Netball has always been a passion of mine. Throughout my teaching career, it has been an avenue for connecting with students through extra-curricular opportunities and has been a hobby to engage within my personal life. I am actively involved in the broader community as a coach, club, committee member and player. Through reflection, I have been limiting my network and learning opportunities by not fully embracing the possibilities of a genuinely connected learning environment. While notions of connectivism and online networks are familiar concepts, I advocate for with my students, I have only recently come across the idea of a professional/ personal learning network (PLN). Overall, I have expanded my PLN through social media and more confidently contribute rather than lurk through online communities.
Preparing for Change
My initial scope for this task had me ready to take on the whole Physical Education domain, ultimately deciding to narrow my focus and delve deeper into the world of netball. Originally, I believed my netball PLN was diverse; however, I now realise I only scraped the surface of what could be a powerful learning experience to becoming a connected educator. To this point, I have been an expert in passive learning, connecting meant lurking and absorbing the vast amount of information shared by others (Cook et al., 2015). Connected learning occurs through engagement with a variety of social software’s that extends beyond time and place bolstering active learning through developing social connection (Anderson & Dron, 2014). Arguably, I have acted as a vessel for information, taking the knowledge of others and passing it on through my teaching and coaching.
Starting to navigate the online world and the immense learning potential one can gain from social connections is a daunting thought, however, in the words of Siemens Et al. (2005), "we derive our competence from forming connections". Developing my PLN focussed on moving from a lurking role into a more active participant, building confidence and connections in a range of online communities (Krutka et al., 2016).
To grow my PLN I need to engage actively and contribute to my current online networks through knowledge sharing, and joint collaborative discussions further validating and strengthening my knowledge construction and understanding (Anderson & Dron, 2014). I have been hypocritical in my teaching practice thus far, preaching the value of online social environments to extend learning, however, I have not harnessed its benefits in my learning practice (Richardson and Mancabelli, 2011).
Further reflecting on my initial netball PLN, my participatory interactions take place in physical spaces with a large portion of my digital presence being passive, despite a number of the digital connections being participatory cultures. For example, I regularly use Sportplan to collect and create resources for personal use though there is a multitude of ways to participate in their open community through affiliations, expression, collaborative problem-solving and circulation (Jenkins et al., 2016).
Consequently, this mirrors the general feel of online netball coaching networks. The broader focus appears to be on netball leagues rather than professional development for coaches. With that said, there are multiple entry points that provide relevant access to content. However, knowledge is not frequently produced across recognised, professionally utilised social media platforms such as Twitter (Richardson & Mancabelli, 2011). The critical implications of this on my learning have been an increased desire to contribute through open pedagogy to attract netball coaches to connect in conversation surrounding deep reflection and inquiry (Kop, 2011; Nussbaum-Beach, 2012; Oddone, 2018; Siemens et al., 2005).
Participatory cultures facilitate principles associated with connectivist learning through the social construction of knowledge using informal dialogue, maintaining connections and ensuring currency (Jenkins et al., 2016; Siemens et al., 2005). Through the expansion of my PLN, I have engaged with the participatory nature of social media including; blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and more.
Change in Progress
To progress my PLN, I investigated ways I could increase engagement with my current connections, transitioning them into more diverse professional networks. Twitter is the starting place for developing a PLN by matching, inspiring, challenging and connecting with people of like minds in an academic domain (Cook et al., 2015). I followed several areas I am interested in, including connected learning, netball, education and physical education. I shared a few early tweets and retweets that received little traction, understandably due to my small followership. However, I can see the robust conversation’s and connection’s that are possible through retweeting and commenting. (Richardson and Mancabelli, 2011). Twitter has enabled me to access and organise my professional development by selecting my mentors and content on a global scale (Nussbaum-Beach, 2012), much like a good time-manager should (Oddone, 2018). These early steps were the beginning of taking concepts and forming conceptual connections as part of a knowledge cycle, signifying the potential for networked learning (Siemens et al., 2005).
I selected Wix as my platform for curating and publishing my work, as I have used it before with students. Using the same platform enables me to model networked learning skills such as; active participation, digital literacy and social responsibility that I ask of them (Forbes, 2017; Nussbaum-Beach, 2012; Richardson & Mancabelli, 2011) providing useful discourse related to my teaching practice (Mackey & Evans, 2011). I continually refer to the following quote, reminding me what I want to achieve throughout this process.
