( Authors Notes: Learning the Connectivist Way is a three part series describing my journey to self directed learning and connectivism.)

• Part I – Narrates how a learning context led me to take control of my own learning.
• Part II – Explains what Connectivism is, its salient features and why I gravitate towards it.
• Part III- My Personal Learning Networks (PLN) and the technologies I use to support it.)

Personal Learning Network
A personal learning network (PLN) is a group of people who you connect with to increase your knowledge of a particular subject (Lynch, 2017). PLNs typically fit into a connectivist paradigm of learning of creating, connecting with people or nodes, to increase learning. Connecting with people is basically aimed at learning their ideas, thoughts, questions, reflections and even references. It can be personal or professional, formal and informal, local or global and even on and offline. Here is an example of a connectivist learning network.

I started to explore PLNs in 2007 when I started to blog about healthcare. It got me into thinking, this might be the answer to increasing my learning!

According to Downes (2010), learning in a connectivist way entails 3 important ingredients- relevance interaction and usability. These “ingredients” also makes or breaks a personal learning network. In the field of orthopedics and medicine, currency of one’s knowledge is vital. Information on print media such as books is usually 5 to 10 years behind. Current advancements in medicine are almost spread instantaneously via the net. So its crucial that I have to be connected to the net to gain access fast to this advances.

Technologies for Personal Learning Networks

Aggregating Relevant Information
I use Feedly (or Google Reader) to acquire, organize and filter vital updates in medical field. Most websites have RSS feeds and you only need to subscribe to be updated of their latest information. These feeds can be “pulled” by a Feedly account and then I curate information according to categories of interests like medicine orthopedics. Most paid journals nowadays include abstracts on their feed already.
I blog my reflections about these curated information in a self hosted WordPress site. Reflective writing is thought of as a higher form of learning. I post it on relevant discussion forums, Facebook, LinkedIn and on twitter for critical reviews and feedbacks. I help build a network of blogging physicians as sort of community peer review on many topics. To interact with colleagues and people of interest, I use twitter, Linkedin or Facebook .

Building Interactivity
Twitter is a personal favorite because I can build networks of global, medical thought leaders in no time. Twitter has also been the launch pad of #HealthXPh– a collaborative effort of healthcare social media practitioners online, discussing social media and other emerging technologies that impact healthcare in the Philippines (Aguilar, 2015). Twitter gave birth to hubs of interactivity for healthcare in twitter chats, twitter journal clubs and organisational conference tweets. I can interact, learn and engage with mentors and colleagues, anywhere, anytime. #HealthXPh is presently the launchpad of a healthcare social media summit we started 4 years ago to bring practitioners together in a face to face synchronous conference for healthcare in the Philippines. We had a social network presence on Facebook since then and this serves also as a way of rapidly connecting with local colleagues as this is very popular in the Philippines.

Simplifying and Improving Usefulness of Content
All these tools don’t have steep learning curves for usage. It can be tweaked easily to fit learning styles. My aggregator for example, curate only information from subscribed relevant feeds. The hashtags on twitter filters topics I’m only interested in. Discussion forums and threads are easily read and replied to. I became adept at blogging so much that I also went back to improving on my writing. Reflecting on the curated information pushes me to summarise and clarify and synthesise thoughts. I began to organize information into simple and understandable body of information to myself. I use my own words to better understand concepts in medicine and orthopedics and to the many other relevant topics.

Unlike a purely connectivist learning, I still attend face to face conferences, workshops and other sessions to expand my learning. In this face to face sessions however, I made it a habit to connect and exchange information to people through twitter or Linkedin or even Facebook. I bring my online connections too, offline.

Organising information and growing my network of learning individuals increased my access to open educational resource as well as paid journals. A tweet to authors for example increases my chances of being given special permission to use articles for research without paying through hefty sums at journal paywalls. More importantly, these social network tools allowed me to connect to information, anytime and anywhere.

Now what do I do with the information I get from this ever growing personal learning network? How do I turn them into knowledge? This is where Bloom’s Taxanomy for Learning comes in. (This is will discuss in another post though)

In summary, I presented my evolving story and influence towards connectivism as a learning paradigm. Learning in connectivism is mainly building and interacting in networks through aggregation, co creation, storage and retrieval of information. I embraced connectivism as a learning paradigm rather than theory, based on the absence of clear, replicable and research validated pedagogy for teaching in my field so far. Advancements in internet and communication technology improved learning way and I presented technologies enhancing salient features of connectivist learning. Finally I shared a technology enhanced strategy to maximize learning in a connectivist ecology.

I’d love to read your thoughts on these, feel free to comment below.

1. What is your personal learning network? 
2. What tools do you employ to build interactivity, relevance, usability to information derived from this PLN?

References:

1. Aguilar, R. (ND). What is #HealthXPh? [Weblog post] Retrieved from http://healthxph.net/about/what-is-healthxph
2. Anderson, T. (2008). Towards a theory of online learning. In T. Anderson (Ed.), Theory and practice of online learning (2nd ed.) (pp. 45-74). Alberta, Canada: Athabasca University.
3. Downes, S. (2007, February 3). What connectivism is [Weblog post]. Retrieved from http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2007/02/what-connectivism-is.html
4. Downes, S. (2010, May 6). Connectivist Learning and Teaching [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/Downes/connectivist-learning-and-teaching
5. Kop, R., & Hill, A. (2008). Connectivism: Learning theory of the future or vestige of the past? International review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 9(3), 1-13.
6. Lynch, M. (2017, August 5) What Is A Personal Learning Network? [ Web log post] Retrieved from https://www.thetechedvocate.org/personal-learning-network/
7. Morrison, G., Ross, S., Kemp, J., and Kalman, H. (2011). Designing effective instruction. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
8. Siemens, G. (2005). Connectivism – A learning theory for the digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, 2(1), 3–10.
9. Siemens, G. (2006b). Knowing knowledge. LuLu.com Electronic book..
10. Wade, M. C. (2010,December 14). A Personal Philosophy [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://cybergogue.blogspot.com/2010/12/personal-philosophy.html