Supporting Personal Learning Networks

Published by EdTech Team Press

Last week's blog topic, "Developing my own ITC skills and Pedagogy" lead me very quickly and naturally into this week's topic:  "How to Support Teacher's ICT Curriculum and Pedagogy: on-going Professional Development."  In his book, Transforming Libraries, Ron Starker summaries the ten principles oulined by professors Cathy Davidson and David Theo Golberg in their report, The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age.  The principles are as follows:

• Self Learning
• Horizontal Structures
• From Preserved Authority to Collective Credibility
• A De-Centered Pedagogy
• Networked Learning
• Open Source Education
• Learning as a Connectivity and Interactivity
• Life-Long Learning
• Learning Institutions as Mobilizing Networks
• Flexible Scalability and Simulation

These principles have significant implications for the way libraries function as a whole.  Professional development is one of many areas impacted by the changing paradigm in the digital age.  I am only beginning to gain a better understanding of all this implies.  In terms of professional development I understand that there is a shift away from hierarchical, top driven professional development to support for self-directed learning.  My role is that of a facilitator and builder of bridges.   

For some time I have been thinking about how to best support my school community's professional development.  Recently I asked teachers for professional development resource requests and have been working with a few teachers to track down books which address their specific needs.  For example, our music teacher said she was interested in books on music history.  Instead of blindly purchasing books on this topic I've asked her to create a wish list and in partnership with the Fernie Heritage Library we will use inter-library loans to bring in these books.  Once the books arrive she and I will be able to determine if there are any titles which will be worth purchasing to have for her use and the use of her students.   

Library Pro-D Room

We used to have a shelf of professional development materials in a small room off of our library, but the room was jam packed with old equipment (over head projectors, VHS machines, film projectors, slide projectors and carrousels, and hanging screens) and resources which were outdated (many shelves worth of DVDs).  We cleaned out all of this old technology finding homes for some of it (our music teacher and art teachers wanted the over head projectors), disposing of what was not being used (all classrooms now have smart boards, ceiling mounted projectors, and document readers).  Once the room was cleaned out we were able to create an attractive work space with a small round table and four chairs.  The room has a sink and kettle.  We set out a tea selection and have invited teachers to use this space as a quiet work area when their classrooms are otherwise occupied (our staff room is a busy, distracting location).  On the now nearly empty shelves we have a few current professional development materials  - books, union materials, and professional magazines. My hope if that by making these resources visible, easily accessible, and by providing quite work space teachers will more frequently reach for these materials, have a location for collaboration with colleagues, and be able to access professional development on-line.

Ultimately I would like to be able to help teachers and students establish their own rich personal learning networks, but I've not figured out all of the ways to go about doing this.  I know from my research this week that anything which is not self-directed and does not provide teachers with autonomy and ownership will fail.  I found an excellent video, put together by Miles Macfarlane, documenting the story of attempts by school districts to help teachers establish learning networks.  He outlines past failures and more recent successes as school districts have implemented researchers' finding on successful personal learning networks. 

After watching the video, Understanding Personal Learning Networks,  I understand it is possible to help educators and students establish personal learning networks, but it will only work with a "grass-roots, bottoms up" approach and if I am able to implement the findings of researcher, Irene Hanreates.  

She and her associates concluded that the successful facilitation of learning networks requires the learning to be as follows: 

• independent and self directed
• integrated into daily practice
• supported by providing time in the day for participation 
• supported by helping participants  to make initial connections with contacts who will meet their needs 
• supported by the development of effective communication skills on social media and by allowing participants to use the communication technologies of their choosing 
• supported by providing opportunities for some face to face interactions between learners within their networks.

Also of note are researcher O'Brians's findings that it is possible to nurture a climate of learning throughout an organization, but the learning environment must be one which is characterized by ownership, autonomy, degrees of self-direction, openness, trust and integrity. 

Some of these concepts are already happening at our school.  Our district encourages the formation of personal learning communities and provides funding for release time to make these happen. In my role as librarian I could help by providing support for colleagues who are writing proposals for their own professional learning communities.  I can also offer to support these PLCs by collecting resources and facilitating contacts with other learners interested in the same topics or themes.  In the past our school district has also funded professional development through book studies by providing release time for teachers.  These activities have always taken place over the school day.  I would be interested to hear how successful evening workshops and book studies have been in schools and libraries where these are taking place.

While the individual resources and connections of a personal learning network will be unique to each  learner, I can share awareness of some of the many excellent sources of information I have discovered on my own, such as our school district's "Transformative Learning" teachers, the "Education" and "Learning Resource" pages of Southeast Kootneay School District 5's portal, or the many great teacher blogs, web pages, and podcasts I listed in last week's post.  I can advertise some of these resources by creating promotional posters or brochures, either on paper or on-line, and by distributing these to teachers on ProD days, at staff meetings, or by sending out emails.  I could also create a professional development support web page or blog which teachers could access when they needed.  I could create little "How to" videos showing teachers how to access and use some of the digital date bases available to to them which are currently not used as frequently as they should be because teachers have not been given the appropriate training to help them feel comfortable with these resources.  

My effectiveness in supporting the creation of learning networks is also linked to the quality of my relationships with colleagues and students.  If students and staff have a personal, friendly connection with me, it will be easier for them to use me in my role as a facilitator of learning networks.  It is important to build positive relationships with the students and staff in order to help them see me as someone they can trust and rely on for facilitating useful connections to people and resources.  

Works Cited

Froehler, Kim (Teacher of Transformative Learning, SD5). "Using the Portal and Creating  

          Classroom Small Online Discussion Groups in the Classroom." Interview by 
           Karla Germaine, September 2018. 

Germaine, Karla. “FSS Library ProD Room.” October 2018. Photograph.

MacFarlane, Miles. “Understanding and Creating Personal Learning Networks." Online video clip.               YouTube. 5 November 2013. Web. Accessed 18 October 2018.

School District No. 5 (Southeast Kootenay).  “Education.” Sd5.bc.ca.  Web. Accessed 20

October 2018. 

School District No. 5 (Southeast Kootenay).  “District Resource Center.”  Sd5.bc.ca.  Web.

Accessed 20 October 2018.

Starker, Ron. Transformative Libraries: A Toolkit for Innovators, Makers, and Seekers. California: 

           EdTech Team Press. 2017. Print.