I’ve been thinking about this article for some time now, but haven’t been able to start it because I know I’ll not do it justice. Very soon, I’ll be doing some serious writing about PLNs — about my Personal Learning Network and how it helps me accomplish my goals and keeps me abreast of news and thinking about teaching and learning in this new information landscape.
I see my PLN as having three basic components.
- The network — People who have things to say that help me do my job, and dynamic information sources that provide me with the raw materials I need.
- The tools — Essentially, the avenues of communication through which I connect with people and information sources — conduits that often add value to the information.
- My Own Personal Echo Chamber — This is my own world view from which I teach, where ideas from my PLN bounce around off the walls of my mind and off of other ideas, either losing momentum and fading away, or generating energy and growing. (I’d look to talk a bit later about what I see when I look at this on my screen)
But there is a 4th element to my PLN that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. You see, as I rose this morning, and switched on Twitterific, I got pulled into the thoughts of Ian Usher, up a few hours already in England. Then Julie Lindsay in Qatar, then Ewan Mcintosh and Josie Fraser from Scotland and England. Also Chris Craft, with insane energy, chimes in from South Carolina. Jeff Utecht, of Shanghai, is at the tail end of his day, but will be back at the end of mine, as he begins his tomorrow.
My aggregator is crazy busy, with a thousand+ messages waiting in my “Everyday” folder alone. I have no intention of reading them all. I read as many as I can. But I subscribed to all of that, because I felt that it was valuable to me.
25 minutes later -- because I got sucked into my Google Reader, and bookmarked four new resources.
Anyway,
what my Personal Learning Network needs
is a zipper.
I need a way to open up this nebulous and ever evolving thing and slip it off of my head, so that I can enjoy the azaleas, take walks, sit and read a mystery, veg in front of the TV, get back to cooking, pick up my guitar again, go meet my brother for lunch, go to a matinée. Of course I do these things (except for the cooking, guitar, and haven’t been to a matinee in months), as do we all. But the networks are not a 9 to 5 affair, and it’s why zippers on our PLNs need to be an explicit part of our conversations. [Image ((AZRainman, “Poseidon.” Azrainman’s Photostream. 2 Aug 2007. 1 Apr 2008. http://flickr.com/photos/azrainman/992631266/.)) ]
2¢ Worth.
Tags: warlick, education, elearning, pln, personal learning network
Good morning David!
A zipper. What an intriguing thought. I’m working right now on a reflective piece about my PLN as I conclude a grad class. It has been at the same time so absorbing and so rewarding that a friend asked: “What will you do when this course is over?”. Of course I responded it isn’t over and won’t ever be “over”. But the immersion has been intense and I have been reflecting on the same issue you have raised.
As learners we need to ensure that we are not one-dimensional. So I would add to your concept of a zipper that we also need to try new colours and scribble outside the lines of our profession. Our networks need to include divergent sources of information and context. Whether we consider these to be different networks or extensions of the same PLN, they connect us to thoughts and ideas that enrich our own. That makes us better educators and contributors.
And now I’m going to pick up my guitar.
I agree with you David. I’m not long in this edublogger world, but I feel like I’m in deep already. Finding the balance is difficult if not impossible – I’m spending a few hours a night immersed in my Google reader, my own blog and Twitter, as well as dipping in periodically throughout the day. I feel an exponential growth in learning, but my existence has become more sedentary and ‘quality’ time with kids and husband suffers. Need more hours in the day to learn, exercise and enjoy life!
Agreed. There are times when I open mine up (especially Twitter) can people are posting. When I go to bed, the same people are posting. Its great in a way, but there are times when I think ‘When do they live?” Plus, the more assimilated, the more pervasive these sources become, the more we hear the same.
These tools provide quality content, but it can’t be the only source of enjoyment. I sometimes wonder if we are taking the conversation into a closed room where the people who really need to hear it, aren’t.
Agreed…We have to keep a balance. I am trying to take 24 once a week and not pick up my laptop for 24 hours….
Exactly! I had to pull myself off of Twitter because it was eating up my time. I am always looking to improve, which leads to subscribing to more Feeds, which eats up more time, and if I don’t read the Feeds, I feel guilty – or like I missed something.
