It's Showtime! A Vision Realized

This is it, I made it! It's been a long learning experience and finally my vision is realized.  It's my hope that the infographic I've put my blood, sweat, and tears into is shared widely and is beneficial to many educators that are beginning to understand and develop their own personal learning networks (PLN).  The purpose of the infographic is to detail the many aspects of a PLN including the who, what, when, where, why, and how along with the struggles or challenges that may arise along the way.  This is meant to be a concise guide for any educator seeking information on PLNs.

I'm very happy with how my infographic turned out.  Once I understood the formatting tools Piktochart uses, it was just a matter of placing the right information in the correct spot and locating the visuals I wanted.  I'll admit, this was incredibly time consuming but in my opinion, well worth it.  I'm a very visual person and sometimes I can spend too much time on small details.  However, when it comes to an infographic the small visual details are what makes your work stand out!  As mentioned in a previous post, I was having trouble condensing my information into small, manageable details.  My infographic has a lot of information, maybe too much and I think this is one area that could be improved on.  Towards the end of my infographic's production, it was helpful for me to constantly remind myself of the popular adage 'quality over quantity'.  I consider this the biggest challenge I faced during the creation of my infographic as I was able to pick up the technology aspect pretty quickly.

My journey through the first semester in the teacher-librarianship program at the University of British Columbia has been incredibly informative.  I've moved past the stage of observer and consumer of information and computer technology to advocating for it.  The progress I've made through several inquiries, explorations, discussions, and developing resources is priceless.  Not only have I been exposed to the formal term 'personal learning network', I'm now a passionate 21st Century educator and advocating for PLN implementation.  While I'm by no means proficient with information computer technology or web 2.0 tools, this is a huge step in the right direction as our education system begins to transform and professional development is flipped.  Moving forward, I hope to continue to develop my skills and make connections with other educators around the world and maintain a robust PLN in doing so.

F.A.I.L- First Attempt in Learning {A Future Vision}

As expected, progressing through my vision in creating an infographic has certainly had its ups and downs.  Having minimal experience with infographics is a challenge all in itself.  The primary reason I chose to create an infographic is because it caters to my visual learning style.  Not only are infographics aesthetically pleasing, but they are also concise with their information.  The purpose of this post is to be as transparent as possible as I reflect on my past, present, and future struggles and triumphs of completing my vision.

Struggles & Triumphs

Past

Previously Created Infographic

Strategies & Roadblocks

Prior to beginning my future vision, I was unsure of how I wanted to represent my learning.  My journey had taken me from being oblivious to a personal learning network, to embracing, even advocating for personal learning networks.  I personally enjoy infographics so after some early brainstorming with the assistance of my instructor, Aaron Mueller, I decided that this was the direction I wanted to take.  However, my experience with infographics was limited.  Approximately a year ago I attempted to design an infographic for my learning commons and ran into several problems troubleshooting and producing an design that was effective and up to my standards.  This time around, I'm determined in creating an infographic that will surpass the quality of my previous attempts.

In order to achieve this goal, I have the following strategy:

1. Comprehensive search on what infographic platform to use

2.  Troubleshoot the domain to understand the functions

3.  Compile my research and sources into concise, manageable information

Resources, Technology & Format

Image Courtesy of Piktochart

Since I'm limited in terms of time and ICT skills, I knew I wasn't ready to tackle Adobe Photoshop in order to complete my infographic.  Therefore I had to choose from several already established infographic software applications.  However, I didn't know which of the applications to choose from. Limiting myself to strictly free software, I located 10 free tools for creating infographics by Sarah James, 17 Resources to Help you Create Killer Infographics by Salman Ahsan,, and 5 Great Online Tools for Creating Infographics by Randy Krum.  After reading through the articles, I created a Piktochart  and Visual.ly account to test the waters.  After troubleshooting with both domains, I determined that I preferred Piktochart over Visual.ly. Not only is the platform easier to use but the free template options were more to my liking.  Piktochart also works in conjunction with Google+ allowing for easy access to maintain several domains with one account and password such as Gmail, Blogger, and YouTube etc.  Moving forward through my vision, Piktochart seemed to be the better fit,

Present

Technology & Roadblocks

Image Courtesy of Bank Lawyers Blog

Currently, my main struggle involves the learning curve associated with troubleshooting Piktochart.  Understanding how icons, formats, and other various functions are utilized is the bane of my existence.  However, learning a new system takes time so I expected this.  I'm happy I chose not to go with Adobe Photoshop.  Piktochart challenges me, but doesn't overwhelm me which I feel would have happened otherwise.  While the platform can be frustrating at times, I'm still capable of working through the problems that arise.

