Connecting the Dots

In a world that is inundated with information, it is important to have a learning network in place that allows you to find relevant, reliable resources more efficiently. Networks are unique to each person and evolve as skills, social needs, and professional demands change. I am currently a stay-at-home mom who is pursuing a graduate degree, so my personal learning networks are more prevalent than my professional networks. Taking online classes such as this course has expanded my professional network which has changed the way I learn by giving me access to more in depth knowledge and interaction with others within my field of interest. The tools that best facilitate learning for me are the ones that I visit regularly such as social media, Google, and Youtube. These sites are sites that I am on regularly throughout the day, and they provide new content that I am interested in without me having to actively seek out new content as I would with my professional network. This ease of interaction seems to help facilitate learning by pushing me to learn even when that is not my immediate goal. When I have a question and wish to gain new knowledge, I usually start with a Google search, and look at the top responses. If I am not satisfied with the resources presented, I move to more specific sources, such as Walden resources for school, VIPkid resources for work, social media if it is something local that I believe friends will have information about. My personal learning network supports the central tenets of connectivism by using diverse sources of information to learn about new concepts. I prioritize the sources that are the most interconnected information sources with the greatest capacity to learn, and these sources help me build connections between previous understanding and new information.