C4T #1

Mindmapping as a organizational tool was the message of @allonsdanser's blog, "Theories Mindmap", where she discussed how it can be used to organize and prioritize areas of a topic when the topic is either broad or if you need to break down the important areas of a topic. Her topic was Online Communication Framework for her dissertation and in order to fully understand this topic she needed to know information on many other topics so she created a mindmap to narrow down these other topics and gain focus on the direction she will take in understanding her topic.






How personal learning networks can be great support systems and offer a sense of community was the message of @allonsdanser's blog "PLNs and Learning Communities", where she reposted a comment she left in a online threaded discussion about the possibility of developing a sense of community in an online environment. She talks about how she has a very supportive network full of educators, information professionals and instructional designers who provide gentle criticism, great examples of how to learn, encouragement to continue to seek knowledge and the advice to not be afraid of failure. Her post could not have been more on time because I have been asking myself lately what exactly the purpose of a PLN is and she answered that question for me but I did ask her how I go about developing my personal PLN besides just following educators on Twitter or through their blogs.