Reading Two

     This is the chapter Professor Juliani warned us about. From the first sentence this chapter is all about Professional learning networks in a teaching environment. In spite of the author's intentions, the information seems applicable to any profession, and can be quite insightful.

     This chapter elaborates upon building a Professional Learning Community. A Learning Community is identical to a Learning Network in function, providing professionals with connections to others with new resources and skills which they can offer, but a Community seems to hold a more localized setting. For example, in a school setting teachers may rely on one another for alternative methods to teaching, or a further expertise in web tools.

     That's good and all, but what does this mean for me, someone who isn't getting a degree in education? Simple, Personal Learning communities are not exclusive to educational settings. Personal learning communities can be small and specialized or grand and diverse, all depending upon the goals they share. To exemplify myself, as an artist I would need to make professional connections with those who take part in my projects. Computer technicians, printing professionals, other graphic artists, marketing teams; they're all invaluable connections that can help one another complete a complex task.

     While having a solid support system is a big plus for Personal Learning Communities, their key purpose is learning from your connections. Art is an ever changing study, and few artists have the exact same level of study and understanding in every medium. As artists, we benefit greatly from studying the techniques and practices of other artists, so a Personal Learning Network of artists could uniformly produce a wider variety of art than any single artist could create on their own. That's why the concept of using social media like Twitter and LinkedIn makes so much sense to me, as an artist.