PLN V.2 - in context

I've expanded my PLN map. My map still emphasis the people in my Personal Learning Network. Access to lots of people, people from all over the world, people whose ideas interest me, who are interested in my ideas, from whom I want to learn, with whom I exchange, collaborate, chat, create, or with whom I correspond through their works. The tools make the meeting, creating exchanging possible.

Time is a theme that continues to emerge in all my computer mediated networking and communication.

• Immediacy: information and expert opinions immediately available.
• Synchrony: sharing - if not space, time. presence, connection, shared virtual experience
• Asynchrony: in our own time, thoughtful contributions
• Persistence: people, connections, artifacts persist over time. But for how long. Colleagues in sl for 3+years. Colleagues in MOOC? Will we continue to share time and space after the course is over.
• Time zones - world wide time. Sometimes is is yesterday, today and tomorrow. Somehow this is important.

More to come.

What does my PLN look like

In PLENK2010, this first week we are considering Personal Learning Networks and Personal Learning Environments, what they are, what they look like... One of the challenges this week is to visualize our PLN. So here goes:

First I distinguish PLN (Personal Learning Network) from PLE (environment). It seems that PLE refers to the tool or virtual place where learning occurs: in an LMS, on a blog or wiki or through an rss feed. My PLN is a network of people and resources. I already see how this graphic could be improved. I could add artifacts (books, wikipedia, blogs...)

What strikes me about this image is that my PLN used to be almost exclusively made up of people I've met in Second Life. Through a virtual world I have been able to locate hundreds of people from around the world with whom I share common interests and intellectual pursuits. Many fewer people at my university and in my home community are members of my PLN. Though we share physical space we do not share common interests. What is new to my PLN is the MOOC - which like a virtual world has the capability and capacity to bring together dozens/hundreds/thousands of people who share interests and expertise. There is a dimensionality to the MOOC experience that I did not think could be accomplished on the 2D internet.

Holy Moly a Really Massive Open Online Course (RMOOC?)

Since I last posted 2 days ago enrollment in the Personal Learning Environments, Networks and Knowledge (PLENK2010) has jumped from 300 to 1090. That is a 1090 separate people participating in one Moodle course. This is going to be an interesting ride.

Personal Learning Environments, Networks and Knowledge

As part of my study of networking, distance learning and how technology is changing us, I have signed up for PLENK2010. Personal Learning Environments, Networks and Knowledge is an open course (open enrollment, freely shared content) facilitated by George Siemens (Connectivism), Stephen Downes (Personal Learning Networks), Dave Cormier and Rita Kop.

This 10 week course begins officially on Monday September 13 and as of this moment has 306 participants enrolled in the moodle course area. This is a massively multiplayer (hehe) on-line course. It is actually billed as a Massive Open Online Course (a MOOC :). My colleagues include residents of Canada, US, Brazil, Australia, Mexico, Portugal, UK, Ukraine, Spain, Italy, Venezuela, Uruguay, Greece, Malaysia, Argentina, Russian Federation, Peru, Belgium, India, Finland, Ireland, Ghana, Germany, and New Zealand.

What is it about? Besides PLEs, networks and knowledge as the title suggests, "there is no particular body of knowledge..." I quote from the course research consent document:

Though there may be a central theme or structure offered by the facilitators, there is no particular body of knowledge or information expected to be acquired by learners; rather, learning occurs as a result of interaction and participation in the distributed community, completion of authentic tasks within that environment, and the growth and development of the learner’s own capacities as a consequence. The course design, therefore, is that essentially of a community of learners who are learning to learn.

For more information or to register, check this out http://connect.downes.ca/

For updates on my experience, stay tuned.