learning on a jet-PLN (don't know if I'll go back again)

My reach wasn't ambitious enough in yesterday's post. That and a few other things have become clearer in just the few hours since I posted it, thanks to comments from Diane Cordell and Patrick Higgins. I was asking a good question--How do we show the learning that happens through our blogging?---just not thinking big enough.

WARNING: SELF-INDULGENT META-ANALYSIS AHEAD

I can't resist excerpting their comments in their near-entirety as an example of how they pointed me in a whole new direction. The learning and emphases in bold are mine; the teaching is all theirs.

Diane:

The early stages of building a PLN and starting a blog may appear haphazard, but the connected learner soon begins to tailor his posts and contacts to meet a certain need.

Patrick:

This is a great question, and the answer to it, I believe, is unique to the individual. For example, when I began to write, the steps that have preceded it often resemble traditional learning: I gather resources, place them in an accessible place (my desktop or RSS starred folder) and begin to tie them together in a coherent manner. That end product, like Diane describes above, often tends to have nothing to do with my original purpose.

So in asking "where's the learning?" or what does it look like, I certainly think it is more than by random or by lucky chance, because I set out with that in mind to begin with. The end result is where the mystery lies. That is what I cannot predict when I begin.

As far as setting out with the end in mind, I think it's a must when you are writing, but the collaborative nature of the blog/comment process never really lets us chart that course from the outset. It's more a wait and see, then evaluate situation.

So. Let's see. The inquiry side of blogging is unique to the individual. We begin with an idea and collect supporting resources. But we can't predict where we'll end up. The end is a mystery, driven in part by the collaborative nature of blog/comment/evaluate/blog-again. We evolve as we inquire, and our inquiries evolve with us.

It's stunning: the close relationship between the process they model and describe, and how that process affected my thinking in very real, immediate terms. The mysterious, collaborative blog/comment process works it magic, and I find myself charting a new course.

NOW, BACK TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED POST...

How do we show the learning that happens through our blogging? My question wasn't big enough. The real question tugging insistently at my sleeve was more like this: How do we show the learning that happens through personal learning networks?

Clay Burell has been hot on the PLN trail for the past week, and setting the stage for much, much longer. Need a quick-start PLN primer? Read his Open Thead 2: Your Dream Elective, follow it with a co-teaching classroom invasion by Arthus, listen to Clay's conversation with Chris Craft about moving beyond collaborative units to PLNs, and wrap up with today's "quick in, quick out" podcast. Clay describes the lightspeed progression this way:

Let me spell a couple things out: Twitter, Skype, and this blog have very quickly combined into an instant-meeting medium for me to learn from people around the world who are interested in helping me succeed at what I’m trying to do in my own project-based learning - which just happens to be about using the new tools to allow students to learn in new ways. This podcast is at once a datum of and a discussion about Personal Learning Networks.

Patrick, drinking from the same heady jet-fuel stream as Clay, is hammering out a vision of PLNs and their place in the future of professional development:

Like it or not: your professional development will no longer be something you “go somewhere” and receive. . . . It comes to you, as long as you are ready to accept it. It’s a network, and it’s here for you. Yes, you’ve got people.

Like it or not? That phrase is worth a second look. Hell, it's worth a third look, with its connotation of inevitability. Patrick so subtly raises the question of choice in teacher professional development. Opt in? Opt out? He's inviting input from his own network on this VoiceThread about visions of PLEs, PLNs, and the future of professional development--which, to my mind, is a high-octane demonstration of a PLN in action. But that nagging question of choice lingers. For most teachers, I suspect, the conversation on Patrick's VoiceThread more closely resembles science fiction than their daily professional development reality. A professional learning network isn't in the cards as a realistic choice for most teachers until its value is recognized beyond the echo chamber, until it dips its toes into the mainstream, until the safety net of legitimacy is stretched beneath. Until then, it falls into the category laudable-but-optional professional practice, of Just One More Thing To Do, something experienced by a fringe few for the *gasp* sheer love of learning.

So let me try yet again: What is it going to take to bring professional learning networks in from the cold? Can the learning that occurs in a PLN be shown in a way that makes sense---and makes a case---to someone not already involved in their own network? What are the consequences---to teachers, to students, to the profession---of not trying? 

Much more to be unpacked and delved into, but I'm running up against my self-imposed six billion word limit. To be continued.  This jet plane is taking off.

