A Ballad for the PLN: and why the "L" doesn't really matter that much.

Authors Note:  This blog post would not be possible without the following people who in ways large and small, have demonstrated caring and compassion for other educators that transcends Twitter, Professional Development, and Learning: @LS_Karl @awelcome @prinicipaldurham @msvictoriaolson @jstevens009 @mrpiercy @mrsfadeji @alicekeeler @kfostertweet

Thank you for continuing to inspire myself and the people around you!

ACT I:  A brief history of time:  

"Respected Swiss scientist, Conrad Gessner, might have been the first to raise the alarm about the effects of information overload. In a landmark book, he described how the modern world overwhelmed people with data and that this overabundance was both "confusing and harmful" to the mind...That's not because he was a technophobe, he died in 1565, His warnings referred to the seemingly unmanageable flood of information unleashed by the printing press."

By Vaughn Bell at Slate.com:  Please read the rest of this awesome article here

Communication technology (for many) is scary, always has been (probably will be) and at the core of these fears, exists concerns about how it will impact our social interactions.  All my friends, friends-friends, and friend's parents (and for that matter everyone I meet socially that asks what I do) know that I am an  "EdTech Guy", and at some point they cannot seem to resist the temptation to share some version of the following:

"I'm really worried about the impact of technology on kids today, I feel like they are growing up without learning how to interact with other people"

If you are reading this blog I am going to make two assumptions:  A) You know why this isn't true.  B) You have heard the same thing yourself.

My canned response/elevator pitch to these comments used to be tales similar to Vaugh's Slate.com article. The history of concern for how a printed Bible for all would keep people away from the fellowship of the church, or how newspapers would disrupt the social value of town meetings, how mass produced books would make us all anti-social isolated individuals lost in our imaginations.  Note I have not even touched on, Radio, TV, or the Internet.

The emphasis of ACT I, is in the "used to be", as my experiences in the past three weeks (and past 4 months since joining twitter) has led me to change my message a bit.

ACT II:  "Do I have a PLN? Yea, I love my PLN!"  (Internal Monologue:  I have no clue what that means but I am totally going to pretend I do until I have time to do a Google Search later)

This is what was going through my head when I first heard MCOE Supt. Mary Jane Burke (@burkemaryjane) talking about PLNs at an admin unconference in September.  Since then, Connected Eductors Month (CEM) and conversations, blog post, keynotes, etc. Have been emphasizing (rightly so) the importance of a PLN.  PLN's are important, learning can happen so much faster when it is self directed, engaging, and with a network that is always on.  Catlin Tucker (@CTuckerEnglish) shared the following about learning from her twitter/PLN at the North Bay CUE Marin Conference.  "I have learned more from twitter, then all of my PD experiences combined".

Learning is valuable, no doubt, intelligent people like Catlin don't just run around dropping superlatives like this, so that they can sound cool.  However I am starting to wonder if by overselling the value of learning from your PLN, we are making it harder for teachers who are not connected to see what really matters about being a Connected Educator.

ACT III:  the PERSONAL learning network.

This comment by Victoria Olson, prompted me to craft a slightly controversial title to this blog post.

What does Victoria's PLN have to offer to her that Google doesn't, that is so powerful that Karl was inspired to MT with an added "YES!"?  The answer may lie in the "P" of PLN.  The personal nature of a PLN; connection, support, sharing, and most importantly the ability to celebrate our peers, are all elements that were A LOT more difficult for educators to engage in 15, 10, even 5 years ago.

In just the past three weeks I have observed/been inspired by the following random acts of awesome by people in my PLN.

@LS_Karl joining my EdTech Masters Class to talk about why twitter matters, and bringing in awesome people from his PLN to share the love.  @msvictoriaolson from BC, @KtBkr4 from New Jersey (it was like 10pm her time!), and @jstevens009 who showed up HOLDING A BABY (check the pic!).  This does not include the folks who wanted to join but couldn't because the GHO was maxed out.  Thanks Karl!


@awelcome and @mrsfadeji two principals who are so committed to the #allstaffontwitter cause that they sat down in the middle of their day for 30min to GHO with a friend who wants to shift her school's culture with social media.

@mrpeircy joined my night class to teach teachers about Chrome OS, and share chrome extensions (#heygirl) for educators, even though his Boston Red Sox were in a playoff game at the time, that was decided by one run!

@alicekeeler left a rockin @NorthBayCUE party to stand outside, in late October, at a tiny bar table, to give me a 40min lesson on spreadsheets.  And I am not a quick study... #patientteacher

@principaldurham joined my sparsely attended #FallCUE session to honor my need to have an "expert in the room" as I moderated a conversation between Administrators.  

@NMHS_principal retweeted (to his PLN of 50K) a request for HS teachers to fill out a Homework survey and help @jstevens009 effort to reach 10,000 students by the end of the school year, within 30min of my RT request for help. 

@ecsaibel MT of my last blog post with the added "A must read", unknowingly helping me overcome my fear of the "Publish" button.  

@kfostertweet who pushes me to blog and is funnier on twitter than I ever will be. I can't wait to have her organize #BrewCUE Marin next month.

No less than 20 people sent tweets to opening night of the #TUtechparty to welcome my grad students and model the positive power of twitter. Huge Thanks!  #drawer

Epilogue:  We are all better together, even if it's within a cheesy 140 character limit chat space.

The entire point of ACT III is to point out the Irony of ACT I:  That the unlikely outcome of all of this seemingly impersonal communication, is an increase in our ability to connect in a personal way.

For 5 years I sought out learning opportunities and grew professionally through podcasts, Audiobooks, journal articles and blogs for my, "all the time" learning.  And for 5 years it worked really well for me, I learned a lot.  What I didn't get was the encouragement, support, celebration, etc, that EVERY EDUCATOR needs in order to press through the day to day challenges of working in a profession that isolates us by nature.  

I kind of lied, the L in PLN matters immensely and every person mentioned in this post would probably disagree with the title.  I wrote it to attract attention to a very important point.  If our "sell" of the PLN to unconnected educators is primarily as a learning tool, we are missing out on an opportunity to share what makes PLNs unique: They are Personal.   Please model the personal and meaningful side of your PLN in order to encourage educators to see their own growing PLN as more than just a fountain of information...we all have Google for that.  ;)

Cheers