Open Networked Learning - Sara Ihlman

In my line of work, as an e-learning designer in the corporate world, I seldom get the opportunity to teach in the more traditional context. What I do is mostly creating a product for people to learn from on their own, without the help of a teacher. I do however have an agreement for cooperation with a company which wants me to produce a blended learning course in the next few months, and chances are I will also be facilitating the online meetings for them and possibly teach some during the IRL sessions. Topic 4 gave me inspiration and highlighted a few things that I will make sure to incorporate in my course. One of the ideas behind the course that the company wants me to make a blended learning version of, is to create a community. When the participants have passed the examination and gets their certificate, they also get access to this community. This means that a learning network is already in place once they are ready - but I as a course producer and facilitator also have to est...

In Creating Effective Collaborative Learning Groups in an Online Environment the authors mention the theory of connectivism proposed by Siemens in 2005. This perspective describes my own learning experience for the last ten years perfectly. Let me explain why: As mentioned in my previous posts, I’ve been a teacher for 17 years and during that time I’ve spent a lot of time online. In the beginning it was mostly about making my work available for students and their parents, but as social media platforms like Facebook gained in popularity I began using them to find other teachers that I could learn from. Some of them were not even aware that they were part of my personal learning environment, and some of them I’ve even met in person. The thing that has been most fruitful in terms of personal learning network for me has been facebook groups. I join groups that are focusing on the topics I want to learn more about or discuss, and in there I can share my thoughts and ideas and get inspire...