I am a big fan of twitter, an avid user for mostly work and a little bit of fun. I have found that I enjoy twittering much more than blogging and feel that I connect to a broader and richer network of people. Twitter has truly been a transformational technology for me. But I have to remember that that is because of a few things:
1) I chose to join Twitter
2) I connect to a group of people on Twitter that use it effectively for sharing information
3) My profession & interests are also connected to the people I follow
These components are at the heart of how a PLN should be and the basis for much research in the communities of practice literature.
So what I struggle with is how do we open this up to our students and fellow teachers? So much of what I see in schools for PLCs (mostly following the Dufour model) makes it mandatory. Can a true learning community be mandatory? How do you encourage people to participate without requiring? How do you make people be part of a community?
1 comment:
A true learning community cannot be mandatory. If this could be achieved, then public/private schools would be fantastically effective, which unfortunately is not the norm.
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