Week 2: Michelle's weekly report and reflection

Ever wonder where you will be?

I know I do! Currently I am in my last year at Brock University studying community health. Once I graduate, however, I am not too sure where I will be in 5, or even 10 years. I wonder if I will work in a profession similar to what I am studying, or if I will be doing something completely different. Who knows? Ideally I would like to graduate and get my degree in community health, then get a diploma in Occupational therapy assistants. But I know that will take time, money and patience to complete and honestly, I do not know if I can. Its hard thinking about the future when you are currently so overwhelmed with your current school status, money status and a love status. 

One thing I found that helped me to start to get on track with my future is something called a PLE, personal learning environment.

A PLE?

Langill M. (CC) 2016.

Sounds interesting right? A PLE is a system that can help you learn, take control and manage your own learning and life! It is kind of like you are your own teacher. I found myself getting overwhelmed with thinking about the future: "what will I do after I graduate? I am going to go back to school? If I go back to school, which school would I go to? Can I even afford going back to school?".  But then, in my adult education class, we began discussion this PLE learning system. I learned that It could help me on my path towards a descent future. The picture you see above is just one example of what a PLE can look like. The way I made mine is based off of the model "map of tools" by Drexlers. At the core of this diagram is "networking tool". This incorporates a list of tools that I can help me get organized and help me answer my concerns.

 For instance  one of my concerns is "If I go back to school, where would I go to?". By looking at my graph I can lead myself from networking tools, to collaborating and socializing to questions and finally to google, where I can search schools that offer programs that I am interested in! I can even lead myself form networking tools to collaborating and socializing to communication to facebook, tumbler etc, where I can search peoples experiences at schools and can get connected to my PLN (Lalonde, C. (2012, August 10). Twitter, PLEs, and PLNs [Blog Post].)
(do not worry I will Briefly explain what a PLN is shortly)! Or another example, one of my concerns is "can I afford going back to school?". I can lead myself from networking tools, to organizing content, to note taking, then to Microsoft word where I can keep track of my finances and see if I could or could not afford going back to school.

Looking at my PLE, it is not the best ever made. Of course it could use some tweeking here and there but that is the beauty of it. You can change it, modify it and make your PLE better and better fit you and you're learning habits/ searching habits.  Perhaps as I age or become more experienced I will have more search engines rather than simply having "google" as my go to website.Or perhaps as I learn more about what a PLE can consist of, my own PLE will evolve! It is exciting to know that i can make it the way I want.

PLN

This is a personal learning network. This is a way to connect with people for the specific intent to learn something! Get it?  Awesome

Now that I have shown you what a PLE and PLN are, lets take a 180 degree turn and teach you about something else that is great to know. Ever heard of a word cloud? If you haven't well you are in for a creative surprise!

Word cloud

Langill M. (CC) 2016.

This is such an awesome thing that I learned in my class! It is an image that you can create yourself to promote something that you have done. For example, I have created my first blog, so of course I want people to read my blog. But how can I get people to read my blog? Well how about I start with this creative, fun thing! Without having to go out and tell people to read my blog or tell them what it is about this captures the essence of what I am trying to say by grabbing the words that were most often used. 

As you can see on the right hand side there is a greenish yellow picture with tones of words on it. When I first look at it I see the word " DIGITAL" and "INTERNET" and "FACEBOOK". These words capture the audiences attention and gives them an idea of what my blog will talk about. What is particularly awesome about this word cloud is that you can change to size of the words depending on what you want to be the main focus. So, instead of having "DIGITAL" as my largest word, I could have had "ETIQUETTE" as the focal point. To top it all off, you can change the background colors and word colors depending on what type of mood you are trying to portray. I, for instance, am trying to portray a mood of happy and fun!

I love this! I encourage anyone who wants to promote a product to use this, or just anyone who likes to be creative to take a go at this awesome "activity". 

Final thoughts 

Just remember if you are having trouble learning or getting information just look at your PLE and converse with you PLN to help you out. It is guaranteed to be helpful! And if you are looking for a cool way to get peoples attention, well think about creating a word cloud.

Have a good weekend!
Cheers.