I now know what kids must feel like when they're asked to give their opinion about something they've not experienced. I can talk about the Personal Learning Networks I've experienced throughout my life, which had many different purposes and involved many different cohorts. I'm assuming that this assignment was to reflect on Personal Learning Communities in the 2.0 context, right? If so, then I have no idea as I've not yet experienced it. I have taken several courses online, but I have yet to take one with which I felt I had a virtual learning community. I believe that such PLCs (I purposefully used that acronym which is also used for Professional Learning Communities as in the context of this class, I suspect that will be more in line with my purpose.) In any case, I'm certainly hopeful and excited about the powerful possibilities of PLCs through this connected venue and the blended nature of this course with both face-to-face and virtual gatherings. Nonetheless, I still have innumerable questions. Hopefully, I'll be able to answer those questions through participation and discussion in this course.
In reading Will Richardson's "World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others: How to teach when learning is everywhere" I was pleasantly surprised to read a fairly balanced take on how teaching and learning are being transformed in the digital age. Too often, I find many of the articles in this realm to be a deafening echo chamber (such as Marc Prensky's "Engage Me or Enrage Me", which I hope to blog about very soon.)
I found it extremely refreshing to read Richardson when he wrote, "We must also be adept at negotiating, planning, and nurturing the conversation with others we may know little about -- not to mention maintaining a healthy balance between our face-to-face and virtual lives (another dance for which kids sorely need coaching)." These have always been key skills for peaceful, productive human interaction and ones which some digitial divas have not developed. Also, the call for balance between face-to-face and virtual lives is one we all need to heed, I believe.
Looking forward to learning and growing an opinion about PLCs in the 2.0 context.
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The thing about PLCs on the web is that you have to actively create them. If you wait around for them the form they won't. What I think we mean is PPLC: Personal Professional Learning Communities. They are professional in nature but personal to you. You create them, you decide who is in them, and you control their direction.
ReplyDeleteThis is another reason why I like the word "Network" rather then "Community".
I define them as this (rigt or wrong these are my thoughts)
A community is like many others we join...we do not control who is in our community. You buy a house in a neighborhood you do not get to choose your neighbors, but you are both part of the community. Skype is a community of everyone who has a Skype account, so is Facebook, etc.
A network you create. Most of the time this is within a larger community. In your neighborhood you might not hang out with all your neighbors but you might have a network of a couple close friends who you trust, and you meet up with often. Online it works the same way. You belong to the community that is Facebook, but you create a network of friends. On Skype you create a network of contacts.
When we talk about PLN Personal Learning Networks we're talking about networks that you create personally. They can be professional or they can be friend based....the main idea though is that you create them and they are personal to you and you alone.
Teresa,I'll be looking forward to your blog on Prensky. I've been mulling over how to approach this one. I think I'll call it "Engage me or Assuage Me", which better describes where I see kids at. They're not enraged; they're not engaged enough to be enraged about the disconnect between our 19th-century practices and their 21st century lifestyles...and that's just one of the points on which I disagree with Prensky. I'll blog about it soon...
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