Must be a sign that certain ideas buzz around networks at a similar time, prompting a wide array of thoughts and ideas. I posted my mind dump yesterday at a similar time that Terry Freedman was pondering his own questions.
Then this morning, I found that one of my very favourite online writers, Jennifer Jones, had posted her own querying and probing cogitations. I was trying to nail down what I personally thought a PLN was, but Jennifer was pulling the whole thing apart questioning the unwritten laws and conventions that seem to accompany such a concept. Some excerpts:
2. I believe people learn all the time, and everywhere. I don’t need to isolate or elevate a group of individuals to be my PLN.
9. I know people who have no desire to blog. I know people who lack charisma. I know creative people, who don’t function well in this space. They will be excluded, for not playing by the rules. They don’t “get it.”
I'm looking forward to her next "thinking out loud" installment. I think it is really good when "givens" are questioned openly and potential meanings of a phrase like PLN fully interrogated.
Terry Freedman
Yes, it’s funny about certain ideas surfacing at the same time, isn’t it — the “zeitgeis”? I haven’t heard of Jennifer before, but your excerpts have made me want to read the whole lot. She seems to be saying, more eloquently and succinctly, what I meant when I said “In fact, a member of your PLN could be the guy who runs the café down the road!”
I like all this questioning of “givens”: it’s healthy.
Cheers
Terry