Personal Learning Network

Admittedly, I've been spending more time on the final project than I have on the personal learning network. I think that's very much due to the fact that I have been online for so long and have been participating in networks that lead to learning in some way or another for nearly half my life.

Twitter was interesting to use for a professional reason instead of a non-productive utterly fictitious way (though, I'm not going to stop sending tweets out for Gandalf... he's much too popular to give that up...) I did find some interesting tidbits through the professional twittering that goes on.

It was really more through the project that I was engaging in more social networking this week, and specifically while using Akoha. For what I tend to do personally online, I usually network with one of three groups:

1. people I work with who are playing Mafia Wars and need an extra person

2. people I used to go to high school with... who are also playing Mafia Wars

3. people likely to read Gandalf's tweets

Through Akoha, I was networking with.. other people with very random interests. But the site itself doesn't just attract everyone, it attracts the sort of person with the enthusiasm and awareness of community to take on the tasks on the site. It means you don't get someone suddenly blurting out 'a/s/l?' or sending images that look like they were taken in a brothel. (Huh, I can't believe I used the word brothel in a writing assignment...)

The point is, while the connections were made for very random reasons (omg, I love snapping turtles! i'm friending you!), they were sometimes leading to deeper conversations and going off in tangents and just generally become a learning experience for both parties, one of communication, cultural awareness, and in some cases discussion and debate.

So that's where I ended up. Not sure if I really did things 'right' this week or not, but for what it's worth, I've been enjoying it.

And now to go reward myself with coconut pudding and check the basement (because I shall be forever paranoid since Thursday flooding). I know, I know, here's this silly stuff no one cares about, but I'm just too used to this sort of blather at the end. There's no icon for me to pick, no music to input, no emoticon to add...