Flow of Information In Communities

In         In Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach's "The Connected Educator" it proposed that "connected learning communities" are a more superior way to gather information in a professional setting. The chapter "Developing a Connected Learning Model" focused toward teachers and how the theory laid out could benefit the efficiency of the teachers information gathering along with optimizing the way students learned.  

                 Chapter 2 revolved around three concepts; "professional learning community" the general interactions had in a certain environment, such as teachers talking back and forth about how best to get a certain topic across to the students in a meaningful fashion. The science field I will be entering, the laboratory staff and research teams will be my professional learning community. Going to regular meetings regarding the next project's topics could also be included. "Personal learning networks" the information an individual in said group gathers and injects into the environments communal knowledge but intended for an individuals growth, for example taking a webinar class on a new field of microbiology that I think could benefit my laboratory performance. Then a colleague might pick up on the procedures I learned. The last concept discussed being "communities of practice", basically this is places where niches of information can be accrued around a certain topic, for example I make recurve bows as a hobby. I researched how to make the presses for them, how to make sure the bow is bending correctly, so on and so forth from online forums where others shared their expertise. I find critiques on their way of tilling and post it on the forum. These forums were communities of practice, locations where people input information and communicate topics to grow the niche's information.

Citations,

S. Nussbaum-Beach's “Developing a Connected Learning Model .” The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age, Solution Tree Press, 2012, pp. 25–44.