sunnuntai 23. syyskuuta 2012

Why build a personal learning environment

Social networks are changing the world more rapidly than it has changed probably ever before. Is the school changing as fast too? Probably not, but we still have hope. More and more educators are building their own personal learning environments in the internet. These, so to say, "connected educators" are sharing, collaborating, coaching and consulting eachother over the net.

Just today I found the most amazing visualization of the things I tried to describe above. Check it out and see:

Infographic showing a day in the life of a connected educator - teachers using social media

The whole thing above is not a dream or a fairytale. I know dozens of educators who work just like that. In our school we are taking steps to that direction too.

At the moment we have the FinnABLE 2020 -project that is trying to re-invent the classroom. The project is all about the new learning environment, sharing and collaboration. The other project that helps to build the learning in a new direction is KuumaTVT -project. This project is trying to give tools for the teachers for the 21st century teaching. KuumaTVT project provides further education in the ICT skills for the teachers.

But no project or further education can change the attitude more than your own experience. That is why a 21st century teacher should take the first step into the social networks and start to learn, share and collaborate with other educators. One of the greatest tools for building your own personal learning environment is Twitter. While Facebook tends to be more focused on people's personal life Twitter is more professional.

A few ideas to get started, you'll find in this presentation I did a while ago. See if it helps and start SHARING:

2 kommenttia:

  1. Good post Esa!
    You just have to remember that there's also a lot of people (like me) who use fb as working tool, building my pln, having great conversations especially in groups and sharing some great stuff. I know you meant it in general, but i just wanted to say that there's plenty of great things going on in fb. Would be glad to see you there ;)

    VastaaPoista
  2. Thanks! Glad you enjoyed the post!

    You've got it right. I DID mean FB and Twitter in general. Of course I know a lot of good professional work in Facebook too but most of the people draw the line between personal life and professional life there.

    After all, I don't think that the tool is the issue. The thing is to get started and start sharing and collaborating and get your PLE together with any tool you like and feel comfortable with.

    VastaaPoista