Networking & Connectivism

When looking at all of my networks, I am amazed. There are so many connections and these aren’t even all of them. There isn’t enough room, or after I posted I continued to think of even more.

            I have three main networks: People, Social Media, and Businesses. With people, I mainly put all those that I come into contact with through my everyday life such as: teachers, coaches, former teachers (the ones I had in school) and one that I did not put on there should be students. I learn quite a lot from my students. Next would be social media. I included FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Blogs. With FaceBook, I am connected to the people that I not only come into contact with on a daily basis but also those who I talk to occasionally. They do the same towards me as well. We ask each other questions when needed and we all are more than happy to answer.  With Twitter and Blogs, I am connected to many experts on education technology and writing. I can “tweet” them and I will receive replies to answer my questions or at least a direction where to go to find my answer.  When I look at the Business side of this mind map of networking, I see those businesses that I have been apart of in my life. However, there are so many more businesses out there that I have network capabilities with that I did not include.

            When I was a child, the world seem so big but now, it seems so small and so easily accessible. If I need to talk to someone across the world, I can get on the Internet into a chatroom and ask my questions. When I was learning Spanish, I would Skype with people from Spain from the college I went to for study abroad.  Also, I am very accessible by others through my social networking. Any one can reach me (well within my security measures) which I never really thought too much about. This allows me to continue learning even when not in a traditional classroom. The 21^st century technology has arrived and is going far beyond my expectations.