Thanks for a great blog post that illustrates those very points! I hope to point a few administrators in this direction.

I still lean slightly towards content first, as my PLN is not yet extensive, but the great people within it do add value to their content significantly. If I can contextulise the content with the person offering, it means far far more.

Quality content in isolation is still excellent, but for me stronger connections are made if we can also share f2f or in some form of discussion or debate or other “value added” form.

A bit like reading a fantastic “can’t put it down” novel in isolation or sharing the experiences later in a book club. Both are equally valid, just different.

Bill your comments are exactly what we are trying to achieve with staff at our place. Create a strong connection in their own lives first (bring 10 sites you like to & add these feeds to their aggregators) Try NOT to mention ICT, technology or computers much at all, even though thats what we are doing. Talk about their interests first and many of their other frustrations or fears are diminished.

Attitudes, not skills, are essential changes for them to see connections in their own lives first. Thats pretty much the way kids do it.
Thanks also for some workshop ideas for our connected learning conference in July.
cheers
Tony

Thanks for making this experience transparent. One of the struggles that I have in convincing people that a personal learning network—-and Twitter as a tool—is worth creating is providing concrete examples of how it can make one’s work easier and more efficient. That’s what you’ve done here.

Which brings me to a question about introducing teachers to digital tools: Do you think schools make a mistake when they try to push teachers to use tools in their teaching BEFORE encouraging teachers to use tools in their own learning?

Would our efforts to see digital tools creep into classrooms be better served on finding ways to help teachers do common tasks quickly in the hopes that we’d “hook” skeptics and that they would move on naturally to find classroom applications for the tools that have served them well?

I only ask because it seems like the majority of the conversations that are happening on the ground in schools are all centered on getting teachers to use tools in their teaching, yet despite years of pushing, there’s less change than you’d expect.

Bill