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Free PLP (Professional Learning Practice) options at PLP Network

I joined Sheryl N-B's Google circle and have wandered through her posts including her Connected Learner Manifesto (that I believe came from a Twitter request she made, subsequently summarized into Circle document). I wrote a couple of entries. Note that on this page advertising the PLP Live 2012 event, they stress the need to do "embedded job learning" with their learners. Makes me wonder if we need to be more specific about the types of transitions/situations we wish to help women with. Because all learning needs to be applied/reflected on/? to be owned and used as a springboard for the next phase? Writing reflections or doing representations of learning advance learning and certainly document waypoints but are they enough?

This excerpt from an interview with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, PLP founder, captures critical points for PD online. "Will and I agreed that we would only work with teams of school-based educators because the research made it clear that it was collaborative teams within in a school, working together, that really brought about sustainable improvement. That would give us what we needed to anchor the virtual experience in a local context. We also wanted participants to experience a global community of practice-to be able to have conversations with people very different than themselves, with fresh perspectives. Our thinking was that if we put teams of educators who had different ideologies, different geography, different purposes and challenges, all together in the same space, then they could each bring what they did well to the table and people could learn from that. Ultimately that would mean public, private, Catholic, and other kinds of schools; educators teaching well-to-do, middle-class, and poor kids; educators in different states and nations, at different grade levels, and in different content areas and roles. What ultimately grew out of our brainstorming was a three-pronged model of professional development that emphasizes (1) local learning communities at the school/district level; (2) an online community of practice that's both global and deep; and (3) a third prong that is more personal-the idea of a personal learning network that each educator develops as a mega-resource for ideas and information about their particular interests and areas of practice. (These three prongs are described in depth in a new book, The Connected Educator, where PLP community leader Lani Ritter Hall and I tell the story of the evolution of our model and the very solid research base behind it.)

Interesting round-up of engagement techniques for the classroom but at least some could be adapted for online adult work. Contained in a Google docs; came to me via weekly PLP social media roundup

Interviews with four CoP practitioners including Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, May 2012. PLP uses three buoys for worksites--Ning, wiki, and website.

A nicely organized record of Sheryl's interviews over several years, published in May 2012

Online template for developing a personal learning plan. Although k-12 focused, it is a good template for creating a PLP

Article by Kerry Hannon, Forbes, 1.25.13 This author asserts that older workers will become more valued by employers even though they aren't making special efforts to hire or retain them now and do not want to pay for the cost of training/retraining them. These trends suggest that taking charge of one's own learning with a PLP, PLN, etc. and taking advantage of all the free opportunities will be valuable skills to have. This author only looks to community colleges for retraining and does not reference any of the online options that we know about from the work on the directory. Should we draft a comment back to Kerry Hannon on this website? "1. Who is going to pay for that training? Most labor market experts I have interviewed say the government and private employers need to ramp up more training programs for older workers and create workplaces that make it easier for them to do their jobs. Employers don't want to spend for it. They've already cut to the bone to stay competitive globally in recent years and this kind of spending is a tough sell. Conceivably, as I discussed as a panel member at a recent Federal Reserve Workforce Development conference, one way to provide the needed training is through the community college system. The coursework could be offered at an affordable cost for the worker. Depending on who foots the bill, employers or employeees could receive tax incentives to ease the tuition bill. (Please continue to next page.) "

Incredible website that I discovered in the PLP Lite community today about PLNs. Need to explore in full. 2.20.13

Another excellent resource from PLP for Connected Educators (available through Dropbox) to kick off Connected Educators Month. What if August were also Women's e-Quality month? or Women's Webquality Month? August 26 is Women's Equality Day . . . something to think about for next year? Wonder which women's organizations might bite and support such an event.

Personalized Learning Blog Love the responsibility vs accountability pyramid and the description of how they define the process of personalized learning system (PLS) vs. a PLP.

Was just thinking about our LeanIn group and the Studio offering a Book Club and here is this invite from PLP for a connected educators book club

Love how they took the comments from individuals to make this manifesto poster. Beautiful, isn't it?

Newsletter by Ann Mehl, a life coach, 1.26.13. Justifies Studio's raison d'etre. Excerpts: "The workplace has changed enormously in recent years. Gone are the days when some benevolent company would direct and manage your career for you, while you dozed off at the wheel. Now more than ever, it is incumbent upon every employee to proactively manage his own career. We have become in essence, a nation of free agents. A company of one. And all successful "companies" must identify and set their priorities in such a way that our goals can be achieved. In the humdrum of work, it's often easy to find yourself adrift, floating aimlessly downstream without clear intent or destination. The days blur into each other, until you have no idea where you are going, or what it was you hoped to achieve. But ask yourself this question: if you're not steering the ship, then who is?" ..."Are there any personal development classes that would make certain parts of my job easier? Should I be speaking with other industry peers in my field so that I remain current? Is there anybody I can identify who might be willing to mentor me while I navigate this tricky next phase of my career?"

PLP's tips and tricks for using Google apps

tool for cutting out background of pictures

Fascinating article on Baylor research on how internal social networking sites supported and managed within the workplace helps newcomers (younger people usually) to connect and learn from each other, interact directly with more senior people, and inadvertently cause problems for middle managers who did not want to mentor new hires and who did not necessarily have the social/technology proficiencies to participate in the SNS, Science Daily, 1/29/2013. Their conclusions showed that a "company can improve morale and reduce turnover." Researchers are Hope Koch, Baylor, Dorothy Leidner, Ph.D., Ferguson Professor of Information Systems at Baylor; and Ester Gonzalez from Washington State University. Excerpt: he study centered on a financial institution's efforts to reduce IT employee turnover by starting a social and work-related online networking site. Under the supervision of executives, the IT new hires developed and managed the site's content. Since most new hires had moved hundreds of miles to start their new jobs with the institution, they initially used the social pages as an introduction to the community. After a year or so with the organization, the more senior new hires began using the system to acclimate and mentor incoming new hires. All study respondents worked in the institution's IT department and included new hires, middle managers and executives. With less than three years of experience, most new hires and interns were men between 21 and 27 years old. The middle managers and executives were baby boomers or members of generation X. The internal social networking site helped the new hires build social capital in several ways, according to Koch. "It gave them access to people who could provide useful information and new perspectives and allowed them to meet more senior new hires and executives. These relationships set the new hires at ease during work meetings, helped them understand where to go for help and increased their commitment to the financial

Short (<2 minutes) by John Spencer, uploaded June 27, 2010 to YouTube on Starting a PLN. Although oriented somewhat toward teachers, it is valuable for anyone to get a sense of what a PLN is and why it might be a good idea to do.

Twitter tips from Powerful Learning Practice.

Look at this description of the Powerful Learning Practice ecourse offered by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and others at PLPNetwork