In the image above you see part of the “hubs” of my world, from local to global, personal to professional. If you click the image, it takes you to my Flickr image, complete with links. From each of these parts of my life, I learn and grow, share and collaborate, create and remix.

The Hub: What is it?
It might be learning drawing in a Google hangout with a granddaughter; we share art in Scoot and Doodle. I share it in my 365edugood #edugood photo group for the “coziest spot in my house” photo.

It might be teaching my granddaughters how to crochet, and one of them returns to teach me to knit.

It might be a student telling me how to pronounce “PSY.”

It might be a colleague sharing a Common Core State Standard lesson or video.

It might be a colleague on Twitter collaborating to create a presentation (using Twitter, Google Hangout, Google Docs) to encourage others to jump in and extend the conversation.

It is a group of middle level educators gathering together through Diigo, a wiki, and their own blogs to figure out the new literacies and connectedness that our students need in our curriculum. It is asking, “How do we remix what we do to transform our teaching into learning worthy of our students’ futures?” It is working together to answer that question.

So is the hub you, the center of your world, choosing to interact and interconnect to learn and grow and create with others? You make the choices. You decide which connection to nurture. It changes, depending on the life that happens to you that day. So perhaps we’re more like droplets, forming bonds, wanting to connect and reconnect as the fluid, the ideas, warm up. And in the stream you choose to follow, flowing together, the effect moves from “me” to “we.”  Denise Krebs on a Google Plus Post, with comments from Ben Wilkoff and Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, suggest the “me to we” concept. Sheryl said, “Networks are me directed. Communities are we directed. ” Ben asks how do show which hubs are more valuable?

I can’t put importance on a hub or connection; because each IS important. On any given day, because “life is what happens when you made other plans [John Lennon],” the connections can change; they are more fluid for me, even if I choose them as the “me.” And when I’m in the flow with one connection, we become “we” and flow together. I think again that perhaps we are more like droplets than hubs, droplets that yearn for connection and acceptance, flowing about and choosing the bond that at that time and place fit. When the energy changes, the bond breaks and moves on, perhaps never returning, or perhaps always returning because the mutual connection is so strong.

So many metaphors work: hubs, spokes, wheels, droplets, strings, and threads in a tapestry. My new friend, Lorraine Boulos, in a comment on my blog, says, “I see this incredible tapestry and how we are all threads in this tapestry. Each one of us unique and different, but together, creating something new. It makes me think of Covey’s sixth habit – Synergy. The whole is actually greater than the sum of its parts.”

I think we are dropping threads into the hub, allowing them to weave to and fro, connecting here and there until something sticks. And in the sticking, the tapestry grows.

What is my world, my hub, my droplet in the fluid of ideas?  You will see the movement from “me” to “we” to “me.” You will see networking and community. Listen and watch:

1 22 2013 vlog from Sheri Edwards on Vimeo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are:

 

Each of us: A Hub,
A droplet in the fluid of ideas
A thread in the tapestry of community.
Worlds within worlds
Family
Professional
Local –> Global

Each of us: A Hub
A droplet bonding with the next.
A thread blending into the next.
Reaching out
Gathering in
Making sense
Self –> Worlds

 

Each of us: A Hub
A droplet flowing with the stream.
A thread twisting with another.
Spiraling
Connecting
Interacting
Worlds –> Worlds

Each and Together: Hubs
A droplet bonding to another.
A thread fusing to the form.
Communicating
Considering
Contributing
Remix –> Create

Each and Together: Hubs
Droplets whirling into pools.
Threads  knotting into multi-dimensions.
Purpose and Action
Fluid Reactions
Worlds
Learning –> Change

Each and Together: Hubs
Drop and droplets
Thread and tapestry
Linger here
Stay there
Learn and Act
Worlds –> Renewed

How do your communities form and grow? How are you stretching your connections and building new communities?

 

What say you? How do you move your “network” to our “community?”  Share your ideas.