be directed for those of you who feel as if you cannot keep up with technology or for that matter information. One of the reasons I feel that people are reluctant to use technology, and this is coming from my own personal experiences, is because they feel that it will be difficult to keep up with it. Well I am here to tell you that you are right. You are right about the fact that it will be difficult to keep up with technology. Different technology is being developed every day, some are successful and those are the ones that grow in popularity while others are not. This is my comparison about technology, technology is like knowledge. That is like technology there is an abundance of knowledge out there and quite frankly it is hard to keep up with that. So if you have an interest to learn or a topic you like to know more about then go and learn about it to develop your knowledge base. Do you expect to learn everything, I hope not, but to be knowledgeable in certain topics is a good foundation to begin with.

The article I will be referencing for this posting is called Building Your Personal Learning Network by Miguel Guhlin.

The author of this article refers four things that should be done to organize content. They are:

• Read: Read/watch/listen to the entirety of the content that you are presented with.
• Evaluate: Consider what the content means to you, and whether or not it is a source of information that intuitively seems appropriate/acceptable for a task at hand.
• Critique: Moving beyond evaluate, seriously reflect on the material and then form your own opinion of it.
• Write Share your critique with others, so they can engage with you and the original content to develop a cohesive knowledge-product. (Guhlin, 2008).

The reason that information is vital is because, as the author put it, “if you fail to connect to the network of learners, you miss out on the global conversation about what you are passionate about”. (Guhlin, 2008). He then goes on to discuss how the smart people are already using this method to further increase their knowledge base but those who are beginners are getting the hang of it. This is important because it ties in to what I was discussing above about you don’t have to know everything but should start somewhere and begin building your foundation or your own knowledge.

The author also provides a series of tools that will help you build your own knowledge base or PLN. Some of these tools may seem familiar because I have touched upon them in earlier postings. But you should see that many of the PLN articles that I have discussed mention many of the same tools (and some new ones) however there are tons of tools (and free I might add) for your disposal.

• Social Bookmarking Tool – Diigo.com
• Social Networking Tool – Twitter
• Social Networking Tool – Blogger | edublog.org
• Really Simple Syndication (RSS) – Google Reader

Now I don’t want to take the fun out of what you want to learn. This posting is about PLN is my series of discussion but if you would like to take a look at these tools I have linked over to them or you can view the article I read in which the author provides a nice discussion on each item.

Also take a look at this website for additional personal learning network tools and a video that discusses PLN.

For those of you new to the Personal Learning Network world I would like to let you know that you have already begun. If you are reading this posting you apparently have an interest of some type of knowledge. You have begun your foundation. Continue to build on it.

On a personal note: I have read through many articles, websites, and viewed some videos, but as of now this is probably one of my more favorite articles because how information this article was. I look forward to reading more articles presented by this author.

Bourgeois, M., Glaude, C., & Morrow, K. (2009). creating a personal learning network with web 2.0 tools. Retrieved July 16, 2009, from sites.google.com/site/buildingapln/

Guhlin, M. (2008). Share more! wiki » work/build your own personal learning network.
Retrieved May 4, 2009, from http://www.edsupport.cc/mguhlin/share/index.php?n=Work.Pln

Personal Learning Network - Part 5

My fifth posting on Personal Learning Networks I would like to take a look at this idea of connections. I did this with the use of a few resources. During the research process I was lead to a website by Stephen Downes. This website was discussing the learner and the diverse learning networks. I felt that this website fit in well with what was discussed so far. Downes (2006) stated, “When we look through the internet, we are creating networks… perception - as an extension of ourselves... - our networks are extensions of ourselves - facets of our identity… when we look at the computer we see ourselves through our contacts, our liaisons, our interactions.” Considering the discussions of networked learning this description by Downes is a great analysis of the components discussed above.
As mentioned before, networked learning is dynamic to the learner and the learning process. Downes description considers the learners (or all of us) and how they view their learning whether in K-12 or adult. Furthermore, Siemens (2006) elaborates on learning of adults in the article. Essentially, it describes the acceptance of personal learning networks and how user can establish a reliable personal learning network to fit their needs and support their development.
Learning in Synch with Life: New Models, New Processes.
Another presentation that I’ll discuss is by Alain Breuleux called Networked Learning communities in Teacher Education. Breuleux discusses this idea of building a knowledge society. From this the author discusses 6 points of interest:

•Meeting the educational needs of a wider range of individual and groups
•Building systems and helping institutions which can provide life-long learning
•Engaging educators as leaders in the use of learning-society tools
•Develop pedagogy and pedagogical design principles for knowledge building
•Produce guidelines for investment learning
•Design and validate telelearning approaches

These approaches are discussed in further detail in an article with the same name as above. Breuleux, Laferriere, and Bracewell (1998) discussed an idea that I am very well am in support of. Breuleux et al (1998) stated that the article was developed “in response to the growing needs for learning and the changing worlds of education…” Education is always being developed for the betterment of our students but however still focused on methods of old.
Personal Learning Networks is just another method of changing the nature of our educational system. Pushing for student-centered learning instead of teacher-centered instruction (sage on the stage), allows for instructional strategies to be developed for the learner. In instructional design it says do not use wasted time on developing the project at the expense of the learner. That is, do not take away the learning of the learner to develop a project.
Personal Learning Networks to me is another way to improve student learning and also incorporate technology into the classroom. In closing I would like to quote a professor of mine (Dr. Leigh Zeitz), whenever he presents to teacher he closes with this, “Live with courage, teach with vision.” Thought it would be a proper way to end this posting.

Breuleux, A., Laferrière, T., & Bracewell, R.J. (1998). Networked learning communities in teacher education. In S. McNeil, J.D. Price, S. Boger-Mehall, B. Robin, & J. Willis (Eds.), Proceedings of SITE ’98, the 9th international conference of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education. ACCE. Charlottesville, VA. Retrieved March 15, 2002, from: http://www.coe.uh.edu/insite/elec_pub/HTML1998/ts_breu.htm

Breuleux, A. (1998). Networked Learning Communities in Education. Retrieved April 25, 2009, from telelearning.mcgill.ca/ituoslo/NetLearn/NetworkedLearningCommunitie.pdf

Downes, S. (n.d.). Learning Networks and the Personal Learning Environment. Retrieved May 1, 2009, from http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/learning-networks-and-the-personal-learning-environment.

Siemens, G., (2006). Learning in Synch with Life: New Models, New Processes. Google 2006 Training Summit. Retrieved on July, 17 2009 from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/google_whitepaper.pdf