Chapter 6 - Building Your Connected Learning Community

   

    Chapter 6 of The Connected Educator was titled Building Your Connected Learning Community. This chapter was about building a personal learning network and strategies to be successful in doing so. It is very important in many professions if not all to have a strong personal learning network as in these times, we are constantly changing with an evolution of increasing information. There is no one being that knows all things and for that reason sharing information amongst one another in a diverse community allows us to build and learn from different ideas, ideologies, and information from many sources who share the same goals and aspirations in their professional development. A personal learning network becomes a source of intelligence and connection within a network. Utilization of basic tools, such as Twitter, which is now known as X, Flickr, and Delicious were all examples of useful social networks that can help build a strong personal learning network.

    It is not easy building a connected learning community or personal learning network and will take a lot of time and perseverance, but in the end will be worth it. In chapter 6, there is a series of tables and designs for developing a strong and knowledgeable connected learning community as it is imperative to building a healthy community. As these communities are established will begin to evolve and adapt to the needs of the personal learning network and the community members involved. All groups traditionally consist of the leader, but it is up to community members to share information as well as this will create a more valuable source for content. Allowing others to thrive by having a plethora of information to feed off of. Community members must prioritize and find balance as this will create a more authentic connected learning experience there is a list of rules and responsibilities necessary for the community members involved in these personal learning networks and are described as linking, lurking, learning, and leading, and can be found in chapter 6 in a more defined manner.

    The development of a strong connected learning community and personal learning network is extremely significant in the field of chiropractic. A chiropractor should be connected to many chiropractors, and chiropractic schools with faculty and students to share techniques, business ideas, marketing skills, patient techniques, front office, inspiration, and much more. The chiropractor is freestanding from a medical doctor but this doesn't mean they don't have an immense amount of respect for the medical doctor, they do. They just have a completely different ideology based on natural healing instead of medicine. With that being said, they must come together as a community and utilize the technological tools that have been listed in this chapter to excel and share their information with each other. Allowing the single chiropractor to function in a more joint chiropractic experience worldwide as a working unit serving the same purpose. The purpose of a chiropractor is to restore motion to the 24 movable vertebra of the spine, ensuring there is no pressure on the spinal cord, and in return, no interference within the nervous system allowing communication from the brain to the rest of the body to flow freely. By doing so the body will function at its optimal capabilities and regulate the body chemistry accordingly, opening up the doors for a more natural experience without external medication or inhibitors that might not be necessary. All chiropractors must understand that by creating a strong personal learning network they can grow together and uniformly serve their communities as a whole. 

Reference: 

Nussbaum-Beach, S., & Hall, L. R. (2012). The connected educator: Learning and leading in a Digital age. Solution Tree Press.