Building A Connected Learning Community

 

This post works best in conjunction with my previous post, The Connected Professional. For my original post, please click here.

    There are two simple facts of life: 1) You can't know everything and 2) you're not born knowing everything. That's just how it is, we're human. You have to find this knowledge as you go through the world. Building your connected learning community is no different. How do we do that?

Kickstarting Your Connected Learning Community 

    So, you want to start your personal learning network. A great place to start is to pick up good online "branding" habits like picking a consistent internet handle across your professional accounts so that it will make it easier for others to find you across platforms. If you're not so familiar with this but know someone that is, you can always ask them to mentor you.

    The next step is picking who you want to follow. Who do you want to follow? Do you want to follow people on your level or people you aspire to be? I would recommend that you follow a mix of both types of people and people who you personally.

    Your final step step is to borrow from people. Do you see something that might be a good idea? Take inspiration, do it and make it your own. Even here in GEN-2243, we're following and borrowing from each other. You're welcome to take inspiration from the lay out of my blog, for example.

Strangers Online: Who do you trust?

    In the immortal words of an iconic scene from the TV show Arthur:

    And the answer is, unfortunately, yes. 

    Well, with so many strangers- who can you trust to steer you in the right direction? It depends on what type of professional you are are and what field you're working in.

    There are some grey areas. Imagine, if you will, a person that uses a crazy online handle for their professional life like "@womanenjoyer". If you work in the business and operations sector, then maybe Mx. womanenjoyer isn't someone that is being the most professional and may not be a great example for you to follow.  

    However, if you're working in the arts, especially as a freelancer, it's not uncommon to see people with silly, eye-catching handles online. For example, the handle I use for my freelance work is TIKIBATS. I can't imagine that I would get many job offers as presenting myself accountant with that title. If Mx. womanenjoyer is an artist with a solid portfolio behind them and a large following, then the name is just branding for them as a creator.

    You also shouldn't judge a book by its cover. "Silly" or "strange" names is relative to time and place. To pull from another artist example, many Japanese artists using Twitter have handles that are strings of numbers and letters. We may look at that as strange in the US, but those handles are tied to code numbers for Japanese characters or may be their user ID number on Pixiv-- a popular art hosting site in Japan.

    Of course, there are people that you shouldn't follow that won't steer you in the right direction nor provide a healthy environment for you to grow as a professional: people that post inflammatory or hateful things on their platforms, people that get into frequent online fights, people that gossip, etc.

     If you wouldn't associate with them in the workplace, you likely shouldn't follow them online. Please use your best judgement and don't be afraid to ask questions.

The Health of Your Online Community

    Much like humans can't know everything, you can't be everywhere all at once. It takes time to nurture your connected learning community. Some easy tips for nurturing your network are:

• Don't put too many eggs in one basket!
• This network isn't going anywhere and you don't have to rush!
• You can't follow everyone
• Much like how you can't know everything, you can't follow everyone. Only follow people that enrich your circle, however that looks for you.
• Interact!
• Everyone in your connected learning community is there to learn and grow. Don't be afraid to talk about your perspective-- just remember your online etiquette and be polite!
• Enjoy yourself and have fun
• If you keep only to grinding, eventually you will burn out. 

The 4 L's of Who's in Your Network

There are 4 types of roles held by members of connected learning communities

• Linking 
• These are the people interested in briefly learning from your community. They may come and go and use the links from your community to link to their own
• Lurking
• These are the people that only view, but never post or interact. "Lurking" in online terms means to browse and absorb the information of a community without interacting with other
• Learning 
• These are the people 
• Leading
• As the name suggests, these are the people leading the community and providing primary information to others in the community. They're helping out the previous roles

Everyone has been one of these roles at one point or another without realizing it.

Designing

    Your connected learning community is of your own design. 

    Now that you've created this network, it's yours to shape and mould as you need it to be. You can do this by asking yourself if this community is healthy for you, if it's right for you, who's leading this community and if it's helping you meet your goals. 

    If this changes in the future, that's ok! It's only natural that things will change as you grow as a person and as a professional. Don't be afraid to unfollow or change the people you follow to suit your needs. Your connected learning community is not only there for your industry, but for your health personally as a person. If it starts to harm you or make you feel unsatisfied or uncomfortable, you're within your right to build your own space.

Now What?

You can't know everything and you need to start getting knowledge somewhere. In summary, be a smart internet user and a critical thinker. You're all set to go!

Thank you for reading,

Shaun DiGiovanni