Currently I am part of the #ONL211 – the Open Networked Learning. The ONL is a collaborative open online course that is about online teaching and learning in higher education. Taking part in the ONL gives me the opportunity to collaborate with educational professionals around the world. During Topic 3 we have dealt with learning in communities and networked collaborative learning. Which made me think deeper about why we should use networks to learn.

Kay Oddone introduced us to the idea of the PLN: Personal Learning Network. As Kay puts it “every PLN is created by an autonomous individual who drives their own learning according to their interests, passions and learning needs”. She also references to Steven Downes who describes Networked Learning as “the learner operates independently but not without input from the others”. [1]

When asking myself why community learning is so helpful for me, I find answers with George Siemens, who recognizes in his learning theory of Connectivism that in the online learning environment, „seeking and constructing knowledge is most often accomplished through interaction and dialogue“. Learning consists of retrieving information from oneself, from others, and from machines (the Internet), and through collaboration knowledge is created and can be transferd to one’s own context.  Thus, connectivism is about linking people to each other on the one hand and to technology on the other. Sustainable learning succeeds when learners can handle large amounts of information, search for different sources of knowledge, and create and participate in learning communities and networks. [2] [3]

Twitter as an example is just one way of applying connectivism. I started using Twitter in 2012. Over the years I kind of forgot about it. But as I started the ONL I realized the potential of Twitter. A whole new world opening for me. I can connect internationally, I get the latest news on research, tips for useful resources, and a wide variety of opinions. Twitter is such a great resource for learning as a visitor but why not start to become a resident? A great opportunity for that shift are Twitter chats. I had never heard of them before. There is a wide variety of Twitter chats around the world. [4]

Everyone can be part of a Twitter chat, just by using a certain hashtag. Sometimes Twitter chats are organized like informal conferences. A guest is invited, a timeframe is set, questions are posed and then you start a discussion. In real time, across the world. After the chat most times, the results of the twitter chats are produced as wakelets, so that one can read through the results of the twitter chat. [5]

By the way, to my PBL-Fellows and all who read this blogpost: If you still have troubles deciding whether Twitter could be useful for you to use, try out this helpful: https://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-twitter/

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[1] Kay Oddone. PLNs Theory and Practice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8mJX5n3IEg

[2] Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism:  Learning theory for the digital age.  International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2(1), January 2005. http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_05/index.htm

[3] Brindley, J., Blaschke, L. M. & Walti, C. (2009). Creating effective collaborative learning groups in an online environment. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 10(3).

[4] https://sites.google.com/site/twittereducationchats/education-chat-official-list, https://www.insidehighered.com/twitter_directory

[5] https://lthechat.com/