Comments

[diane]

Scott,

Another advantage of a PLN is that your community extracts from your words a depth and meaning that the originator might not have intended or suspected.

In the best possible way, my virtual colleagues push me to think deeper, focus more, extend farther.

And it's the most fun I've had in years!

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

diane

[Carolyn Foote]

Scott,

I think your question is a very important one.

When we think of teaching something, we often talk about connecting to something our students already know and scaffolding their learning that way.

We can't ignore the fact that most teachers already do have personal learning networks--maybe they are within their own buildings, but those are networks, nonetheless.

Perhaps building on the notion of the teacher down the hall connects into that.

When we talk about personal learning networks, I think we're really thinking of something more far-flung.

But although this may seem obvious, I think for a personal learning network to really be personal, it has to fit the needs of the person who creates it.

I think this is partly about creating opportunities for teachers--opportunities for them to get professional support, share ideas, and learn.

But for something to be an opportunity, there has to be a perceived need.

I think part of the networking that is valuable to me personally is partly because there's only two in my role in the school--so it's an opportunity to learn, find inspiration, get feedback from mentors, and share what I know as well.

But how do you "explain" how invigorating something is? It takes time (and interest) to build an online network.

I wonder how "institutionally" we can support this idea as well? How can we create opportunities in professional development for teachers to network(even within our own buildings)? How can we support time for that or see it as significant?

Study groups that network both within a campus and beyond? Groups with guides both within and without the district? College/school collaborations that institutionalize the networking, but also extend it beyond the campus?

Lots of food for thought in your question. Thanks for extending our thinking :)

[Scott Schwister]

Exactly. Exactly. In order for an opportunity to be seen as such, there has to be a perceived need. As usual, you've taken my baggy, shambling thought and refocused it to give it real punch.

Your better re-phrase: How do we support networking in professional development and see it as significant? Or, can we go beyond "significant" to "vital" and "essential" and "crucial"? How do we show the need?

And thank you for showing the connection between hallway networking and our own "more far-flung" PLNs. A grounding analogy. And most excellent ideas about institutionalizing the PLN notion by connecting to existing ideas about learning in community, finding mentors/guides, etc. That seems like the right approach to me. I'm thinking of it as a PLN starter-network to ease people into the water at the zero-depth end. Comprised of local colleagues and conversation in recognizable, familiar milieus so they can feel the network love, but quickly extending beyond into more far-flung territory.

Since I work in higher ed, I'm frankly looking for a relevant role for higher ed in PLNs. I think there is one, but not sure universities will be on top of things enough to catch on and join in. Your idea about institutionalizing networking through college/school collaborations and study guides gives me hope. So the university's role in supporting teachers and schools could be to provide the facilitator/study guide and the entry-node. The sure-footed Virgil taking us through heavenly networking spheres (let's skip the inferno part). But a university would have to dedicate resources to seeding the network, fostering the expertise, and becoming a useful, active, contributing node in the network.

Envision a new job: PLN Facilitator.

[Carolyn Foote]

Scott,

I think secondary schools and colleges are missing out too often on the powerful connections that they could share.

Our campus has been involved in a couple of NEH grants years ago which were connected with our local university, but in that situation the university professors were here more as the "experts" and the teachers the learners. I'm thinking of something even more egalitarian because I think we both have things to learn from one another.

But I think how profoundly exciting for high school students to have that extension as well.

It may take some special "pairing" to find the right cohort of colleagues to begin with, but I believe this idea has much merit, and there are so many tools that would facilitate this so easily now.

[Patrick]

What a great meta-analysis you've begun here. Let me start by thanking you for including me in this discussion.

As part of yesterday's workshop, I was able to observe the behaviors by the people in the room: some where rapidly joining each application and creating accounts as I described them and demonstrated their role in my learning, while others were not even logged into one of the 30+ machines that littered the room. You are right, how do you get those not "logged in" to do so? I like how you described it as "coming in from the cold," because that is where it feels it is right now. It's the hinterlands of PD at the moment. However, my focus this year is to "be the change," so I cannot accept that it's not happening.

People get freaked out by a few of the things you describe: "another thing to do," and the "that's great if you can do it," mentality. Why is it optional to have a PLN? Why do we accept that learning only occurs in designated areas? Maybe those questions get at the larger question of why aren't we teaching children to teach themselves. Do we know how to do that?

Thanks for this post. It's great timing for me to think about this as I head towards Educon next weekend.