It’s the same intrinsic “thing” that leads me to buy books I never have the time to read. Why this desire to know? To feel like I never have enough info? I have been like this all my life, and the ‘net has just intensified it.
I want to thank you for posting this. Maybe I won’t feel so guilty for not reading everything knowing that you feel overwhelmed by it all sometimes, too.
Agreed. I experienced the same feeling as Jenny when I started researching to write a book about blogs. I call it being buried in blog mountain.
I started with personal blogs before I began reading edublogs and I found out then how easy it is to become buried under the massive number of blogs you can read. I spent hours each day visiting blogs.
I think that experience is helping me manage things better now, I know that I can say no and not check every day, that the number I read should be limited.
I think you’re giving excellent advice David and have fantastic ideas for managing PLNs.
I’m dealing with some of these issues as well. I spend probably around an hour a day reading blogs. I don’t miss television but i do miss some of the things you mention like taking walks etc. I’m thinking of implementing a self-imposed fast one day of a week from the net.
I agree that a zipper is in order and am currently experiencing those same creeping bouts of conviction. I cannot Tweet at school, so that one takes care of itself. I have more or less had to just summon up all the self control I am not using to avoid overeating, chewing my nails, and other various and sundry bad habits to focus on being mindful of students, teachers, etc. while I am at school and attend to my PLN during the evenings after we are all settled for the evening. I am finding that my general philosophy: “Que sera sera” helps me backtalk that niggling feeling that I could miss out on something. On the other hand, my PLN is helping me miss out on less than I used to not know that I was missing out on:)
Mr. Warlick,
I am a student studying at ISU to be a biology teacher. Your blog hits home right about now. I am struggling to find the balance between all the things that need to be juggled. I am currently enrolled in a class, “Issues in Secondary Education.” The class I happened to enroll in is “technology enriched.” So, not only do I have to learn the regular material, but also I need to learn the technology aspect of teaching. It seems as though things are screaming past me. There is a huge learning curve and I am not sure how to manage. I have been thinking on ways to get and stay organized. You mentioned the network, the tools, and your sounding board (echo chamber). I really appreciate you breaking it down. Too often I feel like I have to reinvent the wheel. I need to be able to separate what I am supposed to do and the figure out ways to use the technology to my advantage. I also think the zipper is a much needed element. Thanks for your 2¢!
Stephanie Mocilan
Agreed. There are so many interesting bloggers with much to say. I want to read it all.
Work/ Life balance here reaches a grey zone for me, I’ve discovered learning is fun. (A new concept for me) My Google Reader is jammed with posts waiting to be read…. I periodically consider ‘unsubsribing’ but never feel that I can, like I’ll miss out on something really important, and so I surely would.
I agree. I think we could almost put what we go through when adopting a PLN into levels.
Stage 1: Immerse yourself into networks. Have a feeling of not being able to leave it. Afraid you’ll miss something, and feel like if you do miss something you missed an opportunity.
Stage 2: Evaluate your networks and start to focus in on which networks you really want to focus your time on. You’re still in that feeling of urgency and are trying to figure out a way to “Know it all”.
Stage 3: Hit a wall staying up to 1 or 2am trying to “know it all”
Stage 4: Start to put your life into perspective. Usually comes when you are forced to leave the network for awhile and spend time with family and friends who are not connected.
Stage 5: Balance try and find that balance between learning and living. A constant battle but one that I think many of us are still trying to figure it out.
I’ve been thinking about this too (as you can tell) I have found that these are the stages that I went through an continue to battle with. I force myself to put down the computer and pick up the guitar. I force myself to take Screen Free Week off and reflect (I write blog posts on paper…a very strange experience). PLNs are very powerful, but they are not all there is to life…and I’m just glad I have a wife who reminds me of that from time to time. 🙂
As I’ve helped others start PLNs they too have gone through many of these same levels of PLN
Jeff’s ideas of a progression are interesting. I have a bad feeling though, and I am wondering if others feel this too, that most teachers would never make it past Jeff’s Stage 1. I say this because the only reason I made it out of stage 1 was that I had the time to let my brain make that shift. I think that most teachers, with all that they have on their plates, will become so overwhelmed with “stuff,” such as the 1000+ messages I currently have sitting in my Google Reader, that they will simply say “I don’t have time for this.” Maybe I am just pessimistic because that type of reaction was what I saw a lot of at my old school when I was a tech coordinator. I would try to introduce something new that I knew would eventually make the teacher’s jobs easier and “they” (used as a generic and not all-encompassing term) would say that they already had enough to do that day. Try as I might, they were not going to jump on board.
