1. Introduction by Phil

2. A group of people, any people, that can help youdevelop and learn. I think its very important tostress that a PLN is people, because so much talkabout PLN gets tangled up in technology andwebsites etc, but at the heart of PLN is the conceptof people who connect together to help each othergrow and learn - Nik Peachey, British Councils Teaching English website,February 2011 3. Spend a few minutes chatting to the personnext to you about what you understand by aPLN? how do you think you can build one? what tools are there? 4. Whats the pointof 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 youhttp://novanews19.word want to learn or focus on. A PLN can be developedpress.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 joinTwitter and start followingpeople. Social Networking sitesinclude ones especially forteachers, such asclassroom2.0. Starting and maintaining ablog is also a valuable toolwhich you can place at theheart of your PLN. 8. Just like anything else that involves human experience orinteraction, the act of learning does not happen inisolation. It is at the intersection of prior knowledge,experience, perception, reality, comprehension, andflexibility that learning occurs. Other traditional learningparadigms of behaviorism, cognitivism, and morerecently, constructivism have been the benchmarksagainst which the learning process has been measured. At the heart of a PLN comes the idea of learning throughconnectivism. 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 alearning theory which was developed before the moderndigital age. Learning theories, including Constructivismare concerned with the actual process of learning, not withthe value of what is being learned.In a PLN or networked learning environment, the verymanner of information that we acquire is worth exploring.The need to evaluate the worthiness of learning somethingis a meta-skill that is applied before learning itself begins.When knowledge is abundant, and often untrustworthy, therapid evaluation of knowledge is important. In todaysenvironment, action is often needed without personallearning that is, we need to act by drawing informationoutside of our primary knowledge. The ability to synthesizeand 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 orinformation sources. Capacity to know what is more critical than what iscurrently knownWhat do you Nurturing and maintaining connections is needed to think of facilitate continual learning.connectivsm Ability to see connections between fields, ideas, andas a learning concepts is a core skill. theory? Currency (accurate, up-to-date knowledge) is the intentof all connectivist learning activities. Decision-making is itself a learning process. Choosingwhat to learn and the meaning of incoming informationis seen through the lens of a shifting reality. While thereis a right answer now, it may be wrong tomorrow due toalterations in the information climate affecting thedecision.George Siemens.http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/article01.htm 11. now over to Sarah and Maria