I’ve been fascinated by the ideas of a Personal Learning Network (PLN) for ages now, pretty much ever since I first heard about it.

Perhaps this is why Steve Wheeler’s (is that @timbuckteeth or @stevewheeler? But that’s another story) latest blog post made me think long and hard about it again. The images/slides below are from Joyce Seitzinger’s (@catspyjamasnz) “Professional Learning Environment (PLN) model” presented recently in Melbourne, Australia.

Click the images above to read Steve’s original post on the sildes, as presented by Joyce.

It is important to note that the tools listed in the ‘deisgn’ slide are not the recommended tools but rather an indication of what ‘could’ be used, and that you insert your own personal preferences for each segment.

So, what do you think … does it strike a chord for you like it did for me.

PS. here is my PLN that I ‘devised’ back in December 2009:

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Earlier this week I gave the following presentation to a groups of first year Accounting and Finance students:

• Social Media & Networks: How to survive online (or “your [next] employer is watching you”)

and was kindly asked by Pauline Randall of Florizel Media to write up a reflective account of the presentation and what kind of impact it had on the students. You can read my full account on Pauline’s website:

• Florizel Media – Reflection on a presentation: Social Media and Social Network

I hope Pauline doesn’t mind but here is a snippet for you to read, but please read the full reflection using the link above.

“What I was not prepared for, when I thought about presenting this, was the students were completely unaware that their activity online could have any bearing on their employability. It was clear from the gasps and shocked faces when I introduced the examples of people losing their jobs because of their online activity that I had hit my mark; I was changing their perception of not only social media and social networks, but also of how they are going to use them.”

I also had the event recorded by the Bournemouth University installation of the Echo360 lecture capture system. Here it is;

Click to view recording of the "Social Media and Social Network" Presentation

It was only after I’d finished that I’d remembered I hadn’t said the “Farmville / I Quit” story turned out to be a hoax, but I’ll remember next time!

Links and YouTube videos played in the lecture are:

• Did You Know 4.0 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8
• United Breaks Guitars (song 1) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo
• CBS News Interview – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0ophSWaRSQ
• “Woman publicly outs boss for playing Farmville at Work”  – http://mashable.com/2010/08/10/girl-quits-job-farmville-boss/
• The Fully Sick Rapper – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqGLHluDoe0

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Note: In this series I’ll delve into some of the better plugins available for WordPress that I am already using, or about to start using. I’m aiming to highlight 30 of the better plugins.

Much has been written recently about people having their work ripped off, word for word. It’s happened to me once or twice, and there is little bloggers can do about it. Dave Colman (@davecoleman146) had this happen as well, and wrote about it on his blog “SharePointEduTech“, and the comments were well made and sympathetic to his plight.

But what can you or I do about protecting our blog content, our intellectual property? I’ve already mentioned the copy-protect service called Tynt, in the post “What’s being copied from your blog?“.

Well, here’s another little thing you can add to your blog. It won’t stop it happening but it will give a visual identity to your awareness of the facts, and that you are covering yourself for any future action you want to take. The plugin is called “Creative Commons Configurator” and you go through a process of selecting the type of licence you want to use, and how you want it displayed.

You can add the text to the HTML meta tags too, all part of the plugin.

have you been the victim of someone copying your content (and they even use the links to your images too)? How did you deal with them and handle the situation?

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Induction week, for campus-based students is all about getting to know each other, getting to know the programme team, and socialising. This is also true for online students, although it is not always easy to forge the same kind of understanding, relationships and outcome; but it’s not impossible.

Working online is not often a natural feeling for students, whatever their age. To this end we, the facilitators, need to carefully design the Induction programme and activities to make the students feel at home, comfortable in the online environment, and able to comment in a risk- and blame-free environment.

This makes it all the more important to carefully design and implement the introduction, the learning environment, and the online activities you expect them to participate in. Last year I wrote about five such activities in my post Online Induction: Icebreaker Activities.

