A sketch or two
about the art teacher learning to become a teacher-librarian
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Connecting, discovering, learning...
one story, one sketch at a time!
Personal Learning Networks
and
Visual Literacy for Youth
Time to ponder...
“I think it’s the job of the artist to be in transition and constantly learn more.”
I have been in a period of major transition in recent years. Initially trained in visual arts and education, I left teaching due to family commitments for many years. Although it suited my needs at the time, my creative nature left me very restless, so I re-joined the teaching ‘trade’ on a casual basis and have thrown myself into my new studies of teacher-librarianship. Although in that time I lost touch with many educational developments, I have always maintained some connection with my visual arts. It is, without question, my passion! Reflecting on how I have maintained and developed my own visual arts learning, during this time, is certainly a good starting point to consider developing my learning into the future. As stated by Sharma & Monteiro, “reflection is learning to learn” (2012, p. 93) and so it was with this initial reflection that I began to analyse my learning strengths and weaknesses and define an area of interest for my personal learning network (PLN).
Reflective Commentary
The very nature of reflective practice in education requires us to analyse and challenge our beliefs, assumptions and practices (Brookfield as cited in Loughran, 2002). Prior to this study, I believed that I was a prolific learner but assumed that most of my learning happened without others. Indeed, most of my learning centred around reading (books, magazines) and viewing (art galleries, television programmes), however, when I could afford the time, I also immersed myself in highly-social learning by way of short courses and workshops. Seeking out and participating in these face-to-face (f2f) learning experiences reflected the active, self-directed and self-initiated approach that Oddone (2018) and Tour (2017) discuss as being needed capabilities in developing a rich personal learning network (PLN). So my personal learning network had a small kindling, even from early on. Learning in this social context achieved two things for me. Firstly, by connecting with others, I acquired new skills and was exposed to new ideas, driving my passion to learn and engage further in visual arts (Ito et al., 2013). Secondly, it enabled me to establish some authentic and resilient relationships with mentors and other peers through a shared purpose in our learning (Garcia et al., 2014). In reflection, these connections weren’t the only ones I made. Everything that I read and viewed gave me a connection to someone or something, they were just different types of connections. With people that I engaged with on a more regular basis, in these f2f situations, or extended the relationship online, strong ties were developed by forging relationships based on “trust and reciprocity” (Oddone, 2018). Moving forward in time to our digital, online world, Oddone (2018) stresses the need for us to understand the relevance of acquiring ‘strong and weak ties’. We learn from both types of ties and both are necessary in developing a rich PLN.
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Without question, my strength and interests will always remain with visual arts and continue to play a significant role in my teacher-librarian studies. My passion has aroused another significant area of interest for me in visual literacy (VL) which combines my love of visual arts, literacy and youth engagement. Beginning with a passion for something is the first essential ingredient in developing my own learning network (Richardson & Mancabelli, 2011). In an educational context, Australian curriculum dictates that students should be literate in a variety of texts including visual texts. Hence as a 21st century skill, visual literacy is on the agenda of many educational conversations. Visual literacy is, however, a specialised area, with less channels of information than other broader topics, so my initial explorations needed to be far reaching and diversified using the strength of many weak ties to begin with (Richardson & Mancabelli, 2011; Oddone, 2018). As well, by diversifying my exploration, this allows me to be exposed to a variety of knowledge and viewpoints and lessen the possibility of falling into an ‘echo chamber’ of sorts (Grimes, 2017 as cited in Oddone, 2018).
Trust describes a PLN as “a system of interpersonal connections and resources that support informal learning” (2012, p. 133). Furthermore, Oddone (2018) emphasises that this learning happens by way of interacting with others, suggesting that the connections are just a conduit to the learning that takes place. The value is within the interactions and relationships established within the PLN.
In mapping out my initial PLN in ‘Visual Literacy for Youth’, it was encouraging to not only examine a number of different platforms that my learning was occurring through but to see that my connections had some diversity. It is this diversity that will need to be expanded further to grow my PLN so that I can be extended and challenged (Dron and Anderson, 2014). Furthermore, without this process of mapping out my PLN, I may not have recognised that all of these connections were influencers in my learning. As my map illustrates, my interests in visual literacy were connected to visual texts such as picturebooks, graphic novels and interactive digital texts that influenced my connection to certain authors and illustrators and in turn, the people and establishments that review them. Additionally, there were established ties to visual art groups, both f2f and online, and ties to educational conversations that occasionally discussed the area of VL. Within this initial mapping of my PLN, both strong and weak ties could be identified. Significantly, it was important to recognise that my visual art and literacy / educational connections were, essentially, isolated from one another and the development of my PLN was in a foundational stage of initial exploration and growth (Bridgstock, 2017).
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Mixed media workshop image - Lisa Norris 2016
Initial Personal Learning Map (PLN) - Visual Literacy for Youth (Image created by Lisa Norris - author of blog in iMindMap)
Time to wander..
