EdTech 543 - Week 2 - Communities of Practice, Connectivism, Personal Learning Networks

Learning networks have always been a part of everyday life. Whether it is the receiving advice from your friend about gardening over the telephone or asking your uncle how to shoot a hockey puck, we learn from the interaction of others. Today, we call these PLNs (Personal Learning Networks). Siemens (2007) states, “Through the process of interaction and communications, the entities that constitute the network will form a mesh of connections. Knowledge is embedded in this mesh of connections, and therefore, through interaction with the network, the learner can acquire the knowledge.” Today, these connections are obtained in various ways. Formal and informal discussions with colleagues and peers, social media, and online communication (emails, webinars) are examples of ways to connect and gain knowledge.

Communities of Practice (CoPs) are another way to connect. They are similar to PLNs but they are more specific to a topic, interest or experience. CoPs have three distinct elements that set them apart from other groups. According to Wenger (2007), a CoP must have a domain (a shared interest), a community they learn from, and practice (sustained interaction and membership). Wenger (2007) goes on states that these “groups of people share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.”  It would seem that they are not a large as an individual PLN, but, in fact, are much larger. The reason is - even though specific in nature - CoPs encompass individuals to the community and these individuals bring to the community their own PLNs as well.

Connectivism is a way or understanding learning. There is still much discussion as to whether it is a learning theory however, it it is valuable when understanding learning in the 21st Century.  Kop (2008) states that “the starting point for learning occurs when knowledge is actuated through the process of a learner connecting to and feeding information into a learning community.” It is a combination of individual PLNs, CoPs and the immense knowledge that can be found on the internet through search engines, social media and open online resources. This huge network of information is called Connectivism. Each connection or “node” is part of learning and it part of  the larger concept - Learning by Connecting. The amount of knowledge is so immense, that the true skill involved is distinguishing what information is relevant to individual learning.

Here is a link to my creative expression.

My creative expression is an interpretation in an art gallery. I tried to show the distinction of the concepts of Personal Learning Networks, Communities of Practice and Connectivism by placing these individually in each room. The first room discusses Personal Learning Networks. The pictures relate to how personal networks have been formed over the last number of years. Originally, we used letters, telephones and face-to-face interactions to connect with our networks. As technology has increased, we now have added social media to the fray. The second room discusses Communities of Practice. The large picture shows how CoPs are developed - through groups with common interest, ideas of improvement or experiences. The pictures on the right show two examples for each of these concepts. The third room shows a large picture representing Connectivism. The picture shows the essence of Connectivism. Individual communication, group communication, social media, search engines and open online resource material are all included in this picture. Finally , the last room tries to show the connection between the three rooms. I tried to show how 21st Century learning requires our Personal Learning Networks, grows in capacity when using Communities of Practice (many PLN’s involved in a group) and finally grows exponentially when we put it all together in a connective network.

References

Downes, S. (2007). Learning networks in practice. Retrieved from http://nparc.cisti-icist.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/view/accepted/?id=fa5f5f4d-b6c8-4dac-ab6e-49b75570f988

Kop, R., & Hill, A. (2008). Connectivism: Learning theory of the future or vestige of the past?. The International Review Of Research In Open And Distributed Learning, 9(3). Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/523/1103

Smith, M. K. (2003, 2009). Jean Lave, Etienne Wenger and communities of practice. The encyclopedia of informal education. Retrieved from www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm