One of the things that I found interesting about topic 3 was
personal learning networks – what they are, how we use them and how they can
work in conjunction with a more formal learning community.

Now, in the digital era, if you connect with people via
social media, you essentially have a personal learning network. I’d never
really thought about it as learning, but
I guess every time I engage with something that is shared with me (e.g. an
article) via a Whatsapp group or facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn, I’m learning
in some way or another; expanding my knowledge. 
And often I’ll pass on that learning to others in my network, digitally
or perhaps-face-to-face…”Someone posted this interesting article on facebook
about XYZ…” And a discussion on XYZ ensues.

It’s really quite incredible if one thinks about the amount
of information available and being passed around in networks using digital
media. I guess the challenge is, are we actually always learning from it, or
are we becoming saturated and sometimes feeling overwhelmed? I know I don’t get
around to actually reading most of the stuff that I receive on the various
platforms. I’ll read the tweets and status updates and short snippets. But ALL
those articles? I sometimes wish there was someone saying, “Here, read this one
and this one because they’re really good”. 
The “editor’s choice”, I guess. The ability to sift through reams of
information and pick out the best  is
becoming a vital skill.

An article entitled, “Students Need Professional Learning
Networks, Too”, argues that “Learning to create, manage and promote a professional
learning network (PLN) will soon become, if it’s not already, one of the most
necessary and sought after skills for a global citizen, and as such, must
become a prominent feature of any school curriculum.” (Moss, 2016).

He discuss the three main skills that are learned by being
part of a PLN: socialising -including enterprise skills and knowledge to create
personal brand; managing  – time in viewing,
who to follow, how to deal with comments and so on (Moss, 2016).

And then the skill that speaks to my comment above sifting
through information: curating. As Moss says, “To curate or not to curate – that
is actually not the question. The question is how good are you at it. In a
world where information is amassing exponentially on the internet, becoming
skillful at filtering and selecting appropriate information will become
imperative, and much sooner than we think.”

References:

Moss, Paul. (2016). Students
Need Professional Learning Networks, Too [Online]. Available at: https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/learning-through-networks-is-the-future/
[Accessed 17 April 2019]