1. Relational Trust in Colleagues Personal Learning Networksvs. Schools

2. About the survey

Based onOmnibus Trust Scaledeveloped by Hoy & Tschannen-Moran

Link to survey distributed via Twitter

17 responses as of January 9, 2009

Items address aspects of relational trust in PLNs vs. traditional school settings

3. Findings

Trust in PLNs significantly higher than in school settings

Average scores (all items)

• • PLN: 4.82

• • School: 3.41

Standardized scores (500 mean, 100 SD)

• • PLN: 581

• • School: 263

4. Results by item 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. Respondent comments 23. CHOICE

The trust relationships in plns seem stronger to me because they are self selected. I can opt in or opt out of the relationship---something I can't do in school.

24. CHOICE

You *choose* those that you invite into your PLN - and I assume you have chosen wisely. Those who are *assigned* to work in your same facility are not there by your choice. This parallels the difference between your circle of friends and your family, does it not?

25. EQUALITY

In a pln, everyone is equal and there is no leader. That equality increases the trust between pln colleagues---and the inherent lack of equality in school based relationships inhibits the development of trust.

26. OPENNESS

The major difference I have found is related to the openness of sharing, exploring, learning/relearning, and willingness to think out loud through blogs, tweets, podcasts and webcasts, sometimes at great risk professionally through my PLNs.

27. DIVERSITY

My PLN encompasses more diverse people/jobs/outlooks than contacts in my school district.

28. LEARNING

It is refreshing and energizing to be an active contributor in many professional social networks, and I learn something new every day!

29. LEARNING

I couldn't say the same about my experience in my own school/university. Over the years attitudes have become very status quo and a reluctance by educators to consider themselves life-long learners beyond their "work hours" has been quite common.

30. For more information

For more information, to access raw survey data, or to receive a copy of the survey, contact Scott Schwister:

[sschwister at gmail dot com] [twitter.com/sschwister]