Shared+Understanding

Here's what we each understand the main ideas to be so far. All ideas/theories/understanding are legitimate. We are building our knowledge and improving - collectively - our understanding. Jane Andrea Rick (pick a color if you want) (79286 - Jane's color so she remembers)

Personal Learning Environment (PLE) It is an internet based space in which I pull together content that will assist in my learning. Learning may include inquiry on a particular topic (ooh we could practice with this topic maybe), general professional advancement, personal life long learning... This space will facilitate access to resources (links), will aggregate new content by key word or key pundits (RSS), may include productivity tools (calendar, email, weather...), will promote my own contributions to the knowledge on the subject (Blog, wiki, twitter...), will be owned/controlled/customized by me (unlike an institutional LMS like moodle or blackboard), it will most likely be supported technologically by open source tool(s). - jw

Personal Learning Network (PLN) I think this idea is a development/advancement on the idea of communities of practice. The purpose of each is to promote social learning from peers and those with greater expertise. There may be several characteristics that distinguish CoPs and PLN. First "community" suggests a stable consistent core group. While "network" suggests a looser arrangement of connections, definitely flexible and possibly opportunistic. In a CoP the "practice" or discipline is at the center of and defines the community. In a PLN each user/learner is at the center and determines the make up of her PLN. Each of ours may overlap, but no two will consist of the exact same nodes. Connectivists make the point that within a PLN some of the nodes or connection points may not be people but technological resources or tools.

On this project I have in my PLN Rick and Andrea - but I also include my professors, some of the people I worked with in the MOOC last term, bloggers I read but don't personally know, people I know from SL and some existing databases on the subject. - jw