As I have taken this course, I have also begun my first semester in the secondary PDPP teaching program. Most of my classes are discussion-based and they are with the same 30-60 people and it has changed the way I experience university. Being able to have a network of knowledgeable people in my life has made learning more fun to begin, but also so much more rich and engaging. Learning is most likely going to happen when the learners’ emotions are into it, this is why people learn best from people they respect and find easy engagement with. Here are a few reasons why I’ve found my PLN to be successful.
Multiple Perspectives
Throughout our elementary and secondary school years, we have been placed in classes with people who are the same age as us and usually, are growing up in the same neighbourhood as us. Students are only exposed to what they know and nothing more. The internet has changed this, kids are able to see what life is like in a different continent if they so wish, however, the difference is multiple perspectives are needed in the learning environment as well as the leisure environment. When we all came to university, it was the first time, for me personally, that I was in a room with hundreds of people with diverse backgrounds and unique perspectives. Unfortunately most first and second, sometimes third and fourth depending on the subject area year courses are solely lecture-based. All of these people are learning only one perspective whereas in a discussion-based class, students learn less content, but they understand it from multiple perspectives. To me, in my Arts background, this is more valuable knowledge than the sheer amount of things I can know at a shallow level. Basically, quality of knowledge (quality being depth of processing, various perspectives learned) over quantity of information stored.
In my program I am constantly learning from people who took different undergrads than me, grew up in a different province or country from me, have diverse abilities, have families, have already had a whole career, and the list could go on, but the point is, since most of my classes are discussion based, I am constantly learning so much from my colleagues as their perspectives are not something I could ever conceive of myself. This is why having a personal learning network is so important if you are someone who is committed to lifelong learning and growth.
Emotional Connection
Think of all the stories you remember from your childhood or the weird science facts you still remember, maybe it’s the significance behind a famous painting or the unit that you failed in math, you remember these things because there was an emotion attached to it. When you learn something and have an emotion at the same time, the hippocampus (the memory part of the brain) lights up at the same time as the amygdala (the emotional part of the brain) making the memory more effective. This is why we remember things our favourite teacher taught us, or we remember the unit we struggled the most with in science. An emotional connection does not need to be deep, there just needs to be mutual respect and a safe environment. I have been lucky enough to get to know my colleagues outside of the classroom as well which has strengthened the connection. Teachers can also strengthen the connection they have with their students by creating lessons that represent the students’ interests, telling students we care about them and want them to succeed, and being reasonable with classroom rules and consequences. I once had a professor say that the three Rās of teaching are Relationships! Relationships! Relationships!
In my situation, a large percentage of my PLN was handed to me through my program, however when creating a PLN you are given the agency to choose who you want to learn from. You can seek out people you enjoy socially as well. Just because you are having fun doesn’t mean you’re not learning! If you are seeking out multiple perspectives too you might end up becoming friends with someone you never suspected, an added bonus.
Accessibility
The final reason I believe my PLN has been successful is because we are all accessible to each other. We have āmultimodal and interactive way[s] of communicationā (Giudice, Peruta, Carayannis, 2014) for example, we have in-person discussions, and we use online tools like Discord and Instagram to communicate and help each other out. I had never used Discord until this semester and one thing I really like about it is how there can be multiple different conversations going on for different topics. Itās like a streamline to learning. There is a chat for my humanities curriculum class so if I had an interesting thought or question about that specific topic I could throw it in the chat and either have a conversation with them through Discord or also arrange a time to chat about it in person. When building a PLN I learnt that both online and in-person communication are extremely valuable.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I found this class to highlight a lot of really important topics that I will hopefully be able to teach my students. I am glad that I understand what a personal learning network is and realize that I am able to learn from all of the people around me! I started off this course with a pessimistic view of how social media can be a useful tool in the classroom but I do feel like I have come around and seen a different perspective on them. I enjoyed having a mini PLN to discuss the week’s topics with and being able to read everyone’s blog posts. All of it contributed to my learning.
Source: Chapter 5. From Information Society to Network Society: The Challenge
By Alec Couros and Katia Hildebrandt
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