This is the perfect round up of our DevLearn series.
Last week #chat2LRN hosted a twitter chat based on the DevLearn/ Personal Learning Network experience. You can find the transcript of this chat here: http://learnpatch.com/2014/11/curated-tweets-from-chat2lrn-twitter-chat-on-personal-learning-networks/
So today you are not only getting Meg’s view of the PLN experience but those of an entire twitter crowd! It seems as the reoccurring theme for DevLearn was about making connections – new ones and strengthening old ones. This chat brings home the importance of having a PLN. I would even make the argument that it’s more a Personal Learning Community than a network (which conjures up visions of a strange form of speed dating, strangers passing around business cards hoping for a connection). The difference is this community, when lovingly and attentively nurtured, can produce a learning harvest beyond believe for everyone involved.
I hope through this DevLearn series the importance of not only building but nurturing your own Personal Learning Community will jump to the top of your priority list.
(#Chat@LRN (http://chat2lrn.wordpress.com/about/) in short, is a twitter chat focused on discussing current topics with other Learning Professionals from all over the world. These chats “explore and discuss how the social and business environment, especially the digital experience is changing the world and how that impacts learning and the way that we operate and function within it.”)
Chat2lrn Nov 13
Benefits of PLN/Community/Professional Organizations
I just got back from attending the DevLearn conference and I’ve been struggling to pull together my “take-aways” for the last week (while also trying to catch up at work after being gone for a week). My gut was telling me that the best part was the people – but is that really OK? I mean, my company paid a lot of money to send me to this conference, and the best part was the people?
For me, it really is true. The sessions might have been the spark, but the conversations and connections with all of these great smart people really were the best part. I was able to connect with people in person that I normally only communicate with over the internet. While we have become great friends and I respected and trusted them all before I met them in person, the connection was much stronger, and our communication was more efficient, in person. We’ll leave THAT distinction for another chat (maybe talk to Helen Blunden), but my point is that meeting people in person (or seeing them again in person) this time has really brought home to me that I would not be anywhere NEAR as good an instructional designer, employee, problem solver – and even thinker – without my Personal Learning Network (PLN). Whoever first said “we are smarter than me” is SO right. (btw, apparently there’s a book – I haven’t read it, but I should put it on my list!)
I have always captured some great information and ideas from attending a conference. In fact the first conference I went to was DevLearn in 2010. The sessions I went to and people I met (can’t possibly name them all) are the whole reason I am here today, part of the #chat2lrn crew, writing a blog for a Twitter chat where we can discuss and debate really interesting things with really smart people. The great ideas don’t wait for a conference though – people in the L+D community, in my PLN, come up with ideas, share interesting stuff and have wonderful debates and discussions on Twitter, or Skype, or LinkedIn, or Google+, and it’s happening ALL THE TIME. Without this community (that’s you!), I might still be creating really horrible training materials and calling them good! LOL
So thank you, all of you, for being the greatest benefit of all in my career.
Thank you for allowing me to tag along – and possibly contribute in some small way – with your PLN.
What about you? What have you found to be the benefits of having a PLN, or participating in a community or professional organization?
