I was pleased to be introduced to the concept of a personal learning network (PLN). Previously I had been aware of a Personal Learning Environment, but I had felt that there was a component missing in that term. I PLE is more related to the sytems, technologies and resources that we might use, at a personal level, to engage in the process of learning. This definition misses the significant impact of people.
Although I am not yet a convert to the connectivist camp because it apears to require me to sign up to being happy to engage with thousands of people I do fully acknoldege the benefits of being able to connect with knowledgeable and/or like-minded individuals on particular topics, either for a relatively short or long period of time, either for benefit of a short term collaboration or to establish a more long term relationship.
This notion of connectivism is at the heart of a PLN,and I do fully subscribe to it, with the proviso that I do not feel that connecting has to be accompanied by an initial ad-hoc and rather arbitrary dumping of masses of individuals into some sort of environment from which they are assumed to be able to srot themselves out, identify like minded others and form themselves into useful groups. I suppose the law of averages says that if you throw enough people together some relationships will always emerge, but it would appear a tremendously wasteful and potentially harmful way to do it, in my opinion.
Thinking of a PLN helps me to put a psychological boundary around the resources and people that I may draw on in my learning, and I find that useful.
Activities 15,16
I was pleased to be introduced to the concept of a personal learning network (PLN). Previously I had been aware of a Personal Learning Environment, but I had felt that there was a component missing in that term. I PLE is more related to the sytems, technologies and resources that we might use, at a personal level, to engage in the process of learning. This definition misses the significant impact of people.
Although I am not yet a convert to the connectivist camp because it apears to require me to sign up to being happy to engage with thousands of people I do fully acknoldege the benefits of being able to connect with knowledgeable and/or like-minded individuals on particular topics, either for a relatively short or long period of time, either for benefit of a short term collaboration or to establish a more long term relationship.
This notion of connectivism is at the heart of a PLN,and I do fully subscribe to it, with the proviso that I do not feel that connecting has to be accompanied by an initial ad-hoc and rather arbitrary dumping of masses of individuals into some sort of environment from which they are assumed to be able to srot themselves out, identify like minded others and form themselves into useful groups. I suppose the law of averages says that if you throw enough people together some relationships will always emerge, but it would appear a tremendously wasteful and potentially harmful way to do it, in my opinion.
Thinking of a PLN helps me to put a psychological boundary around the resources and people that I may draw on in my learning, and I find that useful.