Blips in the path - And an image of reciprocity

I am getting back to the connected learning course after staying away for eight days (gulp). Lots to read and watch. At least I have a better excuse than the dog ate my homework. (Last year our puppy ate my son's memory stick. I had him take the shattered remains to school in a clear plastic bag so he had proof the dog ate his work).  I am presently completing a Masters in Education, and have my final culminating activity, a presentation of  an e-portfolio of my educational journey on October 20th via an Adobe connect session. I will be continuing to put the final polish on that presentation up until the 20th , but I now have time to return to Connected Learning. 

 I received a lot of value from  the webinar hosted by Kira Baker Doyle on Social Capital . Wow ! I had not considered  social capital as it relates to online Personal Learning Networks (PLNs).  In the 1990's I participated in an equestrian usenet newsgroup (remember those?). But lately my personal learning networks have tended to either be transient, and limited to those enrolled in whatever current course I was taking (very dense and rich),  or the small list of blogs I read on on a regular basis.  

Ideas that resonated with me included the suggestion that we consider our PLN as a reservoir of reciprocity.  We give things away... and if we know what we need and ask for what we need ... things come back to us.  I need to think about what I can bring to the table. More on this later... 

Reciprocity  - Credit: Eugene Kim Flickr CC-BY

More ideas from the first webinar in Unit 2 are:  We cannot underestimate how much energy it take to be renewed in our teaching. PLN's can provide a mechanism for that renewal.  It takes being social.   Name the things you value.

My personal to-do list for the connected course for the next week (Canadian Thanksgiving will provide a long weekend Oct 11,12 & 13) will be to actively work on this blog, respond to others, get caught up, expand my reading list,  increase my PLN, participate in the  daily connector #6 (for the next 21 days)

So ... More to come ... Thanks for the great webinar!