Here is another one, modified from  Ryan Watkins’ book “75 eLearning Activities – making online learning interactive” (Amazon link);

Objective: This gives the students the opportunity to share their thoughts on a  topic (decided by the activity moderator) in the VLE to encourage a reflective process about themselves and their colleagues.

Delivery: This can be used with either a Discussion Board or a Blog, depending on the preference and confidence of the moderator and expected technical competencies of the student cohort.

Process: The moderator provides the topic, usually something topical to current news, the programme content or learning style (eLearning), and encourages the students to initially post their responses (100 words or less). Once all students have responded the moderator encourages further posts replying to at least 3 entries made by their colleagues, also in 100 words or less.

Additional Information: If students are new to the technology (blog, discussion board) then appropriate training material is needed.

Ideally the kind of Induction Activity you use ought to be a mixture of reflective and collaborative styles in order to get the students engaged and comfortable with each other, with you (the moderator), and in working online in what many may find a new and alien environment.

What kind of activity do you use, is it specifically designed for online students or one that can be used for campus-based as well as online students?

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Thank you to Gabriela Grosseck for bring this presentation to my attention, “Creating a Personal Learning Network”.

Creating a Personal Learning Network by Corinne Weisgerber.

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I am seeing and reading so many blog posts and tweets with someone trying to explain what is a Social Network, or what is a PLN/PLE.

Which is why I couldn’t resist showing you these Educational Social Media Diagrams from the HubSpot Blog;

This first one highlights, for those slightly confused about what exactly is Web 2.0, that we’re no longer in a broadcast medium where the big corporations tell us what is going on but rather that each of us is capable of finding out from our network (be they people or tools like Twitter or Facebook) about the world around us.

“Social Media Participation Chart” by Oversocialized

This next one is another really good and simple way of showing the uninitiated  about, in my mind, how Generation Y or the Millennials think about the digital world they inhabit. If, like me, you are not from the Gen-Y era (but either want to be or work with them) then this could help you understand their world – this is especially important for those of us who work in education, as this is what they want and expect from us, so we have to deliver on it .. yes?

Digital Mindsets by David Armano

Again, this is another very good and graphic way to produce the same information – in-roads and barriers to the network and information, nicely laid out like a city plan.

Welcome to Social Town by E Factor Media

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I received the email newsletter from eLearn Magazine earlier this week and was interested in the lead article: “Finding a Place for Twitter in Higher Education“.

The article makes some interesting points so please read the original on the link above, but I want to comment on just a couple of them;

“Twitter has various educational uses in both developing countries and more developed ones. But the real tipping point for Twitter in education will only come if teachers can manage to add Twitter to their arsenal of teaching tools. The question is can they do it?”

I would say “why would they do it” rather than “can they do it”. Surely it’s more about a considered and appropriate use of technology in the classroom rather than using it because we can?

“Despite these potential uses of Twitter in education, there are situations in which Twitter, as a medium falls short. The restricted number of characters used in a message, or tweet, limits users from explaining complex concepts or writing equations.”

Of course it falls short if you use Twitter and only Twitter; 140 characters is not designed to enable you to write a thesis or even short paragraph. I see many people (students and teachers) using Twitter as the feed in to their blog, or research profile, or Flickr account, or something similar. Indeed, you may be reading this because I tweeted from my blog when I publish(ed) this post.

“However, if you are a passionate teacher who wants to utilize new technologies in the classroom, Twitter can be an amazing, asynchronous communication medium — if and only if you have a strong network to follow.”

I don’t think Twitter warrants the label of “you must have a large network to follow and who follows you”. I think it is more appropriate that your network is appropriate to you and your subject or area of expertise.

If you have any comment on the above please let me know and let’s start the debate.

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Steve Wheeler (aka Twitter timbuckteeth) has been writing a series of articles on how distance education has “developed and the influences it has had on our current education provision”.

