My first class in this course was a presentation by Dean Shareski who shared many of his interesting ideas about education. The emphasis was on taking advantage of different ways of communicating and getting information out there.
There were three lessons around the notion of network learning that Dean shared with us. The first lesson was for educators to start thinking differently about literacy because the use of media can make subjects and topics more interesting. Examples of this include parody's and mashup's of media to create a new story. The second lesson was that teachers are everywhere. The internet is more than just a source of information and people are able to make small contributions that make big impacts. The third lesson was that you are what you share. Everyone has something to share and when people do share it opens up more opportunites to educate and learn. Teaching should not be about reinventing the wheel, which I have heard from numerous sources.
I really enjoyed what Dean had to say and I am still processing quite a bit. Personal learning network or PLN is a term I had never heard until now but as I'm slowly understanding it is a resource that can become very valuable.
It takes a while to sink in. I remember that in my ICT course in first year I first heard about a PLN. I thought it sounded like a great idea, but felt like another thing to learn. After a year of building connections and seeing it in action it has become an amazing way to learn!
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