Discovering Your Own
Learning Networks
A Conversation on Leadership, Learning and Creativity
Bill Brennan
Port Jefferson School District
wbrennan@portjeff.k12.ny.us

Audience Survey – Who is in the room?
 Building Administrator
 District Level Administrator
 Teacher
 Board of Education
 Parent
 Others

My Current Projects and Work
 Universal Design for Learning
 1:1 Laptops for Learning
 Data Collection – A New Look

What are you
learning about?

Thomas L. Friedman

Sir Kenneth Robinson

Tony Wagner

Clayton M. Christensen

John Kotter

?

What should learning look like?
 Driscoll (2000) defines learning as “a
persisting change in human performance
or performance potential…[which] must
come about as a result of the learner’s
experience and interaction with the
world.”
Understanding Personal Learning Networks
20th Century Learning vs 21st Century Learning

DOES THIS = LEARNING?

Graduate HS 2026
May Retire in 2065

Tony Wagner: Seven survival skills
for the new economy
1. Critical thinking and problem-solving
2. Collaboration across networks and leadership by
influence
3. Adaptability and agility
4. Initiative and entrepreneurialship
5. Effective oral and written communication skills
6. Accessing and analyzing information
7. Curiosity and imagination

So Where Is The Connection?

A Working Definition
 A personal or professional learning network
(PLN) involves an individual’s topic-orientated
goal, a set of practices & techniques aimed at
attracting and organizing a variety of relevant
content sources, selected for their value, to
help the owner accomplish a professional goal
or personal interest.
David Warlick
(SL)
Followed vs Follow

Immersion Learning

Connectivism
 Presents a model of learning that
acknowledges the tectonic shifts in society
where learning is no longer an internal,
individualistic activity. Connectivism
provides insight into learning skills and
tasks needed for learners to flourish in a
digital era.

Connectivism
 The pipe is more important than the content
within the pipe. Our ability to learn what we need
for tomorrow is more important than what we
know today. When knowledge, is needed, but not
known, the ability to plug into sources to meet
the requirements becomes a vital skill. As
knowledge continues to grow and evolve, access
to what is needed is more important than what
the learner currently possesses.
 The Networked Student

PLN - Tools
 Google Alerts  RSS
 Twitter  Community Wiki’s
 Ning Networks  ITunes
 Skype  Blogs
 Second Life  YouTube
 VoiceThread  Facebook
 Pageflakes  Shelfari
 Del.icio.us  Google Reader
Professional Goal or Personal Interest

Suggestions for success
 Create your own network.
 Buy a domain name.
 Use Google Calendar or a shared calendar.
 Limit the number of blogs and other social sites you subscribe to.
 Organize folders within your news aggregators (just like email).
 Don’t feel like you have to read everything in your reader, b/c you
can’t.
 Get out to conferences across the county.
 Set a goal of 15 minutes of new learning a day.
 Find bloggers that are good connectors and filters. They will save
you much time.
 Go mobile for posting and reading.
 Paper is still good. Create time during the week.
 But most of all…

“A leader’s job is to engineer epiphanies
one conversation at a time.” - Susan Scott

1. Create that sense of
urgency
2. Get people excited, build
your team.
3. Develop your change
vision and strategy.
4. Communicate it.
5. Empower Others to act.
6. Produce short term wins
and visible successes.
7. Don’t let up.
8. Create the new culture
and make sure they
succeed.

Questions?
Take a few minutes to talk with your
neighbor and formulate some questions,
concerns or anything else on your mind
about this presentation.

Contact Info
Email:
wbrennan@portjeff.k12.ny.us or maristbb@gmail.com
Networks:
http://schoolleadership.ning.com
http://www.classroom20.com
Twitter: bbrennan1
AIM: maristbb
Delicious: maristbb
Blog: http://www.k12edutalk.com
Skype: maristbb

Do you have too many websites to keep up with? Do you
want to stay connected with the latest research and
educational blogs?
Learn how to create your own Online Personal Learning
Network through the use of RSS and more.

Too Many Blogs?
4
Picture

and websites!