This document discusses the importance of social media and personal learning networks (PLNs) in fostering ongoing professional development for educators. It highlights how paradigm shifts in pedagogy and the emergence of communities of practice can enhance knowledge dissemination. The presentation emphasizes the need for integrating technology in teaching methodologies and facilitating a bottom-up approach to professional development activities.

1. Modeling social media in groups, communities, and networks Vance Stevens Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE Prepared for the TESOL Arabia conference March 12, 2010 Zayad University, Dubai These slides posted at http://slideshare.net/vances Presentation recording: http://tinyurl.com/100312vance-dubai Nurturing your PLN for everyone’s ongoing professional development

2. Where to begin? From Stephen Downes, Learning the Web 2.0 Way http://www.slideshare.net/Downes/personal-learning-the-web-20-way Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010 And … to TEACH is to LEARN - Vance

3. Knowledge Attribution: http://www.kelvybird.com/facilitation/scribing/workingknowledge.html Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

4. How did you learn about Creative Commons? http://creativecommons.org/ Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

5. Heard it through the grapevine? http://delicious.com/vancestevens/art Attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonastherkildsen/122881874 / Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

6. How did you LEARN how to find Creative Commons Images? Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

7. One State of Knowledge http://www.wblut.com/constructs/cyclic/

8. Knowledge Changes http://www.wblut.com/constructs/cyclic/

9. Paradigm Shift http://www.wblut.com/constructs/cyclic/

10. Paradigm Shifts in Education http://prosites-vstevens.homestead.com/files/efi/papers/2007alexandria/web20arabia.htm Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

11. 10 Aspects of Paradigm Shift Pedagogy : Didactic --> constructivist Modeling : Do as I say --> AND as I do Transfer : Technology enjoyed at leisure is F.U.N. --> also, applied to professional practice Trepidation : Will they find out? --> ok to say “I don’t know!” Literacy : Print literacy --> multiliteracies Heuristics : Client server --> peer to peer Sharing : Copyrighted --> creative commons Classification : Taxonomies --> folksonomies Directionality : Push --> pull Ownership : Proprietary --> open source Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

12. Paradigm Shifts in Wordle.net Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

13. Can’t get enough Wordle.net Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

14. Configurations for sharing and dissemination of knowledge Groups Communities Communities of practice Connectivist perspectives Personal learning networks Distributed learning networks Rhyzomic learning Attribution: Nancy White http://www.fullcirc.com/ Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

15. Configurations Groups Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

16. Configurations Groups Communities Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

17. Configurations Groups Communities Communities of practice Domain Practice Community Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

18. Configurations Groups Communities Communities of practice Networks can include overlapping communities Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

19. Configurations Groups Communities Communities of practice Networks and sample Connections Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

20. Webheads started as EFL class in 1998 WiA formed as result of 2002 EVO sesson Educators who engage in Helping each other pursue lifelong, just-in-time, informal learning Through experimentation in use of social-media and computer mediated communications tools Webheads in Action Online Convergence WiAOC 2005, 2007, 2009 http://wiaoc.org Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

21. Webheads: Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evonline2002_webheads/ Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

22. Webheads: Community Attribution: http:// flickr.com/photos/94794165@N00/410359410/ Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

23. Webheads: Community of Practice http://webheadsinaction.org/ Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

24. Personal Learning Networks Scott Leslie's PLE (above) and more PLE diagrams: http://edtechpost.wikispaces.com/PLE+Diagrams

25. Knowledge dissimenation through communities and networks Downes on distributed learning networks Knowing ( where’s Waldo?) Once you know, you can’t not know Knowledge exists throughout nodes in a network Wenger notes (2002:6) ‏ Increasing complexity of knowledge requires greater … collaboration; whereas … Half life of knowledge is getting shorter Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

26. Characteristics of CoPs They promote knowledge of a domain They revolve around a practice Community aspects They form spontaneously, voluntarily They have particularly defined community spaces in which they interact Most frequently understood to be defined by Etienne Wenger; e.g. Vance Stevens TESOL 2009 Vance Stevens TESOL 2009

27. Cormier - Rhizomatic Learning to deal with increasingly rapid obsolescence of knowledge Knowledge dissimenation through communities and networks http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=1380055 Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

28. Siemens – Connectivism stresses importance of pipes over content Knowledge dissimenation through communities and networks Attribution: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Venice_-_Piping.jpg Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

29. Siemens – Connectivism – dealing with explosion of available info http://www.wiziq.com/TutorSession/Session.aspx?JuX%2bgH%2b2GbYuXrqZqj1F3uIA%2fgrtIiAEcKQ3usZlk1VhT5GwwVHz6vferdj5MlOz5JOdRjZO8mc%3d http://tinyurl.com/siemens-socialnet09 Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

30. Where do we get our models? Our daily network interactions; e.g. Morning Tweets Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

31. Nings http://cck2009.ning.com/ http://multiliteracies.ning.com/video Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

32. Webcasts, Podcasts http://edtechtalk.com/live http://vance_stevens.podomatic.com/ Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

33. Edmodo Modeled and demonstrated by Nicky Hockley, #Socialnet09 Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

34. Waves Who are the early pouncers ? http://wave.google.com Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

35. Waves and Wikis http://webheadswave.wikispaces.com/ Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

36. Future of Learning in a Networked World http://flnw.wikispaces.com/Brazil Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