Condensing my information on personal learning networks has taken much more time than I thought it would and I believe it will continue to take energy as I progress through different sections of the infographic.  It doesn't help that I'm a perfectionist when it comes to organizing and formatting things.  This is an area that I continue to work on and will have to keep reminding myself about as my vision is realized.

Full View of
Draft Infographic

Future

Strategies & Triumphs
So far, I'm very happy with the progress I've made on realizing my vision.  For once, the infographic I've produced is up to my standards (so far..).  Despite the positive strides I've made, I still have a long way to go.  I'm approximately halfway through completing my infographic and the hard part is just about to begin.  As mentioned in the 'Present' section of this post, I'm really struggling with condensing my information into concise but valuable chunks.  I've established a 'pathway' in my infographic that will lead learners through the various processes and stages in how to establish a comprehensive network, but I'm unsure of how to accurately represent the stages and in which order I should put them.

Strategy going further:

1. Quality over quantity

                 - What are the most important aspects of developing a PLN?
                 - What did I struggle with most?
                 -  What advice would I have appreciated when I first discovered PLNs?

Enhanced View of Draft Infographic

Work Cited

1.  Adobe Photoshop CC. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://www.adobe.com/ca/products/photoshop.html

2.  Ahsan, S. (n.d.). 17 Resources to Help you Create Killer Infographics. Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://www.mastermindblogger.com/17-resources-to-help-you-create-killer-infographics/

3. James, S. (n.d.). 10 free tools for creating infographics. Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://www.creativebloq.com/infographic/tools-2131971?page=1

4.  Krum, R. (n.d.). 5 Great Online Tools for Creating Infographics - Blog About Infographics and Data Visualization - Cool Infographics. Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://www.coolinfographics.com/blog/2014/10/10/5-great-online-tools-for-creating-infographics.html

5.  Create Easy Infographics, Reports, Presentations | Piktochart. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://piktochart.com

6.  Start creating, sharing & exploring great visuals today! (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2015, from http://visual.ly

Why Personal Learning Networks? A Rationale

Scope

After delving through my goals for this assignment this past week, I'm left with a more concrete vision of what I expect my future project to detail.  To reiterate, the scope of my future vision project is to create an educational infographic that is now focused on the following:

Image courtesy of TeamBonding

• What is a PLN?
• Who is a PLN for?
• When can you use a PLN?
• Where can you use a PLN?
• Why you should use a PLN
• How to develop a PLN

Rationale

Thanks to the internet, the concept of a learning network isn't new, it's simply evolved.  We now live in a world of abundance and with that abundance comes access to several degrees of information and people.  At times, the constantly changing online world can be very overwhelming and distracting.  Especially when you consider the multiple updates, downloads, severs, and applications that the internet provides.  Learning how to ethically navigate information and computer technology in order to develop proficiency has become a pillar of transformative education and 21st century literacies including the American Association of School Libraries, International Society for Technology in Education, and National Council of Teachers of English.  This is important because as schools and organizations are re-envisioning how and what students are expected to learn, teachers should be asking the same questions of themselves.  As Will Richardson (2012) quoted in his e-book Why School: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everything, "the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn," and this includes educators (p. 365).  A developed personal learning network can act as a powerful source of professional development and support for teachers as they take ownership of their learning by turning social networks into learning networks through informed practice.

Image courtesy of GeoMarketing

Audience

The infographic I'm in the process of creating will be for other educators who are in the beginning stages of discovering what a personal learning network is and how to establish one.  The infographic will be available to my peers, colleagues, and educators around the world who may need a visual representation of the process involved in creating a personal learning network.  The infographic will walk teachers through the benefits of a PLN and how to avoid becoming overwhelmed with one by providing 'tips' separated by stages.

Work Cited

1.  Richardson, W. (2012).  Why School?: How Education Must Change When Learning and Information Are Everywhere.  TED Conferences Publishing. [EBOOK]

2.  The NCTE Definition of 21st Century Literacies. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/21stcentdefinition

3.  International Society for Technology in Education. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-S_PDF.pdf

4.  American Association of School Librarians. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2015, from http://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/guidelinesandstandards/learningstandards/AASL_LearningStandards.pdf

Future Vision- What next?

