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I'm participating in the Exploring Personal Learning Networks Online Seminar (Google+ community and #xplrpln on Twitter) and we were challenged by the facilitators (Jeff Merrell and Kimberly Scott) to write a tweet that would explain what a PLN was to our mom.
The challenge of explaining a PLN to mom was presumably meant to have us imagine an audience that had no idea what a personal learning network is, and the use of Twitter meant we had to be concise. The restriction to 140 characters is a defining trait of Twitter and is both liberating and maddening. No need to construct a well written and finely honed essay, it's only 140 characters, right. That limitation also makes it easier to follow many people and dip briefly into the stream of content.
However, it can be maddening to try to write a tweet that communicates what you're thinking in such little space. Also, I'm still not comfortable with texting slang and abbreviations which might provide me a bit more breathing room. The brevity of tweets can also make having a conversation challenging.
When all was said and done, I had a tweet that I thought might communicate my thoughts, but would folks understand why I made the decisions I did? I'm not sure, so I want to unpack that tweet here:
Mom, #PLN is like when you're at bridge and someone shares a new way to cook rice and you try it - only it's stuff I like. #xplrpln
— Stephen Judd (@sjudd) October 16, 2013
I decided to try to explain a PLN by way of analogy that anyone might understand. Playing bridge implies that mom is with a group of friends or acquaintances that she shares an interest with. But hearing about a chicken recipe is a serendipitous moment, not the purpose of the gathering. Because she trusts her partner in one context, she's willing to try her recommendation in a totally different domain - she applies what she's learned.
What makes my PLN different? - it's stuff that I'm interested in, but the same thing occurs. I connect to people out of a shared interest, and find myself learning delightful things that I hadn't set out to discover. In the best cases, I'm able to apply that knowledge to my own situation.
The unpacking could continue if you consider why mom tried the recipe. If her partner shared twenty recipes each bridge night and said they were all fantastic, how likely would mom have been to try it? If a total stranger told her, would she have tried it? PLNs are about relationships where we vet and curate those we allow into our network based on the intersection of our interests and our experience with their recommendations.
So my PLN is constantly in flux - as my interests shift, I discover and make new connections, and figure out who nurtures my learning. While my goal is to aid my learning and growth, I try to pay it forward, and hope some might appreciate what I share in return. However, I'm not sure any two people would unpack a tweet the same way!
I should add that Keeley Sorotki has a Storify page that collected many of these "explaining PLN to mom" tweets.
#netlit
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