I am not going to repeat what he says, but I would strongly recommend you read the articles, and the comments, and join in the discussion on his blog – http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/

Below are a few thoughts I’ve had, and submitted to Steve as comments too;

“The space between us all” : Pt. 1

“Distance is almost always conceived of as being geographical in nature. In class I often ask my students ‘what is the distance between you and I?’ Their first answer is always an approximate measurement of feet, yards, or (if they live in continental Europe) in metres. I then ask them to reconsider their response. I ask them what other distances there are between us. After a little consternation and head scratching, the light comes on and they begin to respond in terms of other ‘distances’.”

I’m sure a lot of us already understand this concept, but then it’s been our business to know the differences between the different types of distances (geographical, religious, emotional, etc). It is those who think only in terms of distance measurement that we need to get through to. The techniques in distant learning offer very different, but still positive enhancements to learning experiences when ‘merged’ (I hate that word) with face-to-face contact time.

“Short hand, long distance” : Pt. 2

“Even today, in the advent of digital technology, ubiquitous communications and web based learning, the vast majority of distance education is still reliant on mailed out, paper based material and the humble correspondence course.”

Very true, but is this out of necessity or because it is what is (wrongly) expected by the students? Distant education courses do not equal eLearning courses, although that is not to say they can never be the same. Distant education does not imply any kind of deliverable expectation, only an expectation on the type of learner and learning. eLearning, on the other hand, does imply a specific tool set (computer based or online) through a specific medium of delivery.

“First degree burns” : Pt. 3

“Moulton’s [1849-1924] …  innovative ideas could go no further at Cambridge – they crashed and burned. It’s probable that Moulton’s colleagues were concerned about issues such as quality assurance and the means through which assessment of learning would be achieved and authenticated.”

In some respects we are still encountering the same issues today. With more online tools coming to the market each week (some even free), people like me (Learning Technologist) are forever badgering the academics to look at this or that and trying to show them how it can improve student engagement, or reduce time in assessing and providing feedback. Not everyone is in favour of using technology in education, and not everyone is comfortable with it either. I hope we’re not as backward as they were in the late 1800′s but we must recognise that the educator has to be ready to sue the technology, and so does the student. While Moulton was trying to use a model of distant education based on the postal system, we are trying to base ours via the always-on Internet and tech-hungry student population. As Steve says, Moulton “realised his dream and in 1892 was able to establish the first degree programme delivered via correspondence”. Well done.

“Making a difference” : Pt. 4

“We must remember though that good pedagogy does not just happen because technology is being used. Good pedagogy takes place when teachers use technology appropriately and creatively. That is what can make the difference.”

This comes back to what I have always said; don’t use technology because you can, use it because it is appropriate to what you want to do. This is what I call my “considered approach” to designing learning materials, assessments, collaboration, work, etc.

“Come the revolution…” : Pt. 6

“… in order for students to learn effectively from new technology, it will first be necessary for their teachers to accept a new model of learning. This new model is premised upon educators rejecting the role of the model where the teacher is the ‘knowledge provider’ and instead, adopting of the role of the facilitator.”

In many cases this is the only stumbling block to using new techniques and new technology in an otherwise ‘known’ environment. For every innovator who welcomes new tools and tries their hand at something new, even if it may not work, there are the detractors who will stubbornly stick their heads in the sand in the hope that it will all blow over and they can go back to their acetate overheads.

“Computers brought the world to the classroom. Now smart mobile versions are taking the classroom out into the world.”

We are living in exciting times, we are constantly at the pinnacle of human endeavour, as Stephen Fry puts it. Advances in technology, and how we see and use it, will always require someone to try it out and push the boundaries. I am humbled by the company I keep that I am among some of the greatest innovators.

“The sage on the stage is rapidly becoming the guide on the side.”

