Connectivism

• How has your network changed the way you learn?
One thing that I've noticed is that I now prefer to communicate via online tools than by phone. I'm not comfortable on a phone, so I would just not communicate. However, words come easily to me, and with the convenience of blogs, email, discussion boards, etc., I find myself much more involved in communicating with a broader range of people, more regularly, than I ever did before.


• Which digital tools best facilitate learning for you?
I'm comfortable with so many different ones that I find that I don't have one particular favorite, but rather I'm not afraid to use a variety of tools to suit my purpose. I will say that switching to my iPhone has probably been the greatest technological challenge I've faced recently, as I had huge issues trying to get my fingers to work on the touchscreen. It became a personal challenge, but not before I went back to the store to think about returning it! I can't imagine going anywhere without it now, and I love the fact that it gives me access to so many things I use all the time -- Facebook, text messaging, email, Internet. For example, when I went to the wrong school for my daughter's basketball game this week, I didn't panic! I simply pulled out my iPhone, searched the school website for where the game was really taking place, and then clicked on the mapping feature to find a route to the school. It was a great stress reducer! I think that's how I view these digital tools. They are just that -- tools -- which make my life easier and more complete.


• How do you gain new knowledge when you have questions?
How I gain new knowledge depends on the type of knowledge I am seeking. If it's something related to school, I will usually turn to those with more experience in my school setting and talk to them face to face. However, if it's something I need to use, such as when developing a new unit, I turn to the wide variety of teaching resources on the Internet. If it's a personal question, I send out an email or a text message to whomever I need to reach since getting to a phone is nearly impossible during the day. Mostly, though, I like the freedom to search for information that I find relevant by reviewing a variety of sources and reading the reviews of others who have used the information previously.


• In what ways does your personal learning network support or refute the central tenets of connectivism? I use the best tools to suit my needs, yet how I learned to use those tools isn't isolated to one setting. For example, I learned to use blogs in this class, but now I'm using them to help my daughter raise funds to study in Costa Rica this summer. My learning in one area carried over to another. Similarly, I have used my network of friends initially gained through face to face interaction to share Malia's fundraising efforts through Facebook and email. Everything I do is inter-related. The skills I have, the people I associate with, are not isolated to one part of that web. Those I teach with are on Facebook; those I taught are on Facebook. I keep up with family more through email and Facebook than through the phone. They know about my life from multiple perspectives through their own interaction with these tools. I go to church, but those same friends text me to share meeting times and post them on Facebook.
  
  The bottom line is that it was very hard for me to develop this map because it called for separating out the different components in my learning network, and I found that there's so much overlap between them that this map is somewhat forced in that it shows more separation and clarity between the segments than actually exist.