Developing a personal learning network and open co-learning opportunities

Invited Speaker at the University of Reading

Sue Beckingham @suebecks

"If learning is measured by a desire

to learn more; to continue learning, then the focus has to

be on creating the conditions for that to

happen."Richardson 2015

Leveraging the new learning ecosystem

https://twitter.com/degreed/status/694276812973678592

It's true that online learners will not have the same types of interactions as their on-campus peers. However, we need to stop thinking about what's "missing" or "lacking" and focus on what we can do to increase connection and build community via digital channels."

Eric Stoller

Private (defined recipients) Public/open

Via University systems Via branded platforms

Intermittent Always on

Formal tone Informal tone

Adapted from Curran and Horrocks 2015

Traditional University Communications Social Media

A new environment for engagement

Crowd LearningInvolves harnessing the knowledge

and expertise of many people in order to answer questions or address immediate problems.

Sharples et al 2013 - Innovating Pedagogy Report

1. WHO could you connect with?2. WHAT would you gain from making new connections?3. WHERE could you make new connections?4. WHEN could you make new connections?5. WHY would you make new connections?6. HOW could new connections benefit your career?

Your network(s)

YOU

peers

employers

professionals

expertsprofessional bodies

tutors

friends

Three important networks

OPERATIONAL NETWORK

DEVLOPMENTAL NETWORK

STRATEGIC NETWORK

Purpose Getting work done efficiently; maintaining the capacities and functions required of the group.

Enhancing personal and professional development; providing referrals to useful information and contacts,

Figuring out future priorities and challenges; getting stakeholder support fro them,

Location and temporal orientation

Connections are mostly internal and orientated towards current demands

Connections are mostly external and orientated toward current interests and potential future interests.

Connections are internal and external and orientated towards the future.

Players and recruitment Key connections are relatively nondiscretionary; they are prescribed mostly by the task and organisation structure, so it is very clear who is relevant

Key connections are mostly discretionary; it is not always clear who is relevant.

Key connections follow from the strategic context and the organisational environment , but specific membership is discretionary; it is not always clear who is relevant

Network attributes and key behaviours

Depth: building strong working relationships

Breadth: reaching out to contacts who can make referrals and introductions.

Leverage: creating inside-outside links.

Harvard Business Review 2011

Image source: Noah Sussman

3

1

2

Building a valuable network

Weak Ties

Strong Ties

YOUStrong

Ties

Strong TiesFriends or Peers are less likely to be able to provide new information or connections

Weak TiesMay be able to introduce you to new people with potential company information and potential job offerings

Close connections

Outer circle of connections

Layer of opportunity

Connections

Expand your network

Network

The network aspect refers tothe set of relationships, personal

interactions, and connections among participants who have

personal reasons to connect. It is viewed as a set of nodes and links with affordances for learning, such

as information flows, helpful linkages, joint problem solving, and

knowledge creation.

Community

The community aspect refers to the development of a shared identity around a topic or set of

challenges. It represents a collective intention (however

tacit and distributed) to steward a domain of knowledge and to

sustain learning about it.

Wenger et al 2011

Wenger et al 2011

COMMUNITIES

community of PURPOSE

community of CIRCUMSTANCE

community of PRACTICE

community of INTEREST

Marathe 1999

MOTIVATIONS TO JOIN

shared purpose

shared circumstances

shared practice

shared interest

to explore or express their passion

to contribute to getting something done

to connect with others in a similar life

condition

want to acquire or impart knowledge or

skills

Communities of purposeformed by people who are trying to

achieve a similar objective, who assist each other by sharing experiences,

information, and peer-to-peer knowledge.

Communities of practiceformed by groups of people sharing a

similar profession or vocation who seek to share experiences and facilitate

professional exchange (which may also add value to offline networks)

Communities of circumstancewhich are similar to communities of

practice but are generally more personally focussed, or related to life

experiences, and not driven by professional activities.

Communities of interestlinking people who share their ideas, passion, and knowledge in a common interest or theme, but might know very

little about each other outside this shared interest.