The power of a growth mindset is essential for enhancing the capacity for continuous learning (Charette, 2016). Blogging is a highly reflective practice that fosters emotional and intellectual growth (Sackstein, 2015). With little experience blogging, I researched and explored ideas, concepts and communities online about netball and blogging (Nussbaum-Beach, 2012). Through Feedly.com, an information organising tool, I found Create and Co., who describe themselves as a community to help people "create, grow and monetise their blogs" (Create and Co. n.d). While I am not interested in monetising a blog, Create and Co. acted as a useful source of information to asynchronously support my initial blogging attempts (Krutka et al., 2016). Joining their closed Facebook group for further support, I encountered a network encompassing diversity, connectivity and autonomy of participants (Goldie, 2016). This was a critical experience for me throughout this process, realising support can be easily accessed through openly networked communities, that are engaged in social reciprocity and have a shared sense of purpose (Anderson & Dron, 2014; Ito, 2013; Jones, 2015). Having peer support gave me greater confidence to contribute and publish my work. Additionally, I started engaging in collegial discussions, asking questions and commenting on others’ posts, further reflecting the cyclical process of connectivism (Jones, 2015).
I published my blog across several platforms, with my personal Facebook account receiving the most attention in comparison to my newly established professional connections including Twitter, a closed Facebook netball community and Pinterest. Understandably, the graph below shows the overwhelming support from friends and family. Conversely, I was surprised that I received any shares and likes in my professional communities due to my limited connections in these nodes. Forming connections through my PLN will take time, and active engagement will be an essential activity for a novice online networker to foster experiential learning (Siemen, 2005). By sharing my blog openly with an audience, I created an opportunity for professional growth by adding a collaborative element to my reflective process, producing a more progressive and fluid experience (Forbes, 2017; Sackstein, 2015).
Check out my article at: https://netballconnect.wixsite.com/website/post/how-to-netball-in-covid-19
Contributions to collegial discussion included my interactions in the Create and Co.’s Facebook group, where I was able to facilitate and share in the learning experiences of others (Siemen, 2005). I posted a question about using Twitter as a platform for sharing my blog after it received little interaction. Someone replied indicating a shared interest for the answer, while another two people engaged in a helpful conversation around the topic further reflecting the cyclical nature of meaning-making through social interaction (Siemen, 2005) and the importance of sharing experiences with others to help each other learn (Richardson & Mancabelli, 2011). This experience has been critical in understanding the emphasis placed on integrity and ethical and social responsibility when contributing to a public forum (Forbes, 2017).
A critical difference that has emerged through the development of my PLN has been my involvement in actively contributing to my learning by editing, producing, collaborating and communicating through social media platforms (Kop, 2011). Twitter is the only new platform that I have explored which has been highly engaging in a professional capacity. However, it is time-consuming establishing and maintaining connections (Forbes, 2017). Conversely, I have begun utilising networked communities on Facebook, Pinterest and Sportplan. In particular, I have joined two closed Facebook communities in the pursuit of professional development opportunities. These new environments have a real sense of shared purpose and collaboration, all ambitiously contributing to shared knowledge as part of a connected learning environment (Kop, 2011; Lupton, 2019; Siemens et al., 2005; Tseng & Kuo, 2014).
Future Change
Many educators create and manage personalised networks through social media platforms to support participatory and continuous learning for professional development and engagement (Krutka et al., 2016). The ability to customise professional development into what you want, how you want it, when you want it, enables a personally tailored learning experience (Mackey & Evans, 2011; Whitaker et al., 2015).
Connectivism argues the creation of knowledge occurs through a reflective cycle of connecting to and sharing information in, networked communities (Krutka et al., 2016; Nussbaum-Beach, 2012; Siemens et al., 2005). There are two crucial skills I must refine to be an effective networked learner, "the ability to seek out information and the ability to filter information" (Jones, 2015, p. 65). Nurturing and maintaining connections is integral to the continual learning process and requires time and consideration to ensure currency is maintained (Siemens et al., 2005). I have not prioritised time to maintain online connections which has acted as a barrier to connected learning environments.
Previously, I have looked for a quick information grab but rarely seemed to engage in collegial discussion in informal/ social settings. In my future practice, I will be more conscious of the efforts I take to maintain my online professional networks through regularly engaging in collegial discussions on Twitter and sharing/ retweeting content that I find essential to my professional learning adopting a time-manager approach to my PLN (Oddone, 2018). With that said, it is crucial to manage the additional noise that comes about as a result of an overcrowded PLN. Through modulating and selecting only the most critical nodes, I will continually prune my network for diverse and worthy connections adding value to my PLN (Richardson & Mancabelli, 2011).
It is important to remember that our online networks don't replace our real-life ones, rather extend their potential to grow and deepen without the need to be physically present for all interactions (Richardson & Mancabelli, 2011). Implementing blogging into my weekly routine as a part of reflective practice can provide an avenue for producing content to be shared and hopefully bring about a discussion in an effort to emulate an evolved connector (Oddone, 2018; Sackstein, 2015).
I feel there is still significant room for growth in the area of netball networks for coaches. Currently, a lot of interaction occurs around leagues and policy however, there is so much potential for netball coaching networks to connect globally and strengthen the sport from grassroots up. The skills I have begun to develop through establishing a PLN will be useful in expanding beyond my netball PLN into broader professional learning contexts such as physical education and education more generally. Through continual engagement in my PLN, my digital literacy skills will improve and my social network identity grow.
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