Expanding Your Knowledge Base with a Personal Learning Network
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Learn how to harness emergent trends in your field by developing and curating a personal learning network (PLN). Use digital curation technologies to capture what's going on regarding a particular topic in your social network to learn on your own time from digests or archived content.
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Expanding Your Knowledge Base with a Personal Learning Network
- 1. Creating Personal Learning Networks & Environments Sandra Annette Rogers, Ph.D. Expanding Your Knowledge Base
- 2. PLE Defined Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) are formed to provide a depository or online treasure chest of great ideas and tech tools that you or your peers discover. You can have a shared PLE or an individual one.
- 3. PLN Defined Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) are formed to guide our independent or group learning goals and professional development needs within a dynamic flow of information from our peers’ discoveries or that of our own.
- 4. Community of Practice vs. PLN What is the main difference between a Community of Practice (CoP) and a PLN? The CoP is managed by a community manager whose knowledge of their field will ensure that the content is consistent with the needs of its organizational members. In contrast, PLNs are managed by individuals or groups from various organizations.
- 5. EXAMPLES of PLN TOOLS Facebook Groups Feed from Twitter lists or a Twitter app like Paper.li Wikis, Moodles, or project sites on Sakai Blogs, RSS Feeds, or Google Reader Social bookmarking sites like Diigo, StumbleUpon, or Del.icio.us Sharing PowerPoint presentations on SlideShare as a group Email Listserves of Professional Organizations
- 6. My PLN & PLE PLATFORMS Paper.li, an e-newspaper compiled of my twitter list of online language and technology educators and technology innovators Email listserves of several Educause constituent groups Facebook group for professional associations’ special interest groups such as AECT’s distance education.
- 7. My Personal Learning Network The Online Educator on Paper.li consists of my Twitter list of global leaders in the field of computer-assisted language learning: http://paper.li/teacherrogers/1301595898
- 8. Use of Paper.li to Enhance your PLN I recorded this screencast to share with my Twitter followers. It demonstrates how I use Paper.li to capture the tweets from my Twitter list of professional online educators to form my e- newspaper, The Online Educator. The purpose of this paper is to learn about the latest Web 2.0 tools and effective online teaching practices. Paper.li is a schematic way to organize knowledge into easily assessable content. http://screenr.com/92Ss -
- 9. Benefits of PLNs No time constraints Ongoing, continuous learning provides a deeper understanding of a given topic Access to subject matter experts or mentors that may be miles away from you Free professional development Possibility of new tribes forming, professional connections being made Endless opportunities to focus precisely on your personal learning objectives.
- 10. Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (2012) “Geography used to be important…Now, the Internet eliminates geography…There’s an explosion of new tools available to help tribes we’re forming. Facebook and Ning and Meetup and Twitter… There are literally thousands of ways to coordinate and connect groups of people that just didn’t exist a generation ago…All of it is worthless if you don’t decide to lead.” Seth Godwin
- 11. Analysis of Types of Learning Formal PD PLEPLNCan you describe the difference between a PLN & a PLE? Learning Goals How about the difference between a formal PD & PLN/PLE?
- 12. Comparison & Contrast of PD Formats Answer: PLNs/PLEs differ from formal PD in that they are generally an online form of continuous learning with no preset agenda.