ONLINE COMMUNITIE

S

(Rennie and Keppell 2010)

COMMUNITIES

community of purpose

community of circumstance

community of practice

community of interest

e.g. a campaigning organisation committed to

changing public policy

e.g. an association of professionals

e.g. a community of people with a particular

medical condition

e.g. a leisure or social activity

#celcshooc conversations about end of life care

#epccmooc enhancing prostate cancer care

#XFactor@TheXFactor

#RWC2015 @rugbyworldcup

#LTHEchatlearning and teaching

in higher education chat

@LTHEchatlthechat.com

ALS Challenge

Arab Spring and the uprising in the

Middle East

Natural disaster responses

#HomeToVote and #LoveWins

@ahpshooc#celcshooc

conversations about end of life care

8 key steps to building a personal learning network

1. explore

2. search

3. follow

4. tune 8. respond

7. inquire

6. engage

5. feed

Rheingold 2011

5Cs

Nerantzi and Beckingham 2014

Making Connectionsfor example at a conference

Twitter• Check the speaker list and follow • Either add to an existing list or create a new group• Reach out and interact

1

LinkedIn• Send invite to connect with a personal message• Receive updates on activities• Share own activities

2

Blogs, SlideShare and other spaces• Follow and connect as appropriate• Sign up for email alerts

3

Building your network

Now @EdTechNeil

#ScholarSunday

'recommend an educator to follow'like #FF or #followfriday

@raulpacheco

http://www.raulpacheco.org/2012/09/scholarsunday/

Make good use of your bio

5Cs

Nerantzi and Beckingham 2014

engage

learn

shareInteraction and

dialogue increases the opportunities for professional

development

Social Connectedness

• Adding images to tweets• Embed video clips into blogs• Add SlideShare presentations to your LinkedIn profile• Collect and share useful resources using Pinterest

Communicate your work - the visual augments the written

Over 16k views

5Cs

Nerantzi and Beckingham 2014

Twitter list YouTube playlist

Pinterest board

Storify Scoop.it page Paperli

SlideShare collection

Diigo bookmark collection

Curating useful resources

5Cs

Nerantzi and Beckingham 2014

Collaborativewriting

Google apps

Collaborative discussions

written

Twitter, Blogs, LinkedIn Groups,

Slack, Trello, WhatsApp

Collaborativediscussions

verbal

Skype, FaceTime and Google Hangouts

Collaborative spaces

5Cs

Nerantzi and Beckingham 2014

/

Learning and Teaching in Higher Education - weekly chatWednesday 8pm

@LTHEchat #LTHEchat http://lthechat.com

https://byod4learning.wordpress.com/

Create and grow your personal learning

network and communities

https://moz.com/followerwonk

My Twitter community

The #SocMedHE15 communityNodeXL map

Consider how many excellent resources are hidden away...

Open resourcesbut how clear is the signage?

A sharing learning communityprovides signposts to

conversations

examples

resources

images

video

Q&As

To benefit from learning and working out loud we

also need to progress from selective hearing

to active listening

The Lurkerto be in a hidden place : to wait in a secret or hidden place especially in order to do something wrong or harmfulcomputers : to read messages written by other people on the Internet in a newsgroup, chat room, etc., without writing any messages yourself

Vicariousnessexperiences or felt by watching, hearing about, or reading about someone else rather than by doing something yourself

Is 'listening in' vicarious lurking???

Lurking XStalking X

Positive silent engagementObserving without active participation is part of the learning process

Positive Silent Engagement (PSE)

I would argue that positive silent engagement (PSE) is not only valuable,

but an essential component of digital connectedness.

We learn by listening. It is no different online

“Working Out Loud starts with making your work visible in such a way that it might help others. When you do that – when you work in a more open, connected way – you can build a purposeful network that makes you more effective and provides access to more opportunities.”

