Brief Introduction to Personal Learning Networks and the theory of Connectivism

1. Introduction by Phil

2.  “A group of people, any people, that can help you
develop and learn. I think it‟s very important to
stress that a PLN is people, because so much talk
about PLN gets tangled up in technology and
websites etc, but at the heart of PLN is the concept
of people who connect together to help each other
grow and learn”
◦ - Nik Peachey, British Council‟s Teaching English website,
February 2011

3.  Spend a few minutes chatting to the person
next to you about what you understand by a
PLN?
 how do you think you can build one?
 what tools are there?

4. What‟s the point
of having a PLN?

5. A PLN is nebulous. It lacks structure and there is
nothing definite about it. Members in any network
are not constant. It changes shape and expands as
more contacts are made.
A PLN allows you to learn anything, anytime,
anywhere with anybody you choose!
Image: Bev Novak
A PLN allows you to decide for yourself what you
http://novanews19.word want to learn or focus on. A PLN can be developed
press.com/
for any interest area, with a range of
communication tools used to stay in touch with
like-minded peers, experts or anyone who shares
an interest. A PLN makes active learners of us all.
But building a PLN requires some thought and
making the right choices. It also requires some
effort to set up and maintain the connections that
are made.

6. http://teachersusingtech.weebly.com/personal-learning-networks.html

7.  A great way to start is to join
Twitter and start following
people.
 Social Networking sites
include ones especially for
teachers, such as
classroom2.0.
 Starting and maintaining a
blog is also a valuable tool
which you can place at the
heart of your PLN.

8.  Just like anything else that involves human experience or
interaction, the act of learning does not happen in
isolation. It is at the intersection of prior knowledge,
experience, perception, reality, comprehension, and
flexibility that learning occurs. Other traditional learning
paradigms of behaviorism, cognitivism, and more
recently, constructivism have been the benchmarks
against which the learning process has been measured.
 At the heart of a PLN comes the idea of learning through
connectivism. According to George Siemens:
“Connectivism is driven by the understanding that
decisions are based on rapidly altering
foundations. New information is continually being
acquired and the ability to draw distinctions
between important and unimportant information is
vital. Also critical is the ability to recognize when
new information alters the landscape based on
decisions made yesterday” (Siemens, 2005).

9. Connectivism is not the same as Constructivism, which is a
learning theory which was developed before the modern
„digital age‟. Learning theories, including Constructivism
are concerned with the actual process of learning, not with
the value of what is being learned.
In a PLN or „networked learning environment‟, the very
manner of information that we acquire is worth exploring.
The need to evaluate the worthiness of learning something
is a meta-skill that is applied before learning itself begins.
When knowledge is abundant, and often untrustworthy, the
rapid evaluation of knowledge is important. In today‟s
environment, action is often needed without personal
learning – that is, we need to act by drawing information
outside of our primary knowledge. The ability to synthesize
and recognize connections and patterns is a valuable skill.
Adapted from George Siemens.
http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm

10. Principles of connectivism:
 Learning and knowledge rests in diversity of opinions.
 Learning is a process of connecting specialized nodes or
information sources.
 Capacity to know what is more critical than what is
currently known
What do you  Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to
think of facilitate continual learning.
connectivsm  Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, and
as a learning concepts is a core skill.
theory?  Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intent
of all connectivist learning activities.
 Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosing
what to learn and the meaning of incoming information
is seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While there
is a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due to
alterations in the information climate affecting the
decision.
George Siemens.
http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm

11. now over to Sarah and Maria…