1. Online Learning Networks & School Based Leadership
Library Specialist Presentation
June 2009
Andrea Sykes

2. My Question
If I begin to develop a personal online learning network linked to my experience and practice as a Teacher-Librarian and school leader, can I utilize these experiences to help my colleagues begin to create their own networks?

3. My Rationale
I am very interested in personally exploring and better understanding personal online networks. Although web 2.0 tools have become commonly used by many people in a variety of contexts, they are not widely used by teachers in my school. I hope to introduce my colleagues to some of these important new professional learning tools as I explore them more deeply.

4. My Plan
Build my understanding of professional online networks by exploring a variety of sites and developing understanding of web 2.0 tools.
Find professional journal articles and information related to the topic.
Survey staff at my school to gather baseline data.
Ongoing creation of content and linkages within my network.
Ongoing anecdotal data gather from the responses of colleagues and my own learning.
Follow up survey of staff.

5. My Project Begins....

6. Developing My Own Online Learning Network: Part 1 Making Connections
Not So Distant Future
Future of libraries panel presentation 8 hours ago
Ministry of Education Updates
CoLearners
Rebooting Literacy in the 21st Century 21 hours ago
Techlearning
A Gateway to Your Local Newspaper 22 hours ago
open thinking
Twitter Search in Plain English 22 hours ago
Remote Access
Playing with Opera 1 day ago
Creating Lifelong Learners
iSchool Video 1 day ago
Weblogg-ed
#IranElections: Why We All Need to be Editors Now 1 day ago
The Thinking Stick
Year 1 in Bangkok and ISB: A reflection 1 week ago
Sue Waters Blog
Need WordPress MU Support? Heres Where Youll Find it! 1 week ago
Virtually Learning
Librarian Manifesto 5 weeks ago
The librarian edge
23 Things & Avid Online Learners 1 month ago
Making online connections with experienced thinkers really helped me develop perspective and understanding about my question.

7. Developing My Own Online Learning Network: Part 2 Learning the Tools
Wikis (Wikispaces, Wetpaint, Netcipia, PBWorks)
Twitter
Ning
RSS
Blogger
Picasa
The amazing world of Google!
(my not-so-secret addiction)
Learning to use web 2.0 tools gave me better understanding of the function of the tools and helped me begin to imagine how to use them for a variety of purposes.

8. Developing My Own Online Learning Network: Part 3- Beginning to actively collaborate
The wiki I created for my colleagues at school to share and communicate about common teaching experiences was a great springboard for further conversations.

9. Understanding Points of Entry and Understandings....
(Surveying my colleagues)

10. Understanding Beliefs and Attitudes
All of my colleagues believe that it is important for students to learn to use emerging technologies for their future personal and professional lives. While many are keen to use online collaborative tools with students, there is a significant number who are only moderately interested in this idea.

11. Survey Results Start of Inquiry
Almost all of my colleagues were using web 2.0 tools socially but very few had begun to develop their own personal /professional learning network. 100% indicated that they wanted to learn more about the use of web 2.0 tools for professional learning.

12. Survey Results End of Inquiry
The data shows that a few teachers began to explore the creation of their own personal learning networks by the end of my inquiry project. However I feel that almost all of them became aware of and interested in understanding online personal/professional networks from the dialogue that my inquiry initiated.

13. My Learning and Next Steps

14. Concluding Thoughts
Building an online personal learning network took more time than I had expected.
In order to feel comfortable supporting others in learning about/building their own online personal learning network I needed to feel secure in my own understandings about this idea.
At the beginning it is hard to separate learning the communication tools from learning about teaching and learning utilizing the tools. I will need to be continually mindful of this when supporting colleagues on this learning journey.

15. My colleagues are comfortable using online collaboration tools socially. I need to continue to work to help them expand this comfort zone into their professional learning and then into their teaching practice.
My inquiry project began a conversation at my school and now there are early signs of the development of personal learning networks in some of my colleagues.
I feel that I have laid a good framework upon which to build further work related to professional online learning.
The timeframe for this project was only enough to create a beginning. I will continue to engage in this work for a long time to come.

16. Stages of PLN Adoption Jeff Utecht
As I worked within the context of my question, this theory became more and more relevant. I was deep into the stages but most of my colleagues still had a big journey before reaching stage 1.

17. My Conclusion
YES!!!
By developing my own personal online learning network that was linked to my experience and practice as a Teacher-Librarian and school leader I developed strategies and understandings that helped my colleagues begin to create their own online learning networks.
(However, it is a much more gradual and ongoing process than I anticipated at the beginning of this inquiry. Support, encouragement and ongoing modelling will be required for this work to continue.)

18. My Next Steps
Increase the use of my school PD wiki and/or transfer our collaborative online work to our new Academic Workspace tools.
Tidy up my RSS feeds and utilize information gathering tools to seek the information that is related to my interests.
Continue to build my own learning within the context of my professional learning network
Increase my own contributions to the online leaning network(Keep my blog going, comment on the blogs of others, actively contribute to twitter)
Keep the conversation going with my colleagues about the amazing teaching and learning opportunities that exist utilizing web 2.0 tools.
Continue to model effective use of online collaborative communication for my own teaching and learning.