37. Implications for Teacher Professional Development Jack Richards plenary Denver TESOL 2009 (March 27) ‏ About what teachers need to KNOW in order to practice effectively Research indicates that teachers tend to revert to traditional methods rather than activate what they are exposed to in training curricula Derick Wenmouth (also from NZ) mentioned similar research findings at K-12 Online 2008 http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=181 Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

38. Problems Teacher-trainers without sufficient experience with technology and rooted in old-school methodologies simply not modeling new age learning behaviors for trainees Attribution: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/8aagIQGZq-RyFMO1dFHHNg Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

39. Problems Students and staff love to learn but hate to be taught, resent top-down approach forced on them by managers sometimes out of touch with actual needs of students and staff Attribution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxHb5QVD7fo&feature=player_embedded Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

40. Solutions Allow, facilitate, encourage networking in meetings, conferences, classrooms Offer workshops/projects bottom up, as something that staff/students organize themselves Create atmosphere encouraging formation of communities of practice where staff/students interact with peers in other institutions Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

41. Models for professional and student skills development Encourage teams to organize training sessions that utilize synchronous and non-synchronous social media tools. Call them something other than ‘training’ sessions Use Nings / Moodles / wikis / Google Wave / Jing / uTiPu / or other LMS/CMS to replace outmoded email attachment systems http://advanceducation.blogspot.com/2009/06/speedlifing.html Hold un-conferences and other grass roots events such as Bar camps LAN parties Speed-geeking Speed Lifing Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

42. How EVO models social Networking Almost all start with an email list, usually Yahoo Groups – http://yahoogroups.com Many have Nings – http://ning.com Most use wikis ; e.g. http://pbworks.com or http://docs.google.com Many use microblogging ; e.g. http://twitter.com Many socially bookmark URLs using http://delicious.com or http://diigo.com Most encourage reflective blogs ; e.g. http://blogger.com Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

43. Keep current, participate with peers around the world in: Social networks: Ning, TappedIn, EVO, WiAOC Social bookmarking: Delicious, Diigo Groups: YahooGroups and GoogleGroups Microblogging: Twitter, Plurk Instant messaging: Yahoo Messenger, Skype Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

44. Keep current, participate with peers around the world in: Blogging and podcasting: keeping current via RSS Wikis: PBWiki, Wikispaces Aggregation: Technorati, Pageflakes, Netvibes, Protopages, iGoogle, http://addictomatic.com , http://spezify.com Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

45. What is TESOL Arabia? A group? A community? A network? Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

46. What is a conference? What is an appropriate metaphor for conference attendance? Group? Community? Network? Should teachers / students be cut off from their networks? At school? Meetings? Conferences? Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

47. Some givens: Growing numbers of teaching practitioners no longer focus professional development activities on annual conferences Professional development is done daily (weekly, etc.) ‏ for free at individual's pace and convenience Via Twitter, Ning, Skype, YouTube, Facebook, YahooGroups, TappedIn, WiZiQ ... Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

48. PD models for Networked Interaction CALL-IS (1984) ‏ Electronic Village Online (EVO, since 2001) ‏ Webheads (1998, WiA since 2002) ‏ Steve Hargadon Classroom 2.0 Free online conferences George Siemens’s many conferences WiAOC (Webheads in Action Online Convergences) K12 Online Conference Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

49. CALL? Think SMALL … Social networking via social media is the new CALL Insinuating itself into our culture (Amazon, eBay) and work and social lives (Facebook) ‏ Denied as unhealthy; even dangerous by diminishing few Used and promoted for education by growing number of advocates Relatively untapped potential for learning and education Now that the C in CALL is almost seamless, almost taken for granted, Social networking is the new front-line SMALL? (Social media assisted LL?) ‏ (… enhanced … won’t work) Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

50. Professional Development Ongoing PD requires connection to a network Conferences are good for face to face interaction and interpersonal networking But inefficient for sustained professional development Many conferences / schools etc require participants to leave their networks at the door Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

51. Key to success in keeping current Expanding productive contacts within a network Attribute: d'arcy norman touchgraph: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dnorman/436670816/ Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

52. TESOL Arabia Conferences and Chapter Events In future, successful conferences and professional organizations will combine opportunities for interpersonal connection with connectivity and seamless interaction with distributed personal learning networks Those that do not will be decreasingly relevant If conferences are networked? Who benefits? Who loses? Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010

53. F2F conferences with rich networking potential Learning 2.0 (Jeff Utecht, set up in Ning, Podcast) ‏ IATEFL right now, getting better NECC Educon 2.0 Model Conferences Vance Stevens - TESOL Arabia 2010 THINK SMALL

54. Modeling social media in groups, communities, and networks Vance Stevens Prepared for the TESOL Arabia conference March 12, 2010 Zayad University, Dubai This has been More information here: http://advanceducation.blogspot.com/2009/11/modeling-social-media-in-groups.html Nurturing your PLN for everyone’s ongoing professional development These slides posted at http://slideshare.net/vances Presentation recording: http://tinyurl.com/100312vance-dubai