I can consider myself blessed that I have been a part of a learning network throughout my engineering career. That goes to show that a) Engineers are a helpful lot. And b) that that field is so vast we need help from each other, always.
My informal learning network was actually formed during the student days at UNISA and it has had additions with passing time. It became international as I studied in Europe and even more diversified as I found employment here in Dubai.
The level of contact with this bunch of people is varied and dependent. My colleagues at wotk are always there to help, advice and support. I am still in touch with my chief engineer from my previous employer, an expert in fluid mechanics, both socially and professionally. Other members of the network are contacted professionally as need arises.
The tools used for keeping are the usual social media and email although I love the face to face interaction with the colleagues.
Lastly the importance of these informal groups cannot be denied. You always have someone to lean on or to share your knowledge and experiences.
Networks are very powerful things and PLN is a more focused form of networking for a specific objective ... that is our own learning and professional development ... what are your thoughts on encouraging our students to develop their own? I think I'll be asking the same question to other people in our community of practice to see how they relate their experience with PLN to our students educational requirements.
ReplyDeleteGood question Bara'a.
DeleteI have noticed that the students form their networks fairly quickly and they generally centre around students who are academically strongest in class.
I think peer tutoring is a method that can be encouraged to promote formation of learning networks.
Hi Atif, you brought up a good point about how peer tutoring can develop into a PLN and how top performing students generally find themselves at the centre of class activities. But it also depends on the personalities and whether a student is performing very well or not, and whether there are personality clashes causing them not to "gel" very well.
DeleteA good idea! I also think this could be integrated into your idea of using excel in the engineering maths program. Why not utilise the PLNs they have set up to get them to collaborate in groups on a project to teach the other groups how to use MS Excel for a specific numerical technique - this could also incorporate video tutorials from You tube for example.
ReplyDelete