Multiliteracies Evo session

Wikipedia, which turns 10 years old this weekend, has taken a lot of heat over the years.

But as a Pew Research report released today confirms, Wikipedia has become a crucial aspect of our online lives, and in many ways it has shown us — for better or worse — what all information online is in the process of becoming: social, distributed, interactive and (at times) chaotic.

53 percent of American Internet users said they regularly look for information on Wikipedia, up from 36 percent of the same group the first time the research center asked the question in February of 2007

Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) do exactly what they say on the can - they are personal to each individual, created by them, owned by them, used by them within their lifelong learning.

developments in their relation to Personal Learning Environments as several people over the past months have asked me why I think there is a need to develop a Personal Learning Environment at all.

Applications and aggregators of information are freely available and people can take their pick of their preferred ones and create their own network

what distinguishes a connectivist perspective from social constructivism

similar principles

complexity

a simple bookmarking service

keep track of the URLs you share. You don't want to post them in multiple places. Just tweet the URLs that interest you, and Ratius T. Packrat will add them to your delicious.com bookmarks for you. He'll use any hashtags you include as tags for your bookmark and include the full text of the tweet in the bookmark comments.

A PLN becomes a student's virtual locker, and its content changes based on the student's current course work. When I assign them a term paper, the students comb the Web to sign up for information that will feed into their personalized Web page to construct a PLN for that topic. When they get a new project, they assemble another page.

Perhaps the most telling response on the subject of PLNs is from my student Hope, who says, "My iGoogle page is very helpful and helps me keep things organized. It lets me know when my agenda changes." The fact that a ninth grader would talk about her own research agenda gives a glimpse into the power of the PLN; she is using a term here that is often reserved for grad students.

Constructing a PLN is the essential skill that moves my students into the driver's seat of their own learning. It helps them sort through and manage the proliferation of online materials that jam the information superhighway. It is also indispensable to our project-learning curriculum

I have used the term Personal Learning Network (PLN) dozens of times over the last few years, and have seen it mentioned countless times in blog and microblog posts, and other forms of media. However, I cannot seem to find a solid reference or definition for the concept of PLN.

I thought it was appropriate to ask the question to my PLN (or what I perceive as my PLN) via Twitter. I asked if anyone had a definition for a PLN, or if they knew the difference between a personal learning network and personal learning environment (PLE). I received varied responses, and the majority of these are pasted below. To make more sense of this conversation, read these from the very bottom to the top as they are in reverse chronological order.

From a simple question on Twitter, I received dozens of twitter replies, direct messages, and email responses. While I am still having trouble defining exactly what this is, I know that what I observe to be my PLN has dramatically changed the way I view teaching, communities, and the negotiation and formation of knowledge.

Socialization of students is education in itself,”

Many cyber schools regularly use social-networking tools in their online classes and are also moving to incorporate some face-to-face interaction into their classes

The ubiquitous use of tools such as Skype, a free Web-based videoconferencing service, and webcams let students see their peers and their teachers, even in cyberspace.

Summary: Although instant and text/SMS messaging is beginning to supplant email for some groups' primary means of Internet communication, effective and appropriate email etiquette is still important. This resource will help you to become an effective writer and reader/manager of email.

How do I compose an email to someone I don't know?

a meaningful subject line

"I’ve come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my daily mood that makes the weather."

in order to forge on I needed to learn more about managing my emotions. While our working conditions need to be improved, that will take time. In the interim, we can change how we experience the stress; we can increase our emotional resilience. I suspect that if I did, I’d be more effective and feel better.

Emotional resilience is defined as how you roll with the punches, how you handle and adapt to stressful situations. Emotionally resilient people understand what they’re feeling and why.