Personal learning networks_economics
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Geoff Riley discusses building a personal learning network (PLN) for teachers. A PLN includes connections with other educators through social media, online resources, lectures, conferences and other events. It should be personalized to one's professional goals and interests. Maintaining a diverse PLN through various channels can provide new ideas and enrichment beyond one's own institution.
Personal learning networks_economics
- 1. Geoff Riley FRSA - Teaching and Learning Technologies Personal Learning Networks in Economics Teaching “Chance favours the connected mind” There is growing interest within the teaching community in how personal learning networks (PLNs) can be nurtured as part of continuing professional development (CPD). Whilst most schools and colleges have commitment to CPD and a sizeable budget to go with it, the best CPD does not carry a heavy financial cost. Indeed, many of the best resources and events are free! What is a personal learning network? A PLN might be defined as "the entire collection of people with whom you connect, engage and exchange information both offline and online." This will continuously change and evolve – it must do to avoid information overload for very busy people! “Personal learning networks are a tool to help teachers think outside of the box and to gain new ideas about teaching and learning beyond the confines of their school.” (AJ.McCarthy Blog) Many networks become a varied and vibrant blend of face-to-face connection allied to powerful sharing and networking opportunities through the open web. I believe strongly that the increasingly sophisticated usage of Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools within education serves to increase demand for face-to-face conversations especially for people who have met initially within online communities. Building a personalised learning network The components of a PLN might start with a professional goal or a desire to develop a personal interest (perhaps finding your element in the spirit of the work of Ken Robinson!). At the heart of a PLN is creating an infrastructure from which network nodes can appear. Some become part of your daily routine; others are brought into play only once or twice a year - all have the potential for enrichment of your work as a teacher and in other areas of school life.
- 2. Geoff Riley FRSA - Teaching and Learning Technologies Facebook users share more than 30 billion pieces of content—Web links, news stories, blog posts, photos each month. Twitter users generate more than 155 million tweets per day (up from 55 million one year ago). 54 percent of adults who own mobile phones access Twitter with their mobile device School Work Tutor2u Twitter Contacts RES Team Facebook PLN You Tube Teacher & ITunes Blogs Prof News Bodies Media
- 3. Geoff Riley FRSA - Teaching and Learning Technologies Enrichment lectures at universities and other organisations At Eton we are lucky to be within sufficiently close reach of the capital to attend many lectures and public events held by the LSE, the RSA, the RGS, and the Royal Society et al. All of them provide pod-casts and/or videos of the events - often streamed live for those who are unable to get to the capital on the day itself. The Independent on a Saturday is excellent for flagging up talks and other events for the week ahead. RSA Talks LSE Public Lectures Royal Society Gresham College Twitter Many teachers and students are now making use of Twitter as a learning resource. I constantly remind myself of Steven Johnson's phrase from "Where Good Ideas come From" - that "chance favours the connected mind." Twitter encourages this approach! Follow tweets from fellow teachers, professors, journalists, authors, organisations, friends Twitter is great for finding out first events, lectures and films that you might want to see Create your own lists of key topics and generate lists / categories of contacts Use Twitter as a forum for floating ideas and engaging in collaborative work e.g. through the weekly #edchat hour on a Thursday evening and #teacherontwitter Every day there is something to surprise and inform, to question and to challenge. i. Al Jazeera English (Business News) @ajenglish ii. David Smith (Sunday Times) @dsmitheconomics iii. Robert Went @went1955 Economist at Dutch Scientific Council iv. Tim Harford @timharford (author) v. Dan Ariely @danariely (author) vi. Faisal Islam (Channel 4) @faisalislam vii. BBC Newsnight: @BBCNewsnight viii. Paul Krugman (New York Times) @NYTimeskrugman ix. Guardian Business Desk @businessdesk x. Gapminder (Hans Rosling) @hansrosling xi. Professor Danny Quah (LSE) @dannyquah xii. Michael Porter (Business Strategy) @michaeleporter xiii. Kevin Hinde @kevinhinde Director of Distance Learning at Durham Business School xiv. Richard Otley (Colfe’s School): @COLFESeconomics xv. Graham Carter @ GrahamCarterGC (see also: http://cifco.posterous.com/) xvi. Tom Barrett (@tombarrett) – superb e-learning evangelist and enthusiast – makes fantastic use of collaborative Google docs.
