Before reading Gutierrez’s article on Personal Learning Networks (PLN), I had never previously considered looking for recipes on Pinterest as ‘Networking’ (or even really learning!), any more than I had following NoWhiteSaviours on Instagram, or messaging my friends asking for Podcast and book recommendations. But in fact, I am indeed learning from these social networks all of the time.
While studying for my Undergraduate, I had an incredible network of fellow students and academics at my finger-tips, but when I came home from the library in the evenings the last thing I wanted to do was open another book.
Graduation enabled my PLN to naturally thrive with the freedom of more spare time. After University I lived in rural Indonesia, where unstable electricity and heavy downpours made talking to people my primary manner of learning. When possible, I also spent hours on TED talks, documentaries and articles focused on Education and Development, as I tried to make sense of the world of Euro-centric NGO’s abroad.
Upon returning to the UK due to COVID-19, I found myself incredibly stationary. If you had asked me before this pandemic about my learning network, it would have been much smaller, much more based on real-life interactions. Over the past 6 months however, I have been intentionally using this void of time to send messages to friends asking for recommendations on the best books/ articles/ podcasts and documentaries to pursue certain topics. I recently even joined a group of Educators at Newcastle College who run monthly Zoom meetings to discuss improving their own online teaching practice. For the first time, I really feel I’m curating a web of resources, connections and knowledge around myself and I hope that studying for my Master’s will lead to an expansion of this.
The thing which does concern me about my existing network is the lack of diversity in it’s sources. On the whole, I consume things from authors who have a similar perspective and life experience to myself. While in recent months, I have been trying to broaden my horizons, I still largely consume knowledge created by Western sources, who, broadly speaking, share my political beliefs. In the future I hope to be less dismissive of those whose political stance differs from my own and read more deeply into things, even if I disagree with them. I hope to connect with a more diverse range of sources and people.
In the upcoming months I hope my web will grow organically, as I begin to interact and connect with my fellow Masters students in Newcastle.
It’s been a revelation to me that all of us do indeed have a ‘Personal Learning Network’ – this isn’t something which only exists once you become a CEO or a University Professor!
Rosie Roams 