EME6414: Reflection of 2nd week

In the website of elearning industry, there has a good article discussing "why people need to build personal learning network". Before this week, I thought most of our PLN has been built naturally. People have similar interests or same career background want to connect together to share information and save for later. Except for one assignment requiring student to interview an instructional designer, I had never deliberately build my learning network. I don't think I am a "professional" or a " talkative" person in any area. However, I gradually realize that as I enter into this area-"instructional technology", building an dynamic network is the basic and necessity. When I am reading this article, my understanding to "PLN" goes deeper.

First of all, the article mentioned that our world becomes complex and interconnected because of changes in five ares: technology, globalization, demography and longevity, restructuring of society, and depleting energy resources (Sahana, 2016). All of them require interpersonal connections. And obviously, the trends is moving to "online interpersonal connections". The article makes a great metaphor that "PLN" has a "butterfly effect" which means "A flutter of a butterfly’s wing can literally and metaphorically cause a typhoon halfway round the world'(Sahana,2016). You can imagine how strong a effect is when a researcher win the Nobel prize in a new area. All of the scholars in his or her PLN may change their researching direction and the funding from the university may deliver to that area. If you don't have such "PLN" but you are in the same area with that researcher, you lose the advantages.

Following is the diagram showing how many steps people constructing the personal learning network. The first one is explore, and then is collect, review, recreate and share. It seems very easy to follow, but to what degree we are following above steps and cultivate as a habit? When I found one article is very interesting, I usually save (collect ) it or share it, but rarely comment to it. I may worry my comments are not making sense, or maybe ignored and being underestimated. However, as the process you are building the "PLN", no review ( comment) means no continuum.

I tried many social media and tools in last week and this week. As Professor Vanessa mentioned, I already feel I am "drinking from the firehouse" and overwhelmed. In this article, the author point out that " the effective personal learning network is its diversity". With the connection of various people or groups of people, it will be easier to construct a more complete opinion or get inspired.

Last, it even not a simple thing to start when build your personal learning network. Specific skills are required: If I don't take this class, I may never know about "curation". I won't know "reddit", "net vibe", or RSS feed. Moreover, as I start to know blog is another way to build community or PLN, I realize that I need skills to build up my unique blog to attract people. Therefore, all the skills you are learning to use certain "social media", or "online tools" may become the foundational competence to build your strong PLN.

Following are lists of suggestions the article provide. I found it is very important, so I want to share it with you!