How Important Is Connected Learning?

an #etmooc participant blog post published on
see all syndicated posts from this blog

How important is connected learning?  This is one of the questions participants in #ETMOOC are being asked to consider right now.  Connected learning is incredibly important for me.  Part of that has to do with the type of work that I have been engaged in for the past 7 years.  Part of it stems from my desire to always be learning.

From 2006 – 2012 I worked as a distributed learning (online) teacher.  When I started there were only 3 of us in my district.  In order to learn how to improve my craft I absolutely needed to connect with others.  The yearly conference in my province geared towards distributed learning was an incredible way to connect with other distributed learning teachers.  But it happens only once a year for a few days and then it is over.  I needed more.  I got more by:

  • attending week long online courses on specific topics (KnowWeeks and later CEET Moodle Meets)
  • subscribing to blogs
  • blogging — writing my own posts helped connect me to others, but commenting on other people’s posts was how I was really able to connect to more people.     
  • tweeting — engaging in conversations, sending out links I thought were useful, promoting the posts of others, acting as a mentor
  • presenting at conferences
  • facilitating online professional development
  • building my personal learning network (PLN) and becoming a connected learner!
Being a connected learner was especially important to me this year.  That is because I took on a new position; I am one of two people teaching students in my district’s gifted program.  Gifted education is a new field for me.  My colleague has been wonderful with sharing ideas and suggestions, but if I wasn’t a connected learner with an extensive PLN I think that the past 5 months would have been so.  much.  more. challenging.  If I wasn’t a connected learner I wouldn’t have:
  • watched The Story of Stuff and used it as a conversation starter with my middle school students
  • heard about The Marshmallow Challenge and tried it with my grade 1 – 8 students (blogged about here)
  • found out about The 21st Century Fluency Project and been able to access their lesson plans on invention (the theme for my classes this year)
  • heard about MaKey MaKey’s, which I have used with great success with my grade 2 – 8 students.  It really is amazing how much students love these devices!
  • been inspired to learn how to use JS Timeline (blogged about here)
  • encouraged to check out  and use Google’s lesson plans on conducting effective searches with my students (blogged about here)
  • started taking a Code Academy course on HTML and CSS.
  • signed up for #ETMOOC
All of the things in the list above I found out about or felt encouraged to try because I am a connected learner.  Yes, I still just search for things online.  But by far the most valuable resources and ideas I have come across are via other people with whom I am connected, even if that connection is rather tenuous.

I can’t imagine going back to the limited connections I had before I was blogging, tweeting, and subscribing to blogs.   How about you?  Do you consider yourself a connected learner?  How does being a connected learner influence your practice?