Random thoughts…

The new academic year is about to start, and I need to start working on some ideas which might help researchers and PhD students enhance their Personal Learning Networks. My purpose is to give them a different perspective of the Internet, beyond email exchanges and content search. During last year’s workshop, I realized that a fair amount of our PhD community is still quite conservative when it comes to using the web in a more interactive way. I am sure if a study was conducted several factors would emerge as reasons why the researchers present different opinions about using the web to enhance their academic activity. I would guess that from discipline specific research culture, their role models’ practice, nature of the research, to fear of opening up their unpublished ideas to a bigger, strange world, might be amongst the reasons pointed out.

Not being part of the online world does not exclude them from their research circles, but equally doesn’t give them the opportunity to enhance their professional network through different channels. The web they can extend one’s connections way beyond of what the institution traditionally may offer as networking possibilities. Actually, I am not even sure if the institution as such has ever consider that to be a crucial, and influential, aspect of their staff’s career and development. Or better put, they might, but that is something that is not visibly expressed in their criteria. The researcher however might feel the need to discuss with his/her peers about research related topics. Those who have well established networks know who to go to, those who don’t – and here I am referring especially to young career researchers, who, for that same reason, might still not have gather enough experienced in the field to cultivate a sustainable network around them might find t more difficult to find people interested in their area who they can consult with. That for me is a key issue of my learning and research: to be exposed to different opinions, perspectives, experiences… And I know that connecting only with the researchers and practitioners in my local whereabouts is just not enough, as there aren’t that many. Hence, I see my participation online as a passport to a more ‘global’ perspective, which I can have access to almost immediately, and often in times for free. And yes, that is also important, because as a student money is not abundant, and going to conferences or take part in many kind of research activities cost amounts of money many students are often not able to spare. That is therefore also another plus of the web in my own experience.

I can experience learning in meaningful groups for free and independently of any institutional provision. The tools are there free of charge. My willing to connect to a wider world is also there. My enthusiasm to participate is not connected to any certificate and that usually frees up my mind to focus on what is more relevant: my learning rather then any external quantification of it. And so that freedom to connect, to choose where, when and with whom to network is, for me, the added value of cyberworld.