John Stepper

5 Elements of Working Out Loud

Making your work visible 1

Making work better 2

Leading with generosity3

Building a social network. 4

Making it all purposeful5

Stepper 2014

1. Being purposeful2. Building a social network3. Leading with generosity4. Making you and your work visible5. Improving yourself and others

https://www.702010forum.com/Posts/view/john-stepper-explains-the-concept-of-working-out-loud

Benefits of Working Out Loud

Internal: enterprise social network

• peer-to-peer recognition• improved internal

communications• better working

relationships• humanised work• higher productivity• increased innovation and

collaboration

External: professional social networks

• build and extend professional networks

• opens virtual doors• crowd source information• breaks down

geographical barriers

Connectestablish a connection with a person online,

typically by following them on a social platform or subscribing to their updates.

10 types of contributions (Stepper 2014)

1

Show appreciationRecognition and appreciation are “universal gifts” that Dale Carnegie wrote about in How

to Win Friends and Influence People. It could be a Like button or a public “thank

you” or giving someone credit for their good work.

10 types of contributions (Stepper 2014)

2

Share learningSharing interesting content and the work of

others you admire are low-risk, low-cost contributions that can help others.

Feedback on your contributions can further your own learning.

10 types of contributions (Stepper 2014)

3

Connect the dotsTake something you found valuable and help spread it to other individuals or groups that might find it useful by @-mentioning it or

sending it to them directly.

10 types of contributions (Stepper 2014)

4

Ask a questionWhen done well, this takes more time. That might include showing how you tried to get

the answer before asking, offering recognition and appreciation for help, and ensuring the answer is available in such a

way that it can help others.

10 types of contributions (Stepper 2014)

5

Answer a questionThis helps the person asking and anyone else who benefits from your answer in the future. When you answer questions it also highlights your reputation as someone who

is knowledgeable and helpful.

10 types of contributions (Stepper 2014)

6

Offer feedbackHere you’re trying to build on the work

someone else has done in a way that credits the person’s original work while also helping others. The gift is constructive feedback that advances the work, and your feedback may

also include appreciation or a question.

10 types of contributions (Stepper 2014)

7

Share your experienceReflect on your work. What have you learned – from both failures and successes – that might

help others? For example, this could be resources you find useful or techniques you’ve

found effective. Frame it in a way it feels less like “Look at me!” and more like “I thought you might be interested

in this.”10 types of contributions (Stepper 2014)

8

Offer original ideasBeyond reflecting on what has been done, you can imagine what might be done in the

future and frame that as a contribution. What opportunities do you see for improvement of some kind and what are your constructive

ideas? Credit other people and build on their work wherever possible.

10 types of contributions (Stepper 2014)

9

Connect a purposeful groupOne of the most powerful contributions is

connecting people who care about a particular topic and enabling them to work together on some positive change. It could be a working

group that’s focused on a particular problem or a community of practice where members are interested in getting better individually and

advancing the practice overall. 10 types of contributions (Stepper 2014)

10

Patience and perseverance

https://twitter.com/Hewlett_Found/status/684118586554712064

Give yourself

with others

Sue Beckingham | @suebecksEducational Developer and Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University with a research interest in the use of social media in education. 

Blog: http://socialmediaforlearning.com/ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/suebeckingham

Developing your academic online presence with social media Led by Sue Beckingham SFHEA, Senior Lecturer in Information Systems and LEAD Associate at Sheffield Hallam University, this workshop will provide an opportunity to learn about new approaches and practical examples of using social media in higher education; and as co-learners share examples of effective practice and consider how these might be applied in your own contexts. The session will also provide participants some time and space to network and potentially make new connections. The workshop aims to provide participants with an opportunity to:• Gain a better understanding of how social media can be used in a scholarly context• Appreciate the value of developing a rich professional online presence• Learn about opportunities for social and open informal learning through social media• Appreciate five elements of ‘working out loud’ (Stepper 2015) and how these can be of value to both yourself and others Using the 5C Framework (Nerantzi and Beckingham 2014, 2015) as a lens we will consider how social media can be used to connect, communicate, curate, collaborate and create. In doing so consider the value of:• Developing a digital professional persona to share scholarly achievements• Cultivating your own personal learning network and co-learning communities• Sharing learning journeys through working out loud  ProgrammeTuesday 26 April 201610.45-11.00 Networking and registration11.00-12.30 Becoming a Digital Scholar using social media12.30-13.15 Lunch13.15 -14.30 Developing a PLN and open co-learning opportunities