Personal Learning Networks Assessed Activity 5.1.1 - 5.1.4

In this post i will be discussing my very own personal learning network, how i will be dealing with the overflow of information and am i actually using my PLN efficiently.


Information Overload:

With learning as a whole, one must know how to go about learning their selected information without getting bogged down by a massive amount of irrelevant nonsense. This could prove difficult in cases where an individual may be on Google scholar researching a topic, where this person finds an article on their topic, but in reality that author is writing about about something that might be related to the topic as a whole but discussing a very different aspect of said topic. This has happened to more times than someone would think.

The above problem can usually be found in two varieties; Online and in your local library.


Staying On Top:

Sometimes we all just want to find the information we need and get out of there. Quickly and efficiently. There are places on the internet (many social media sites) which house thousands or more communities for individuals to join a group with a common interest.. These interests can be from gaming to agriculture. The beauty of it is, is that a member of the online community can ask a question about that topic as a whole and more often than not, get the correct answer from another individual.

Hiding For All To See:

Now the next question is, what do i do with my PLN? Who do i talk to? Where do i show what i have learned?

I believe this answer is very simplistic. So simplistic it can be said in two words. Social Media. As discussed above social media can evolve very quickly with huge numbers. A great personal example i have to show is on one of my posts in this DLT blog. In my post "Learning With Games" i included a very much game based learning game. When i went to publish this post, i included the community that this game is related to. This community has over 50,000 members and therefore many individuals of the community have seen my post. Few have +1'd my post via my Google+  and therefore my views for that post have skyrocketed. Communities like these offer sound advice from the group which can help create or expand a personal learning network.


Finding time:

Finding time to effectively and efficiently use your PLN can be hard. I believe it also depends on how big your PLN is. There are both pros and cons to large PLN communities. Pros are that nearly all of the questions that are asked are more than likely to be answered correctly for that specific individual. A common con is that the information might not be 100% reliable. (Not always the case)

I believe a 'tight knit' PLN with small numbers of members that are committed to the learning would be more effective than a large group. (My personal opinion)

Below is a diagram of my PLN and how i effectively learn while engaging the community. :) Notice that a large portion of my PLN is social media. This is because of the communities social media has the ability to provide. Google+ keeps you in touch, Twitter is great for gaining followers that have the same interests. Blogger for writing about all your learnings and findings for the world to see and the rest is just general learning if you know how to use it.

Use it! Don't abuse it!