- 13. Non-Examples of PLN Facebook Groups for… Twitter users that… Wiki uses that… Blogs that… administrative procedures and decision-making processes Follow a hashtag(#) w/o interaction have links that are out- dated don’t provide resources, a blogroll regular class on a subject vs. learning about learning (metacognitive activities) Follow someone but never interact are never revisited don’t talk about learning goals & growth project coordination without investigation Lurk don’t allow for comments don’t allow for comments
- 14. Contact Me Website: http://teacherrogers.com/ Blog: http://teacherrogers.wordpress.com/ Twitter: @teacherrogers
Editor's Notes
- 1. Ask for participants background knowledge: Does anyone here already have a Personal Learning Network (PLN) or Personal Learning Environment (PLE)? How do you use it? What online platforms do you use? Do you use it often? How has it help you with your ongoing professional development? ****Note: If no one is familiar with the concept, then ask: How many of you use Web 2.O tools to communicate with other teachers or professionals on an ongoing basis? Do you subscribe to a listserve? Are you learning from those connections? If so, then you probably already have a PLN or PLE. 2. Gather & share participants’ PLNs/PLEs: “I’m going to pass around a piece of paper for you to share the URLs of your PLNs or online places you like to go to learn on a repetitive basis. After the workshop, I’ll create a list to share with the today’s participants.” (Provide paper with your links at top to share as an example.)
- Transmission of concept knowledge: Provide a clear & accurate definition Can students set up their own PLE? Yes, they can, if you provide an example and model the process. In fact, I’ve read about elementary students creating PLEs. I realized afterwards that the wiki that I created for my speed reading course this summer could serve as a PLE for those pre-med students. I mentioned it to them at the end of the course and encouraged them to continue to upload useful resources or visit the site to review the strategies listed.
- Transmission of concept knowledge : Clear & accurate definition Can a class set up a PLN? Yes! Alternative assessments is a great way to create peer-to-peer learner interactions, and we can also learn from our students. The critical element for these would be the dynamic flow of new information to meet either your learning goal or that of your students.
- Communication of Concepts: Multiple & Varied Examples Are any of these tools new to you? Have you ever used SlideShare to share as a group presentation on the same subject? Look up TESOL 2011 on SlideShare, and you’ll see all the presentations uploaded for that conference, mine included! (Note: SlideShare removed this group share feature---perhaps they’ll bring it back.)
- 1. The next slide gives a screencast on how to use Paper.li to enhance your PLN. Paper.li is a free tool, and it’s very easy to use. It automatically updates your selected twitter feed on a daily or weekly basis depending on your editorial settings. I initially created this for my own personal learning use; however, my colleagues in TESOL liked it and wanted to incorporate it or attribute it to our interest section- Computer-assisted language learning. We now plan to use it to inform participants in our upcoming sessions for the Electronic Village Online. 2. How many of signed up for a listserve from your profession organization? 3. You can create a closed FB page to share ideas and resources with your cohorts. Has anyone done this? Features of the closed group include: posting comments/photos/links, creating polls, creating a document within the group page, live chat, create your own group email, too. My PLNs on FB are private, so I can’t show you the sites; however, they’re extremely easy to use.
- Visit your PLN and do some learning! If you learn at a slower pace, then this option allows you to set your own schedule. We know that it takes multiple times for a word to sink in before we actually ‘own’ it. The majority of PD can only touch on the surface of a given topic due to time constraints or budget cuts. It’s only through repeated readings and/or in this case, repeated visits to your PLN that would enhance your learning at a deeper level. Subject matter experts are often open to sharing ideas. For example, the PLN that I created from my twitter list has the President of TESOL France and the President of the British ESL organization, IATEFL following me. Their tweets are part of my learning curve. Web 2.0 collaboration tools are a great learning platform for teaching and sharing ideas for free.
- Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us is the name of a popular new book by Seth Godwin. It addresses today’s personal inter-connectivity brought about by the Internet and Web 2.0 tools, but he agrees that we still need to interact in person, too.
- Opportunity for participants’ application of concepts: Open-ended question time.
- As a 21st century learner, we’re tasked with the challenge to understand the ever increasing amount of tech tools that could be used for educational purposes. To remain a digital foreigner is not an option---at least not for me!
- Communication of concepts: Contrasting non-examples 1. Important Note: The non-examples listed under the Twitter column could be considered as appropriate for a PLE if you’re actually learning something, and it’s somehow sustained. 2. Ask for participants’ ideas on other non-examples.
- If you google “teacherrogers,” you will see all of my online projects. Thank you!