To develop strong and meaningful PLNs, Bridgstock (2017) outlines “connectedness capabilities” that include identity building, connection growth, strengthening stronger connections, interactions and collaborations in authentic contexts and developing professional roles and strategies. These progressive capabilities provided a strong framework for establishing a plan in the development of my PLN. Although, the evolution of my PLN had many ebbs and flows during this study, this is to be expected and will most certainly continue to shift back and forth in the future.
Before growing my PLN, it was necessary to establish my current and also consider my desired online identity so that I could maintain some control over my digital footprint and develop a strategy to improve my professional profile (Bridgstock, 2017) . In examination of my digital traces thus far, interaction with a wider online community, other than the occasional Facebook post or comment, was quite limited, however, I had a reasonable comprehension of online systems and their effects. My digital identity certainly lacked in professional interaction and could be best described as emerging as many of my connections remained ‘behind the scenes’ (Lupton, Oddone & Dreamson, (in press, 2018). Venturing further into engagement and discovery within my PLN, I was mindful to manage my projected self and develop my professional identity with quality and credible interactions (Lupton, Oddone & Dreamson, (in press, 2018; Ark & Aalgaard, 2014).
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The initial phase in developing my visual literacy PLN, saw a great deal of exploration and discovering of how to establish connections with others and navigate various social media platforms. Already having Facebook and Pinterest accounts, I was familiar with their formats, however, Twitter was a new avenue for learning and a whole other digital landscape that I would need to adjust to (Krutha, Carpenter & Trust, 2016). In the following weeks, my interaction within the Twitter platform resulted in exploring trusted ‘experts’ in my field, such as Dr Frank Serefini @doctorserefini and authors/illustrators such as Chris Riddell @chrisriddell50, that I had previously identified in other research. It was a pleasant surprise when Chris Riddell liked and retweeted two of my ‘playful’ posts that he was tagged in (see below). These moments not only gave me a positive boost in confidence, that I had made a connection I thought could perhaps never happen otherwise, it also made me realise the powerful nature of hashtags to facilitate direct contact with a huge diversity of other people and groups (Oddone, 2018). Using Tweetdeck and Twitter lists to organise my explorations, I began to follow other hashtags such as #visualliteracy and this allowed me to search for others in the field and for them to find me (Dron and Anderson, 2014). Serendipitous discovery of the movement ‘Visual Thinking Strategies’ (VTS) was only unearthed through the use of hashtags and the overlapping of interests from my connections (Dron and Anderson, 2014). The discovery of VTS later became pivotal in establishing deepened connections with the regional gallery who had only just begun to offer VTS practice sessions. Recognising patterns in relationships and connections and furthermore, conceiving how this learning can be linked and brought together, involves a reasonable degree of active processing and nurturing within your network and is vital to deepening professional relationships (Oddone, 2018).
Twitter Account - image by Lisa Norris
Screen shots of various tweets on my Tweetdeck feed @LisaNorris74
Time to explore further and build...
Further to my explorations on Twitter, I began joining groups, individuals and organisations associated with visual literacy on other social platforms, using digital technologies to facilitate more diverse learning opportunities (Selwyn, 2011; Xerri, 2014, as cited in Tour, 2017). At times, I extended my ‘lurking’ to engage in conversations with other educational and librarian connections so that my ‘connectedness capabilities’ could be extended and evolve (Bridgstock, 2017). During this time, I found many contacts that I had on one social media platform were also on others. Interestingly, despite being the same person or organisation, many of them represented themselves marginally different on each platform, perhaps to reach different target audiences or portray an online presence appropriate for that platform. Additionally, the use of personal or professional branding, through images and content, was evident across contacts that used multiple platforms, providing coherency to their identity and relaying a sense of trust to that secondary connection (Bridgstock, 2017). This branding coherency was what I endeavoured to echo in developing my own social platform accounts, using repeated images and titles as a visual anchor to my identity, thus portraying consistency and credibility in my projected self (Lupton, Oddone & Dreamson, (in press, 2018; Ark & Aalgaard, 2014)(see below).
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To build my professional confidence, I began to publish my own content through a blog, on visual literacy for youth, titled “The Illustrated Word”. I had also begun to curate my discovered readings and links on a Pinterest account, choosing this platform as it was familiar and the ‘visual format’ aligned with a ‘visual literacy’ context. My Pinterest curation not only allows me to stockpile my discoveries for asynchronous learning but it is a mighty search engine that suggests links to other curations and has the potential for much serendipitous discovery (Jarche, 2010; Bell, 2015). Using a reflective style blog allowed me to be able to synthesise my learning and give rise to my own ideas and concepts, it also enhanced the participatory opportunities to engage with others through commentary discussion. Increasing my interactions through blogging environments enables me to create and share content, thus, building my professional digital identity (Lupton, Oddone & Dreamson, (in press, 2018). In this more controlled environment, I have the ability to build an aesthetic, develop a voice that reflects my more professional self and it allows opportunity to introduce a variety of multimodal presentations which convey my visual content and visual strength (O’Sullivan, 2012). The quality of presentation found in blogs is somewhat more difficult to create on a social platform such as Facebook, however, the audience is much more receptive to interaction here. For this reason, I also created a Facebook page of the same name which allows me to diversify my voice and audience and provide links back to my blog when I post an article. Much consideration was given to using the same logo, name, and key words over multiple platforms to construct a more professional ‘brand’ and enhance the coherence of my digital identity (Bridgstock, 2017; Lupton, Oddone & Dreamson, (in press, 2018).
