PLN's "Friends Educating Each Other": Informal, Self-directed, and Social PD
1. PLN’s “Friends Educating Each Other”:
Informal, Self-directed, and Social PD
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/11/teacher-tutorial-on-creating-personal.html
Tech Tuesday
Debbie Fucoloro
March 4, 2014
9. New Paradigm
• PLNs should be validated as a powerful
professional development component
• Not: Traditional vs Informal
• But a mix of:
traditional & emerging, formal & informal
12. Findings
Favorite social media application to use
for informal professional development:
http://bettergraphic.com/free-and-paid-fonts-used-in-logos-of-popular-brands/
13. Open-ended Themes - Why Twitter?
Community & Convenience
“It is the modern equivalent of the 18th century
coffeehouse—a place teaming with
ideas, opinions, research, discussion, collaborati
on, and bold vision.”
http://blog.songcastmusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/twitter-community-600.jpg
14. Open-ended Themes – Why Twitter?
Informal Learning & Sharing
“I have created a PLN that I feel meets my needs
by providing resources, ideas, and challenges to
improve learning for my students.”
http://images.wisegeek.com/people-independently-working-in-a-cafe.jpg
15. Open-ended Themes – Why Twitter?
Professional Improvement
“I have developed more as a professional since
participating in #edchat than I did in the last five
years.”
http://appliedsimplicity.org/files/u2/group_3w.jpg
16. Open-ended Themes – Why Twitter?
Isolation Reduction*
“The largest difference is that I no longer feel
alone in the classroom. I think it is hard for
those outside of education to realize how
isolated teachers were before social media.”
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20. Implications for
Educators
1. Participate in informal, online professional
development by starting your own PLN built
on your needs and passions—start
small, find mentors, be patient.
22. The next best thing to being wise oneself
is to live in a circle of those who are.
~ C. S. Lewis
The next best thing to being wise
oneself is to live in a circle of those
who are. ~ C. S. Lewis
24. Find me at:
Twitter: @debbiefuco
Blog: The Educators’ Café
Email: debbie.fucoloro@gmail.com
Notas del editor
Richardson & Mancabelli a PLN is a set of connections to people and resources, both offline and online, who enrich our learning.
I propose that the PLN has resurrected the "friends educating each other” model of adult learning.
We need to take a step back and consider how things have changed.
Pre-Internet – teacher’s store, magazines, face-to-face: conventions, workshops, classes all input (one-way) no conversation
Networked teacher with access to Internet – social bookmarking, personal publishing platforms, aggregators; two-way interactions
The social networked teacher is now connected to everyone that each person they are connected to are connected to…learning is amplified
Literature suggests a new paradigm for staff development that should be:Self-directedDifferentiatedOngoingJob-embeddedIn addition,FlexibleEncourage self-analysis and personal reflectionSetting the stage for PLNs to be validated as a powerful professional development component
Q16Educators used Twitter significantly more than Facebook, social bookmarking, wikis, blogs, RSS, and Nings and marginally more than cloud storage and sharing.Graph represents currently use
Twitter was designated by respondents as their favorite social media application
Open-ended QuotesTwitter – Community“It is the modern equivalent of the 18th century coffeehouse—a place teaming with ideas, opinions, research, discussion, collaboration, and bold vision.”
Open-ended QuotesTwitter – Informal learning“I have created a PLN that I feel meets my needs by providing resources, ideas, and challenges to improve learning for my students.”
Open-ended QuotesTwitter – Improve practice“I have developed more as a professional since participating in #edchat than I did in the last five years.”
Open-ended QuotesTwitter – Isolation reduction“The largest difference is that I no longer feel alone in the classroom. I think it is hard for those outside of education to realize how isolated teachers were before social media.”