Shifting toward personal learning

Developing effective personal learning practices is a process, not a prerequisite. Measure yourself by your own growth, not by others. A PLN is a work in progress; let it blossom over time.
The experiences that you have in your personal learning network are unique and based largely upon your decisions.
This may mean a shift in how you look at learning. Accept uncertainty, learn to filter and manage a large amount of information what is most relevant to you. You will learn to recognize patterns and trends in what you're learning and what works best for you to help minimize distractions and focus on what is most important.

You are the architect - Your PLN is your framework for wayfinding and sensemaking.
The value is the way you use sources of information, not the information itself.
A framework is 'a particular way of seeing.'

Multiple frameworks are needed to learn online.


from Darken and Peterson


Creating a map of your PLN is one way to begin to think about how you can benefit from it. What might you want to incorporate?Revisit your map over time. Revise. What are you doing that is helping you to be effectively connected?

  • Communities
  • Tools
  • Channels
  • Strategies
  • Concepts
  • Resources

Strategies for making the most of your Personal Learning Network

Personal Learning Networks encourages your technology fluency and develops your expertise in your personal learning methods.

Technique takes time.

  • Make a map, update it as you learn.
    A map is a visual representation of an area, regions, and themes. (Mapmaking from Wikipedia
  • Looking at your change over time rather than expecting to arrive at a certain point.
    Dead reckoning (DR) is the process of estimating one's current position based upon a previously determined position, or fix, and advancing that position based upon known or estimated speeds over elapsed time, and course. (from Wikipedia
  • Identify themes you are looking for, keep notes as you work, are you on track?
    A compass is a navigational instrument for determining direction relative to the Earth's magnetic poles. It consists of a magnetized pointer (usually marked on the North end) free to align itself with Earth's magnetic field. (from Wikipedia
  • Watch the stars. Look to your strong and weak ties, what are others learning?
    Astronomy and Natural Cues
    The wayfinder depends on observations of the stars, the sun, the ocean swells, and other signs of nature for clues to direction and location of a vessel at sea.
    from 'Modern Wayfinding' from Polynesian Voyaging Society
  • Notice navigation elements, viewing and sharing options, personal settings, social features, or saved searching options. make it work for you!
    Global positioning satellites (GPS) are placed in orbit above the earth's atmosphere. These systems provide a tool for labeling every point on the surface of the planet using longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates. Three satellites must be in orbit overhead, in any given region of the earth before triangulation strategies can be used to determine exact position. from NEC Foundation of America Grant Textbook: Environmental Literacy: GPS

Influential Resources

Connectivism, "a learning theory for the digital age," has been developed by George Siemens and Stephen Downes based on their analysis of the limitations of behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism to explain the effect technology has had on how we live, how we communicate, and how we learn.

From

Some principles of connectivism

  • Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
  • Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources.
  • Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to facilitate continual learning.
  • Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and concepts is a core skill.
  • Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to alterations in the information climate affecting the decision.

From

Wayfinding encompasses all of the ways in which people and animals orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place. Wayfinding is often used to refer to traditional navigation methods used by indigenous peoples. In more modern times, wayfinding is used in the context of architecture to refer to the user experience of orientation and choosing a path within the built environment, and it also refers to the set of architectural and/or design elements that aid orientation.

From

Sensemaking is the ability or attempt to make sense of an ambiguous situation. More exactly, sensemaking is the process of creating situational awareness and understanding in situations of high complexity or uncertainty in order to make decisions. It is "a motivated, continuous effort to understand connections (which can be among people, places, and events) in order to anticipate their trajectories and act effectively" (Klein et al., 2006a).

Klein, G., Moon, B. and Hoffman, R.F. (2006a). Making sense of sensemaking I: alternative perspectives.
IEEE Intelligent Systems, 21(4), 70-73.

Handbook for Emerging Technologies for Learning


Tools

from

Frameworks for Sense Making

Frameworks are often utilized to give shape and form to nebulous ideas and concepts. Even a few days spent reading literature on emerging learning technologies reveals an overwhelming array: Twitter, blogs, wikis, podcasts, identity and presence tools, synchronous classrooms, and so on. Making sense of these tools requires a framework. Making sense of the information that flows through these tools requires yet another framework. And, using these tools for teaching and learning requires a third.

Defining Social Software

A defining trait of social software today is the ability to speak into the context others have created. For example, a newspaper editor is able to project a certain voice (i.e. the slant of a publication) on political or social events. Feedback from readers is limited to letters to the editor – a context again controlled by the editor. Social tools permit individuals – through annotations (PLoSOne, StumbleUpon) and discussions – to have a voice. The ability to speak directly into the context of others reshapes and redistributes power in message control.

New technologies can be grouped by their affordances – action potential – in six categories (see Image 16):

* Access resources

* Declare or state presence (as currently online or in declaring physical proximity through GPS)

* Expression through tools such as Second Life or profile features of most social networking site

* Creation of new content and resources through blogs and wikis

* Interaction with others through asynchronous and synchronous tools like discussion forums, Twitter, Skype, ELGG

* Aggregation of resources and relationships through Facebook, iGoogle, or NetVibes.

Each tool possesses multiple affordances. Blogs, for example, can be used for personal reflection and interaction. Wikis are well suited for collaborative work and brainstorming. Social networks tools are effective for the formation of learning and social networks. Matching affordances of a particular tool with learning activities is an important design and teaching activity.

'New Learning, New Educators, New Skills'

from the Handbook for Emerging Technologies for Learning

In online environments, personal agency on the part of learners - "to influence intentionally one technology) are needed. Rather than conceiving literacy as a singular concept, a multi-literacy view is warranted. Use of aggregators, reading and visualizing data, mashing up various types of information, and recognizing new patterns in existing information are key skills.

Additional key skills required today include

Anchoring / Staying focused on important tasks while undergoing a deluge of distractions.
Filtering / Managing knowledge flow and extracting important elements.
Connecting with each other / Building networks in order to continue to stay current and informed.
Being human together / Interacting at a human, not only utilitarian, levelcontext.
Critical and creative thinking / Questioning and dreaming.
Pattern recognition / Recognizing patterns and trends.
Navigate knowledge landscape / Navigating between repositories, people, technology, and ideas while achieving intended purposes.
Acceptance of uncertainty / Balancing what is known with the unknown