Chapter 2- Developing a Connected Learning Model

Chapter 2 of the book "The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age" gives a title of "Developing a Connected Learning Model" which gives an introduction to connecting and understanding new learning theory for the digital age. It does talks about one thing that is possible for us is becoming an autonomous learner in this new environment by using tools. One thing the chapter mainly focused on is the typical teacher network and the connected teacher network. To give us a better understanding of what this means the book has an image on what the teacher network may look like. For example, the typical teacher network has curriculum documents, colleagues, popular media, print, and digital resources, and family/local community. While this may seem a lot, connected teacher network has way more accessibility than the typical teacher network may have, such as personal learning community, blogs, photo sharing and etc. A connected teacher network is more well rounded because of having the same things as the typical teacher network has and but more.

During the introduction a former professor of education, Standford University discussed with a couple of colleagues from different countries and worked to synthesize their thoughts. From that experience, the professor did gain a new set of skills that the professor never knew would have. The book wanted to be clear and let us know the main intention of the teacher network is not to replace the traditional network but to improve upon.

The connected learning community introduces the new model for professional development by transforming the teacher's traditional network by creating new communities both online and offline. The main purpose of this model is to develop strategies to motivate schools to transform the learning environment. A three-pronged approached was developed to accomplish the goal. The approaches are the local community, global network, and bounded community. The local community is purposeful, face-to-face connections among individuals of a dedicated group. The global network is individually chosen, online connections with a various collection of people and resources from around the world. Bounded neighborhood is essentially a committed, collective, and regularly international group of men and women who have overlapping interests.

One of the main goals is improving student achievement and professional learning communities emphasize the importance of this. The future of the students learning is held against teachers and administers and having them work together and improve year by year will create a brighter future for the student. Professional learning communities organizational structure is to empower educators and encourage them to take a risk. This is how a belief is formed in a educators role which will continuously grow and improve. To make things easier for future educators professional learning communities can employ a wide range of web-based technology tool that can help to connect and collaborate to get a better learning experience which will show their growth and understanding.

Personal Learning Networks is a little different from professional learning communities. It focuses more on the individual person and who they want to learn from. Personal Learning Network is more personal and allows educators to be more open to themselves by connecting with someone who they believe would give them a better independent learning experience. This became much easier now than before since a huge factor to this was the location between the two. But current technology allows Personal Learning to be more accessible for someone that is a farther distance than that person. It does makes it easier and keeps the topic more open-minded than professional learning community by giving the person more comfortability to each subject.

Lastly, the communities of practice created a method that allows educators to organize the learning experience for themselves. This would be more collaboration between face to face than online but if it need be then online is always available. One way this stands out from the other two is each educator can have a collaboration with people within the same interest and goals. This systemic improvement helps to get things done by being in a group of educators within a similar mindset.

Learning about the three pongs of connected learning communities open my mind to the resources that are out there for educators. I do think it very crucial to learn, but the most important thing is how you are learning the material. I do believe that each person should connect to gain more knowledge on something they are curious about or to go more in-depth with a certain subject. Each one has its own perks and if I were to go with the one I would choose based on where I am. For example, if I were to work in a corporation, then a personal learning network is more beneficial since it will guide me to my own success through mentorship. But when it comes to a college setting, communities of practice will open new doors through groups of people that have a similar mindset and similar goals as I have. It's a matter of where you are and who you want to learn from.


References:
Nussbaum-Beach, Sheryl. The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age. 2011.