Image courtesy of SuccessIMG

Image courtesy of Learn Dash

At such an early stage in my career as an educator, it can be hard to widen my scope of vision to include the future.  Most of my time is consumed in the present learning how to effectively manage the many different 'hats' a teacher wears.  When I first started to consider my vision of the future, I wasn't sure what direction I wanted to go in.  I knew that I wanted to centre my vision on either 'collaboration' or 'personal learning networks' but I didn't know how.  As I reflected I realized that over the past several weeks I have been acquiring the skills and knowledge on how to establish a meaningful personal learning network (PLN) through many topics of inquiry.  Prior to this course, I had no idea what a PLN was and as I entered the beginning stages of my PLN development, I began to establish myself and become more comfortable in the online environment.  Although I am no where near proficient, I've come to learn that the support system a teacher relies on and contributes to can be a powerful source of professional development, especially for beginning teachers.  After some discussion with my professor Aaron Mueller, I decided that I would use the development of a PLN as my inspiration for creating some sort of infographic, perhaps something like 'Beginners Guide to a PLN' or 'PLN 101'.  Throughout the coming weeks I plan to refine this idea as I gather more information and begin troubleshooting.  In the meantime, I've been reviewing my previous blog posts including Will Richardson's YouTube video and have been gathering many different types of infographics as inspiration for what I might strive towards.  Above I have provided an example on an infographic by Learn Dash on Blended Learning 2.0.   In addition, I located another YouTube video by Edu-Sketch on 'How to Start PLN' that you can view below.  This video provides me with more concrete 'steps' or 'stages' to a PLN rather than just information.

Moving forward, I have three goals:

1. Refine my vision, what in particular regarding PLN's will I be detailing
2. Determine what medium to use in order to produce my infographic
3. Gather 2-3 different resources for better understanding

Work Cited

Infographic. (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infographic

Personal learning network. (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_learning_network

Edu-Sketch: How to Start a PLN. (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqSH5TMYlz4

Will Richardson - Personal Learning Networks. (n.d.). Retrieved March 14, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMIG0xOySCc

Innovation Education- A Reflection on Collaboration and Lifelong Learning

Image courtesy of the Patterson Foundation

As I reflect back on my learning over the past several inquiries, the concept of collaboration appears to span each topic.  I have come to understand that the true notion of 'learning' only fully takes place when we as an educational community share our knowledge.  In doing so, we not only better ourselves but we add back to the educational community we rely so much upon.  Up to this point, the inquiry phase of my learning has seen me through two distinct phases: discovery and exploration.  Initially, I discovered the potential impact web 2.0 tools such as Twitter and Google + could have on my education and prepared myself to step into the world wide web as an informed educator willing to discover new avenues of learning through reflection and feedback.  As any wise investor does, I wanted to maximize my returns.  However, I must admit once I began my exploration phase, I was overwhelmed.  Despite this, I tried not to get discouraged and personally have come leaps and bounds since I originally started my journey. That being said, I'm still in the initial stages of using web 2.0 technologies to evolve my educational practice.  I continue to 'lurk' and acquire information from various individuals and sources but have yet to fully provide my own innovations in critical thinking to the community aside from these blog posts.

Moving forward, I plan to continue my development as a learning partner by beginning to be more outspoken about my passions, perspectives, and ideas through various mediums. Since creating this blog post, it's no surprise that one of my key takeaways in furthering my own collaboration and lifelong learning comes from a fellow classmate, Meagan Cordeiro.  Through her blog, Ms. Cordeiro TL, Meagan exposed me to the concept of EdCamp, which as a relatively new teacher and teacher-librarian I had never heard of before.  I hopefully plan on attending a local EdCamp in the near future to expand my horizons!  Until then, when I feel comfortable enough and when the topic being discussed is of interest to me, I aim at participating in an #edchat.

With that said, I think it's clear that the inquiry topics that resonated with me the most touch on the importance of collaboration and involve professional development and personal learning networks.  The power of collaboration is the innovation of education as we reinvent the ways in which we teach and learn.  Powerful web 2.0 tools only increase the opportunities that lay before us and enhance our experience.

