Perhaps it is the weather (a snowy, blowy, bad-roads-kind-a-day), perhaps its that I have spent the entire weekend visiting with family, rather than doing homework (and the homework has accumulated to the point where it is so depressing to even think about doing it, that I would rather just sleep, but I can't actually sleep because all I think about when I try is my accumulating homework), or perhaps it is that the end really is near. The eighteenth, and final, year of my life as a student. In seven months I will be entering (eep, hopefully!) a school to do the teaching, rather than the learning (though, I suppose that teaching really is one of the best methods of learning).
I mean, it's not that I'm not excited to be graduating, and teaching, and moving on with my life. It's just scary - as any kind of change is to the simple human being. And it's the weather. It really, probably is the weather.
So I guess I need to talk about something other than my feelings. I choose...
- PLNs
From what I understand, a PLN (or, personal learning network) is made up of all the resources (and, not just the people) a learner interacts with, and reaps knowledge from. In the context of the Internet for Educators course, some examples might be Twitter, Wikis, Blogs, YouTube Videos, Websites, Weebly, Mike Nantais, etc. etc. But, even though we discussed PLNs in an online context, I don't think that all PLNs are comprised of online resources, only.
I think that each individual has a single, ginormous PLN that encompasses the learning that occurs in their entire life. I also think that this ginormous PLN can be separated into several smaller, more specific PLNS (as evidenced by the description of my "Internet for Educator's" PLN, described above). These smaller PLNS could be networks comprised of resources for particular courses, topics, communities, interests, skills, lifestyles, etc. If we were to roll with this definition (which I sort of just made up based on my extrapolation from what we talked about last class), some of my PLNs would be:
- The Internet for Educators Course (Twitter, Wikis, Videos, Weebly, Mike Nantais)
- Boissevain School (Teachers, Coaches, Peers, Course Matter, Sports, etc.)
- My Social PLN, meagre as it may be (Twitter, Facebook, Game Night, TV, Novels, Magazines)
- And many more.
One of our tech tasks in in our I4Ed course is to create a diagram/map/something concrete with which to reflect and keep track of our PLNs. I think this is a good idea because I have a terrible memory, need to be organized in order to be sane, and am a visual thinker. I chose MindMeister as a medium with which to express my PLN for no particular reason. I just took a shot in the dark, really. I have not played with it too much, yet, but from what I have seen so far it is...
Hammond out.
- Visually appealing (a necessity)
- Verrrrrry easy to use
- Customizable (another necessity)
- Practical
- Flexible
- Inclusive (I can insert images, videos, links, etc.)
Here is a link to my MindMeister, thing (which is far from finished, let me assure you). This will be followed by a funny picture of my cat.
Hammond out.
That is a crazy cat!
ReplyDeleteYour comment about everyone having one big PLN is absolutely spot-on, I think. The fact is that Facebook didn't invent the idea of a social network. We've always had social and learning networks. It's just that now we have the tools to allow these networks to transcend boundaries of time and space that used to be pretty much immutable.
ReplyDeleteFor most of human history, one's personal network was effectively limited to the distance a person could walk in a day- 10-20 miles or so. Likewise, one's knowledge was limited to what you could pick up from people in that network. Books were rare and expensive, let alone the internet- and of course, many societies were non-literate and thus relied exclusively on (often very refined) oral memory.
We have far more opportunity today to make connections with people and information far beyond what any previous generation of human beings have had access to. Of course, we also have more and more burden placed upon us to decide what information or connections are worthwhile and which ones are not ...
I look forward to seeing how things develop, in our course, but also in our classrooms as we get out and teach.
Kris I loved your point about social networking and the fact that it was not invented by Facebook! Our access to communication is just so much broader due to access to technology and the internet!
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