The topic for this theme has been about learning in communities, networking and collaboration. It has been rewarding to reflect on the often complex and subtle processes underlying these issues. I think that we often in general take the networks we are engaged in for granted and probably are not aware of how the affect us. The digital realm has given us nearly unlimited opportunities to engage in different networks of diverse interests. The easiness with how these engagements and fostering of new social networks can occur are truly remarkable. This undoubtedly has great potentials for empowerment through learning and in the building of social networks.

The concept of Personal Learning Networks (PNL) was new to me. Kay Oddone gave an interesting introduction and reflection on the theory and practice of PNL:s in the digital environment especially. Apparently it is not that easy to pin down the meaning of PNL since the concept as has been given many interpretations. As Oddone mentions we have diverse notions of what really constitutes our learning networks in the digital environment. Furthermore these are having quite deep implications for how we learn. PNL:s are dependent on the individual engagement of the people who constitutes them with their diverse experiences. The word Personal in these concept I think denotes the notion of personal engagements and interests that is essential for the building of PNL:s. In this perspective it was an interesting reflection that it ultimately is the interdependence of the individual learning driven by his or her interests or passions which allows for the creation of rich and diverse learning environments.

Connected learning I also found an interesting concept. As Oddone points out it can be regarded as a pedagogical framework which has been built upon the theories of networked learning and connectivism. This theoretical framework as I gather in turn underpins the concept of PNL:s from which it draws its understandings of learning and knowledge building. This is to say that knowledge is socially constructed and with regards to PNL:s distributed. Learning as Oddone mentioned is an active process and when we tap in to these diverse communities of interests as learning resources we can build upon our knowledge through collaboration and learning with others.

With regards to our work during this topic I think it has provided a really good example of learning through collaboration and what networked learning can mean. As during the other topics we each contributed with our own experiences and thus learned through collaboration thus expanding our knowledge base. To refer to the “kitchen metaphor” that we creatively used in the presentation I would say that we really were “cooking”. Christian proposed using the social annotation tool Perusall and to set up a kind of social experience on collaboration in the digital realm. I think this really played out well and gave a creative opportunity of a kind of meta-reflection on the topic and material we were to reflect on. Christian has been the main introducer of creative digital tools upon which our presentations has been build. I especially found the collaborative potentials of Perusall interesting so this is a tool I will explore further. I think our collaboration and presentations while creative from the start has been all the more so during the course progress so I am really looking forward to whatever dish we will come up with for the next topic.