https://georgecouros.ca/blog/archives/tag/the-networked-teacher

PLNs Theory and Practice by Kay Oddone, part 1.

PLNs Theory and Practice by Kay Oddone, part 2.

• Not only about tools, but how these tools “mediate connections” (Connected Learning Alliance, 2012).

• PLN vs. CoP
  • “With CoPs, the people who make up the community have a profession or professional field in common. A network though is markedly different in that it is made up of individuals who form individual connections that are not based on a single profession” (Gutierrez, 2016).
• A collective brain with less and less barriers (Oddone, 2018)
• More prominent due to the increasingly connected global world (Oddone, 2018)
• Link to OER – as PLNs will develop their own resources and share their learning with one another (Oddone, 2018)
• Based on social learning, but the learning is driven by the individual (Oddone, 2018)
• To understand PLN from a pedagogical perspective (Oddone, 2018):
  • We are acknowledging that knowledge is socially constructed
  • Learning is an active process
  • The learner is autonomous
  • Social tools enable connections and these spaces for learning

• Online learning community vs. online learning network (https://youtu.be/LqSBTr9DPH8?t=56) .Tends to learn to online learning network, due to the openness of PLNs and the spirit of open
• PLN vs. PLE

“A PLE can be created when an eLearning course’s VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) adds tools or applications that allow students to control their learning. So, in this way, a Personal Learning Environment is what comes about when a Virtual Learning Environment is personalized for users to direct themselves within the environment. Adding social elements where students can interact with each other within a PLE, turns it into a PLN” (Gutierrez, 2016).

• Benefits of a PLN (Rajagopal, Brinke, Burggen, Sloep, 2012)

• [It] supports the development and growth of professionals’ careers (Cross, et al., 2003; Dulworth, 2006; Krattenmaker, 2002)

• A PLN supports “appropriate, constant support when the need arises” (Haythornthwaite, 2002; Ru and Ortolano, 2009; Van Ryzin, et al., 2009)

• “[V]ital in innovation and crucial in linking to new trusted partners when dealing with changing business priorities” (Birkinshaw, et al., 2007; Pulley and Wakefield, 2001; Vervest, et al., 2009)
• “[S]upports group formation for the purpose of awareness–raising and/or socio–economic progress” (see Compton, 2009; Fesko, 1997; Gupton and Slick, 1996; Hays, et al., 2003)
• “[A] means to continuously support professionals’ life-long learning in practice”(Johnson, 2008)
• “[T]acit knowledge is built through experience and reflection and shared through social interaction with others” (Bolhuis and Simons, 2001; Hearn and White, 2009)

• • Strong link to connectivism:  “knowledge – and therefore the learning of knowledge – is distributive, that is, not located in any given place (and therefore not ‘transferred’ or ‘transacted’ per se) but rather consists of the network of connections formed from experience and interactions with a knowing community”
  • From Steve Regur (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpsMDbBrAbQ)
    • Consider the changes in lesson design if we encourage PLNs in the classroom. This becomes a truly flipped classroom experience, where students’ journey to learning takes centre stage.
    • E.g. why not link the classroom to other teachers or experts outside?