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Interesting article on how PLNs relate to self-directed student learning. The author,Bernard Bull, provides some background on learning theory and self-directed learning to clarify how PLNs could be incorporated into any curriculum. The article includes a few how-to tips at then end.

Really great article about helping students create PLN's and why they need them. It starts with some theory about PLN's and then discusses self directed learning and self blended learning. A student PLN really is a collection of connections to people and resources.

I think PLNs are the cornerstone of self-directed student learning. As I read this article I kept thinking about how I could use this in a math classroom. The author states, "The idea of a PLN is simply a network of people and resources through which you learn and grow". He goes on to summarize key learning principles and accurately states, "a student personal learning network, which is a mix of connectivism, self-directed learning and self-blended learning". Great read Cheronne!

The chart of self-directed and teacher-directed learning is great. Those questions are what educators should be asking themselves everyday before they teach a lesson. This helps us identify exactly what needs to be taught, how to evaluate it and to make sure it was taught successfully.

This is a fantastic resource! I had never even thought of Personal Learning Networks for students, as I was so focused on it as professional development for teachers. By helping students create their own Personal Learning Networks you are able to shift from teacher directed learning to student centered learning.

Not only defines PLN's and gives some background learning theory information, but gives some concrete ideas on how to help students develop their own PLN's.

This article from Dr. Bernard Bull discusses ways that students (including all of us) can develop our personal learning networks. While we may have people that help us learn, there are different outreach possibilities to increase our PLN. He states that if students were to grow over time with their PLNs, the number of connections would be of more quality and quantity. He discusses this through the theory of Connectivism. He encourages including PLNs into the curriculum which then may allow for students over time to create personal teaching networks from the information they have learned.

The author not only explains the benefits of Personal Learning Networks but also asks himself what would happen if learning communities and organizations made student personal learning networks an integral part of the learning experience. With the popularity of PLNs, the author believes that students may not only build a personal learning network, but also venture into starting their own personal teaching networks.

This is such a fascinating article! I appreciated the explanation of what a PLN is, but also how to explain it to others and to even help them get started with one. I want to incorporate a great deal of technology with my f2f students this year as well as help them grow to being self-directed learners, so having this article as a resource of how to help students set up their own PLN is great! I hope this will intrigue them to become learners even outside the classroom.

I appreciate the simple explanation this article provides. "Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being acquired." This aspect help solidify the idea that knowledge is not finite and gaining it is never over. Connectivism provides a way to help make sense of our knowledge potential in light of constant change in technology.

This is a great resource for Connectivism. I felt that this theory was more dense then PLNs and CoPs and many articles I looked at were difficult to follow. I like how the theory is broken down here and includes helpful videos. I will be using this resource to help with my creative expression project.

Thank you for sharing! I also found the simplicity of the explanation great in order to grasp the concept. By referring to Connectivism as to "a learning theory for a digital age" makes it easy to remember that it is a new theory (since the digital era is also relatively new.) That, in turn, may also affect the way we perceive the main principles of Connectivism (outline in the article): learning as a process of connecting specialized nodes or information sources, learning residing in non-human appliances, and the need to maintain connections to facilitate continual learning, among others. Due to such an abundance of information in the digital era, the key point in the article for me was "the ability to draw distinctions between important and unimportant information is vital"! A skill is yet to be mastered!

While not really dealing with the theory, I thought the video demonstrating how Connectivism works was really well done. It was interesting to see the path a student might follow and how their web expands.