- 4. Geoff Riley FRSA - Teaching and Learning Technologies Facebook and Teacher Blogs It is interesting to see the use of Facebook by a growing number of economics teachers and departments. Many teachers are experimenting with how it can be used to support their work. A small but dedicated band of teacher’s blog about their subject and encourage their students to do likewise. BBC Business News: www.facebook.com/bbcbusiness Bromsgrove School Business and Economics Department on Facebook Econ Fix (Mark Johnston) http://econfix.wordpress.com/ EconoMix (New York Times): http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/ Edinburgh Uni Econ Department: www.facebook.com/UOE.Economics Financial Times (Beyond BRICS): http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/ Financial Times Blogs: www.ft.com/comment/blogs Institute for New Economic Thinking www.facebook.com/INETeconomics Intelligence Squared: www.facebook.com/intelligence2 John Sloman’s Economics News Blog: http://pearsonblog.campaignserver.co.uk/ Management Today: www.facebook.com/managementtodaymag Radio 4 Analysis www.facebook.com/BBCRadio4Analysis?ref=ts Tutor2u on Facebook: www.facebook.com/Tutor2u Wellington College: Forum is here Wellington College Economics Radio and TV Good old-fashioned radio as a component of a PLN! A little time on a Sunday evening listening to Radio 4 whilst marking is always a productive time ahead of a new working week. And the BBC iPlayer or iTunes offers an easy way to catch up. Radio 4 Analysis: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006r4vz Radio 4 More or Less: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qshd Reuters UK Business: http://uk.reuters.com/business Sky Business News: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Business World Business Report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/1143010.stm
- 5. Geoff Riley FRSA - Teaching and Learning Technologies Student-run societies These are often the best form of CPD and the quality of the speakers that have spoken at school has usually been first-rate. They offer great opportunities for cross-curricular understanding – an example being a visit to the Geography Society last autumn to hear Charles Clover – author of The End of the Line (the book became a film). ITunes and You Tube and Flickr Great channels are emerging for blending new content into teaching and for encouraging students to do independent research. These seem to have particular currency when stretching highly-able students aiming for top UK and overseas universities. iTunes U i. Critical reasoning for beginners (Oxford) ii. Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (Cambridge) iii. Discussions on entrepreneurship (Cambridge) iv. Game Theory (Yale) You Tube and You Tube Edu i. Channel 4 on Demand Documentaries ii. World Bank iii. International Monetary Fund iv. The Economist Flickr and other image & data repositories (great for sourcing ideas for visual learners) i. Boston Globe Big Picture: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/ ii. Economist Daily Chart: www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart iii. Flickr for teachers e.g. Bad Maths: http://www.flickr.com/groups/badmaths/ iv. Guardian Business Week: www.guardian.co.uk/business/series/weekinpictures v. Guardian Data: http://www.guardian.co.uk/data vi. Timetric: http://timetric.com/public-data/ Films and Book Festivals I try to take time out to visit book and film festivals two or three times and year and keep up to speed with new works, films and documentaries that can be used in the classroom. A popular blog project has been Economics at the Movies and many fellow teachers have contributed. I follow a number of authors and directors on Twitter.
- 6. Geoff Riley FRSA - Teaching and Learning Technologies Subject associations and outside bodies I really enjoy the team work that goes into judging the annual RES essay competition and my PLN has grown substantially from this and also working with a team of presenters on the Tutor2u workshop / enrichment & conference events including our Teach Econ events. EBEA: I am a member but rarely use their resources – in my opinion the EBEA is behind the curve and stuck in a time warp. It does have a Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=89008691511 but just 3 posts in six months! Royal Economic Society: Their annual lectures are well attended and I have taken students in the past. Details and podcasts available here: http://www.res.org.uk/society/lecture.asp Society of Business Economists: The SBE has some useful information for non members Visits to other schools and colleges I try to fit a few visits a year into my schedule and am always happy to host other colleagues. Maintaining contacts with current academics at universities in the UK and overseas is important to keep up to date with the ever-changing scene and requirements for UCAS entry. Many universities offer summer residential placements for colleagues wanting to refresh their skills and knowledge. Collaboration using web tools Drop Box: www.dropbox.com - we use this extensively in sharing files between members of the Tutor2u revision workshop presenting teams. Google Docs: www.googledocs.com – one of many Google Apps that can be used for teaching and collaborative work among students Slideshare - for sharing presentations and the option of allowing others to download Moodle: http://moodle.org - an open source community responsible for developing the VLE platform that we use for our own student VLE Andrew McCarthy (IT Blog) http://ajmccarthynz.wordpress.com/ - brilliant blog from an economics/IT teacher in New Zealand who is also expert at utilising digital tools in teaching
- 7. Geoff Riley FRSA - Teaching and Learning Technologies Feeds from economics research and other sources: Deloitte Economic Review: www.deloitte.com/view/en_GB/uk/research-and- intelligence/economic-commentary/index.htm LSE Centrepiece: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/CentrePiece/ Project Syndicate: www.project-syndicate.org/ PWC Outlook: www.pwc.co.uk/eng/publications/uk_economic_outlook.html Royal Economic Society: http://www.res.org.uk/society/mediabriefings.asp The Browser: http://thebrowser.com/sections/business-economics Vox EU Blog: www.voxeu.org/ Overview Personal learning networks take many forms and I am sure that I have missed out some important ingredients! I ought to give greater weight to the ideas and arguments that come from my own students many of whom are keen to share what they have read or picked up in the media. I have left out the many conversations and exchanges of views and resources that take place day in day out within my own school department and also using traditional email channels with colleagues from many other schools. In my opinion many commercial CPD events are quite frankly shocking - and the exam boards charge full commercial rates for day-long events in the company of ageing retainers whose ambition is limited to poring over past papers. This CPD is sterile and expensive and too driven by the minutiae of exams, mark schemes and jumping through hoops. A personal learning network will have exam work in focus at certain times of the year but it should be much more than this. I hope that this short paper has given a flavour of some of the components of my own personal learning network. What do you include in yours? Geoff Riley FRSA - June 2011