I like Jeff’s stages as well. I especially identify with his statement of a desire to “know it all.” Is there something about networking like this that seduces us into thinking that we CAN?
I also think that Scott makes a good point, about educators would see the way, and not wheat growing on the other side. I think it might take a shift, where, as I like to say in one of my speeches, that “we will have reached real education reform, when no teachers believes that they can teach the same thing, the same way, year after year.” When bringing something new into every class becomes part of our self image, then personal learning through networks will seem an obvious tool.
David, it’s great to keep in touch with you and others in my PLN. As I sit here in the Dubai airport waiting for my flight back to Doha after being at GETEX with Don Knezek and other wonderful , slurping ice coffee….but hey, I know you know that already as I have just twittered it! Yes, yes, I know, let’s find a balance…..sometimes I go 2 days with out a tweet, lately I seem to find it harder read as many blogs as I want/need. I cannot keep up with it all…nobody can, however when I do choose to come online and share and interact I know that my very own and expanding PLN will be there for me….what a nice warm and fuzzy feeling that is, especially when you are traveling and out there in the world. I don’t need a zipper, I have enough self control…….I think.
Wow, there’s a lot of this sort of discussion this week. From Will Richardson’s “The Conversation About Conversations” post to David’s fabulous zipper analogy, and all the marvelous comments about them: Just in time for my chat with a Peabody College grad student class across the street from my K12 school, coming up this Friday–an overview of Web 2.0 for a classroom of preservice teachers who have very little familiarity with any of it. For that talk, we need to begin with this one, I’m growing to believe. And Jeff’s note about self-control is to the point.
That said, the fact that managing all this is something none of come to the playing field knowing how to do is an important one. As we develop working strategies and when we feel the occasional magic moment when we experience epiphany of balance, we should continue to shout out to our PLN’s to help one another in the common effort to achieve it–balance, wholeness, and humanity alongside Information River. (That’s perhaps the most runny-onny sentence I’ve ever written, but I stand by it.)
Now where did I leave my fishing rod?
I agree that if we push teachers to fast we will loose them. I always recommend that people start with no more than 10 RSS feeds. One of which must be outside of education. I also recommend first time twitters to start with 15 followers. What we need to remember is we didn’t start with 1000+ things in our Readers. We started small and allowed those networks to group to 1000+. Each at their own pace, each as their own reader. Remember we build networks, we join communities. It’s important to make sure teachers take it slow. It’s also why I like using a site like Pageflakes.com or Netvibes.com because they are more than just readers for newbies. They are the weather, your e-mail, your to do list, your calendar, your facebook (which BTW was the selling point at my last conference!) all on one page. People like that concept because it’s not a far jump from Yahoo’s homepage. The only different, you’re in control of every piece of content. I know igoogle does this but it’s two steps. Netvibes is one….click “add widget” and you’re good to go.
Start small, start slow…they’ll get to stage 1 fast enough. 🙂
I like Jeff’s stages and think I’m about at stage 4 right now. Unfortunately I think that many will have to go through all of those steps to get to stage 5. I think the same goes with people just starting out in teaching. New teachers don’t know how to balance their lives in order to not get burned out.
I just returned from a few days of vacation…the hotel had free wireless, but I intentionally left my computer at home. Know what? I never missed it! No matter how immersed we are in this ever changing world of technology, we must step back from it all once in a while and rediscover the world we knew before computers consumed most of our free time. I’m been back on the computer catching up on Twitter and Google Reader for a few hours now, but it’s time to put it away and finish that book I started at the beach. 🙂 Thanks for a great post!