Education 790 Week 2:PLN

Professional learning networks are the future of education and professionalism. I believe that there are particular skills required in today's business and school environment that were not necessary in my generation's upbringing. Students need to learn how to actively engage in effective conversation through the use of social media and professional learning networks. The social aspect of learning is what stood out most to me. I have always struggled with normalcy within interactions between colleagues and growing up with classmates who I didn't know very well.  As I began to think about this topic more, I began to think back on my time in college. When I was in college this idea of a professional learning network was at the forefront of learning theories. I had to learn how to participate in these kinds of networks in order to be successful. I have always had an issue working in groups with people who I didn't know personally. I was often able to get out of it in high school, or choose classmate to work with (then I usually ended up doing most of the work.) 

There are so many other wonderful reasons that this is the future of education and professional work environments. I was reading the article "Why Learning Through Social Networks Is the Future" and found several other good reasons to teach students at an early age how to interact effectively on the internet and through other social media outlets. The one that stuck out to me the most was teaching students how to deal with inappropriate comments and posts on these social media sites. In today's society there are so many terrible and untruthful things floating around social media. It is important for students to learn how to decipher these pieces of information and react, or lack there of, to the information.

Since going through all of the PLN in college, I have gotten much better at working in groups and working professionally with people I may not be close with. This class and other classes like it have helped me learn in ways that I never thought I would be able to do it. I feel that the skills I learned since graduating high school were pertinent in making me become a successful adult. If I had learned these skills at a younger age, I feel that it would've made the adjustment into the workforce so much easier.

image source Five Factor Test

image source Five Factor Test

For the PLN activity, I chose to take the five factor test. I really wanted to find out what positive characteristics I bring to professional learning environments. I found some very interesting pieces of information from this test. As you can see from above, I have listed the percentages from four of the five categories. I chose to not include extroversion factor because the percentage was below 50%. The higher the percentages the more they relate to the test taker. My highest percentage was for agreeableness. I feel that this one relates to me the most. The description shows that I am easy to get along with and quick to compromise with other people. I believe that humans are by nature decent and honest, and I believe that for the most part, humans will keep their word. The other area that I scored the highest in was consciousness. Consciousness goes along with careful planning and follow through. That is another area of strength for me when working in a learning network. I am careful, methodical, and plan things out to ensure that everything gets done. The other areas were of some interest to me, but these two stood out the most to me. I also now know that I still have areas to work on that stemmed from my grade school issues. If I had learned these skills from a young age they may not have hindered me as much when going through high school and college.