“Ringing the changes” : Pt. 7

“The social presence of the telephone (the perception that you are connected to the other person) is very high, and many prefer it to so-called richer media such as videoconferencing. We often forget that telecommunication methods are the backbone upon which the Internet and other global communication methods have been based.”

What I am finding is that, as we have all grown up with the telephone, we are comfortable with this media to ‘converse’. Video conferencing is relatively new and, therefore, an unknown medium for communication. Most people shy away from cameras and video cameras, and that is when they are at home or on holiday. The same is true for when they are at work; they get very self conscience when they know the camera is pointed at them.

If the invention of the telephone lead us to the Internet and video conferencing, where could the Internet possibly be leading us?

“Man of vision” : Pt.8

“The computer and television together provide the basis upon which visual communication and global information access is achieved.”

The work of a few pioneering individuals has shaped the world we live in. They did it for the adventure and not for the acclaim or cash – that was when adventurous people like Nelson or Edmundson were hero-material, not pop-stars or wannabe famous talentless wasters like Beckham or Hilton!

But what of today’s innovators? Are they doing it for the right reasons? All technical development is being done by ‘employees’ of a few big companies (Apple, Sony, LG, etc) so can we say they’re doing it for the fame and cash (they’re certainly not doing it in their shed like the pioneers of the 19th and early 20th century innovators were).

“University of the second chance” : Pt. 10

“The OU’s current foray into electronic forms of learning such as web based learning and computer mediated communications is an extension of its tried and tested model of distance-blended learning.”

My only query about the OU is are they still the leaders in the field of distance education (as they once were) or are they playing catch-up? I know of many instances where online submission of assignments is standard (whether the programme is fully online or not) but from conversations from some local OU tutors and OU students it seems that the OU is only just starting this practice.

“Spinning the Web” : Pt. 11

“[Tim] Berners-Lee has campaigned tirelessly to keep the World Wide Web open and free, and this is possibly one reason why it remains largely an un-policed, imaginatively fertile and unpredictable aspect of distance education.”

This is also why it has become so popular and such a source of amusement and contention; anyone can have their 15 minutes of fame via the Internet (remember the Star Wars Kid, and the inevitable remixes?). The availability of hardware to access the Internet has become cheaper as we strive to improve (and shrink) technology, which has led to more ad more people owning Internet-ready devices, and for companies to blend different hardware (the camera-phone?).

Thank you for this series Steve, it’s been great reading the history behind where we are today, and to gain insight on where we may be heading.

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler.

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Jane Hart (Twitter: @C4LPT) is keeping her Learning Technology Directory up to date. The Tools the directory “enable and support all kinds of learning – formal structured learning, personal learning, group learning and intra-organisational learning”.

The directory has been reorganised into the following comprehensive categories;

• Instructional tools,
• Live tools,
• Document and presentation tools,
• Blogging, web and wiki tools,
• Image, audio and video tools,
• Communication tools,
• Micro-blogging tools,
• Collaboration tools,
• Social networking and collaboration spaces,
• Personal productivity tools,
• Browsers, players and readers,
• Mobile tools.

So, get on over there and find something new to try out. Even better, see if your favourite tool is listed and, if not, ask to get it listed.

Related posts:

1. Learning Tools: for the Educator/Teacher
2. PLE / Personal Learning Environment: What's yours like?
3. Learning Tools: for the Learner

I like Stephen’s thinking in the presentation he has produced below, and agree that we are indeed experiencing a shift in thinking, as well as approach, to how we view learning; from the VLE to the PLE.

Stephen points out:

“The central purpose of the VLE is to manage learning (whatever that means).”

while …

“The PLE in an environment for a person to manage knowledge (whatever than means).”

NB: the text in brackets above are Stephen’s words, not mine (in case anyone was wondering.

Pedagogical Foundations For Personal Learning
View more documents from Stephen Downes

Related posts:

1. Presentation: Creating a Personal Learning Network #PLN
2. Conference Report: Make it Personal, July 2009
3. Learning Tools: what do you use?