Learning in a Connected Age...

…requires that we share our knowledge. That is why organizations need to encourage blogging, social networking, and collaboration.

When I began teaching in the early 1990′s I learned about best practices from inservices and my immediate colleagues. Occasionally, I would read a book that contained pearls of wisdom for the classroom teacher, but for the most part my ability to access knowledge of my profession was limited and controlled by where I taught.

Since the dawn of the internet, and more recently the social web, I have been able to transform my teaching in ways that were impossible prior to the free and easy access of information that the social web provides. I now gain most of my knowledge of best practices from my professional learning network, which has had the added benefit of motivating me to be an even better teacher. I am now free to learn from educators all over the world at any time of the day.

This freeing up of information is why organizations need to embrace blogging and the voice of their employees. It can be a transformative and motivational act for organizations to “lose control”.

image source:

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/925147