EdTechTrek

Things have really changed over the last few  years with the emergence of social media tools that allowanyone to share anything with just about anyone. This post is more of a reposting of a couple of great posts (I highly recommend that you read them both) that on the topic that I have been thinking about for some time now. Will Richardson recently published a post titled, “The Less You Share, the Less Power You Have“. From a comment added to this post, I learned about “Planning to Share Versus Just Sharing” by Scott Leslie. The idea of learning within a learning network really resonated with me, especially in a reply by Scott Leslie to a comment left on his post:

“…networked learners (or networked employees) approach the problem of sharing differently (and in my experience more effectively) than hierarchically-minded ones. I’m saying that the people who say they need the knowledge need to be involved (directly, intimately) in producing and sharing it, otherwise it turns into a ‘publishing’ exercise, not an actual learning one.”

This has been much of my experience as well, sitting and chairing committees who talk and talk, then who begin to amass volumes of information, and in the end are mostly left with just that - volumes of information. Logistics of common meeting times always seem to snafu key meetings, the clock always seems to drive the agenda rather than the interest and passion, … Sure, I know time is of the essence and most of us have more than our fair share on our plates. But that is exactly it… learning, networking, creating, discussing, sharing, revising, contributing,… does not have to operate in the traditional sense anymore. The hoarding of resources for one’s own gain doesn’t seem to get you all that far anymore. Virtual learning networks are becoming far more powerful and empowered.

Of course, in higher education there is still that need to protect one’s own intellectual property and ideas for the purposes of advancement and status within the organization. “Publish or perish” is still a driving force and the need to publish something unique before someone else does will continue to drive the hoarding, secretive approach to learning. But, there is still room for personal and professional learning networks in all of that, too. I see folks creating wikis of their dissertation process and blogging about their big ideas. I see folks using GoogleDocs to collaboratively publish. Tweets go out to a larger audience soliciting information and ideas. Presentations are posted and streamed live… unprotected. And what I notice through all of this as the people doing these things seem the most alive, enriched challenged, stimulated, …

There is no lack of great models out there for those interesting in diving in to these new waters. They are a Technorati search away. They don’t protect their tweets for the most part on Twitter. You can find their wikis. You can join their Ning social networks. You can participate in their CoverItLive live blogging streams. You can enter their live presentation streams in Elluminate or UStream. Here is a great place to begin.

There is a world of sharing and learning going on far beyond the physical walls of your place of work… regardless of the continent or country that you live in. In a recent post of mine I shared this quotation that really hit home with me.

HE WHO LEARNS FROM ONE WHO IS LEARNING,

DRINKS FROM A FLOWING RIVER.”

-NATIVE AMERICAN PROVERB

You don’t have to be alone or by limited by the limiting logistics of physical groups and static documents that end up in files somewhere to be used sometime… by only you. Share. Share to learn. Share to grow. Share to contribute. Don’t worry about possible criticism. We all need it. We all need feedback from a wide and diverse audience. If they give feedback, it’s because they care and are passionate about the same things. What have you got to lose?

You have so much to gain.

Space is limited. Bandwidth is limited. I ran across this article from MacWorld and thought I would share it with you, as I found it a useful resource. The tidbit that I liked the most was learning about Vimeo, which offers a “family friendly” viewing option, as we all know that using free resources often exposes our viewers to advertisements, hyperlinks, and limited control. That option could be very useful with posting video for students as well. Of course, posting your videos on wiki or blog will do the trick, assuming you have enough storage space to host your own video content and sufficient bandwidth to deliver the content to your audience. Below is a table that you will find in the article that summarizes basic features.