Planning for Networks of Learners

Soon after we have our blogs, Bloglines accounts, and have a day or two of wiki introduction next week when school returns, I plan on beginning to talk to the kids in my class about networks. What are networks? How can they help us? How are these spaces like a virtual classroom, a collection of minds that can learn together and push each other forward?

Last year I learned about the power, the potential, and the importance of networking kids together. One thing I did not do well last year was help kids to see this importance as well. I've written before about my plans for kids and learning networks, but it needs to be thought through again. I plan to have kids find five, ten, fifteen (?) other people around the globe who are blogging who they will form a network of learners with. I expect that around half of the people in their learning network will be local, kids in our classroom. But I am hoping that the other 50% will be from other places around the globe, allowing my kids to gain an outside perspective into their lives and their learning. I want the kids to write regularly and respond to the writings of others as well, pushing each other further along in their thinking. I expect these networks to be fluid, changing throughout the year as new bloggers form other schools are found, and unfortunately, as writers in other schools quit blogging (this is the reality).

I also will be requiring that kids subscribe to certain RSS feeds as a form of required reading. I will be assigning feeds that I think are needed and important. I've written about the Nata Village blog before, as well as different feeds form places like Global Voices. These voices in their aggregators will change throughout the year depending on what we are studying and may be different from student to student. Just as we would assign different books to different kids, I can use various feeds for various kids.

An important part of this will be regular conferences with kids about the value of their personal learning network (PLN). What value are they gaining from their network? How are they contributing or adding value to this network of learners? Do they need more / less / different voices to learn from? I would like to design a rubric to work from which shows their contribution towards the construction and maintenance of their network which the kids can self - evaluate from before we spend time conferencing in the classroom.

 

technorati tags:networks, learning, classroom, planning

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Comments

[Anita]

I'm impressed by your ideas of creating a personal learning network (give and get) and assigning different feeds to different learners. I really shouldn't forget your post.
Sorry, but how old are your learners and what subject are you teaching?