Work Cited

Lee, Su Hun. "EdCamp 101." YouTube, 11 Jan. 2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

Corderio, M. (2015, February 16). Ms. Cordeiro TL. Retrieved March 6, 2015, from http://mscordeirotl.blogspot.ca/2015/02/developing-ict-skills.html

Literacy Without Borders- World Libraries & ICT

Image courtesy of Room to Read

Having just started my graduate diploma in teacher-librarianship, I'm only beginning to wrap my head around the idea of managing a learning commons, and to be honest, the concept of world libraries had never crossed my mind.  I began my inquiry unsure of where to start or what to look for.  That being said, 21st century learning has been embraced by many developed nations around the world.  Countries such as England, Canada, and Germany have the already established infrastructure needed to support the integration of web 2.0 technologies in the classroom.  Developed countries are economically, financially, and politically stable enough to utilize these resources.  But what about developing countries?  How do they support literacy, library, and information computer technology (ICT) skills?  What initiatives are currently in place to assist developing nations acquire the resources they need?  In order to explore these questions further, I will focus my inquiry on a specific organization called Room to Read.

Image courtesy of Room to Read

Room to Read focuses on providing quality education to communities across Asia and Africa.  The organization aims to increase literacy and gender equality in education. Room to Read offers several programs ranging from library development and book publishing to to school construction and reading and writing initiatives.  In terms of developing a world library, Room to Read works with existing communities in the construction and management of the libraries it establishes. Having established more than 17,000 new libraries since the year 2000, Room to Read has reached many local communities that have limited access to resources and as a result, have promoted literacy and independent learning.

Building partnerships with local communities and government bodies, Room to Read provides access to many resources that increase literacy.  That means providing the logistics involved in the organization of educational developments.  However, Room to Read doesn't provide much insight into how they foster ICT skills within these countries.  Most of the programs the organization offers involve increasing literacy skills through quality goals, construction, instruction, and print resources.  The only piece of technology information that their website details is somewhat unclear.  Room to Read states that "in places where community libraries or Internet access are non-existent, Room to Read libraries serve as one of the few resources for independent learning and information-gathering for curious young minds ".  A reader can only infer from this statement that Room to Read provides Internet access to the communities it assists.

Ideologically, Room to Read is great! As are many other organizations that promote literacy in developing countries.  Thinking critically though, I wanted to delve into the barriers that these organizations face when attempting to integrate ICT technology.  The Educational Technology Debate has published a great article by Clayton R. Wright that considers these obstacles called 5 Key Barriers to Educational Technology Adoption in the Developing World.  Wright's barriers include: electrical power, Internet connectivity, training and professional development, value teachers, and sustainability.  It is my hope, that organizations like Room to Read fully explore these barriers when they consider the access to information they are providing rural communities with.  Personally, I believe Wright's issue of sustainability is the most important aspect of integrating ICT technology in developing countries.  The question of sustainability is at the heart of ICT success in these nations.  Key questions need to be raised such as what happens when initial funding has ended?  Who will support the program after volunteers have left?  So while providing communities access to tablets, libraries, and other ICT resources has educational merit, organizations should fully consider how they plan on sustaining their developments after they have implemented them.  In another of his articles titled Recurring Issues Encountered by Distance Educators in Developing and Emerging Nations, Wright implores organizations to "recognize that technology is only one component of educational transformation".  I immediately understood what Wright was saying.  Providing rural communities with access to ICT resources is not the sole factor in assisting developing nations transform their educational practices.  Like students in developed countries, organizations need to consider the many literacies involved with ICT, digital literacy, information literacy, network literacy, media literacy, and computer literacy etc still need to be taught!  Wright also explores other factors that need to be considered before implementing ICT technology such as copyright issues, troubleshooting, technology updating, curriculum, cultural considerations, and many more.

There is a myriad of issues that face organizations like Room to Read.  The ideology behind assisting developing nations with ICT technology and education reform is fantastic, however the practicality of the issue is much more complex and many organizations face heavy criticism if they are not fully prepared.

References

1. "Room to Read." Room to Read. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2015.

2.  Wright, C. (2014, April 16). 5 Key Barriers to Educational Technology Adoption in the Developing World. Retrieved March 1, 2015, from http://edutechdebate.org/2014-ict4edu-trends/5-key-barriers-to-educational-technology-adoption-in-the-developing-world/

3.  Wright, C., Dhanarajan, G., &Reju, S. (2009).  Recurring Issues Encountered by Distance Educators in Developing and Emerging Nations. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning. 10(1) Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/608/1180