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People often express themselves and interact more in digital spaces that are familiar to them and where they feel most comfortable (Lupton, Oddone & Dreamson, (in press, 2018). Additionally, I wanted to invite in other audiences including primary teachers and parents to the conversation as they are, unquestionably, our children’s first visual literacy educators. So the intention of creating a Facebook page, was to allow for a social setting where many diverse learners, including myself, can feel at ease to share and interact in a safe space. The added advantage of Facebook is that relevant articles, images and links that I receive in my feed, from others that I follow in my PLN, can then be easily shared on my own site. This ‘sharing’ attribute can assist to develop and invite a diversity of conversations and audiences and allows me to act as an ‘information broker’ connecting communities of learners together (Forte, Humphreys & Park, 2012).
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Comparing, the two platforms (the web blog and the Facebook blog) shows the contrast in the overall content and voice that I have begun to develop and it also highlights the audience’s greater willingness to participate in more casual conversations. Posts, such as the one below, where posing a question that triggers happy memories, provides a much more intensive conversation than other more serious or scholarly posts. This post may not initiate a professional dialogue about visual literacy but it does connect a learning audience to participate in a conversation as it has low barriers of entry and is interest driven (Ito et al., 2013). Creating reciprocal conversation also allows trust to begin to form within the group thus making subsequent professional posts and dialogues more appealing. At this time, these blogs are still being cultivated, the professional conversations are still a rumble in the air and ‘the tribe’ is still assembling but spirits are high (Oddone, 2018).
To strengthen connections within my PLN and further develop my professional reputation, I experimented with other strategies that included developing both weak and strong ties and increasing interactions with a diversity of audiences (Bridgstock, 2017; Oddone, 2018). Contributing to other professional groups, that have a less direct relationship to your PLN but a larger audience, can provide opportunities for weak tie-strengthening and invite further, sometimes serendipitous, conversations. An example of this, above, was when I began a conversation with the closed Facebook group, ‘Future Ready Librarians’, about how wordless picturebooks were used in their schools. This opened up a robust conversation and saw many members contributing ideas and details about their practices to create a rich dispersal of expertise on the subject (Jones & Hafner, 2012 as cited in Tour, 2017). This sharing benefits the whole community as teachers may extend their informal learning to their students and communities (Trust, Krutka & Carpenter, 2016). By adding a link to my blog on the same topic, this also created an influx of views on my page, thus engaging new relationships in my PLN. At the same time, by commenting on another blog site where the author had also posted about the same topic of wordless picture books, a more personal conversation began (see below). This same person then visited my blog, commenting that I had opened up some ideas for her to explore. This author is now a follower of my blogs as I am of hers. These more intimate conversations, where closer interests align, have a greater potential to develop into stronger ties with ongoing, reciprocal professional benefits (Bridgstock, 2017; Oddone, 2018).
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"The Illustrated Word" - Web blog by Lisa Norris 2018
Screen shot of "The Illustrated Word" - Facebook Page - by Lisa Norris 2018
'Sharing' a post from another page "Children's Books Daily" in my PLN with discussion.
Facebook page linking back to blog site "The Illustrated Word" to allow for greater depth in multimodal presentation.
Post made on "Future Ready Librarians" Facebook page with link back to "The Illustrated Word's Web blog post.
"The Illustrated Word's" Facebook post and discussion.
Permission to publish from Carly Featherstone - 2018.
Time to look ahead...
Looking forward, my intentions are to refine and strengthen my networking practices, both in online and face-to-face situations, so as a balance in my professional and personal life can be achieved (Bridgstock, 2017; Richardson & Mancabelli, 2011). I am most excited about the prospect of engaging in VTS practice sessions with my regional gallery which was a result of my blog, that explores VTS, being discussed at a regional ‘Art Teacher’s Alliance’ meeting and a regional art gallery member being present. Through recent f2f professional and personal contact, including meetings, exhibition openings and artist book floor talks, I have selectively strengthened my relationships with staff at the gallery with the possibility of engaging in authentic co-creations delivering VTS sessions with primary school teachers and students (Bridgstock, 2017). This active participation, involving more complex online and f2f discussions and events, has strengthened my PLN ties and also opened up opportunities for my professional career (Bridgstock, 2017).
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Reflecting upon the progression of my personal learning network (see map here), the growth and additional connections, strongly visible between multiple platforms, communities and individuals in my map, “exemplifies [the] conceptualisation of a PLN as a holistic network”(Trust, Krutka & Carpenter, 2016). The most profound realisation is that, through rich networking and active relationship building, transformative changes have been made not only in my learning processes and practices but also my confidence to develop a professional voice (Baker-Doyle, 2017; Oddone 2018). In all pedagogical, personal and personal arenas, my technical approach of learning ‘content’ in general isolation has moved into a strong exploratory and participatory phase where my learning now mostly happens with others in reciprocal sharing and fluid learning environments (Oddone, 2018;Baker-Doyle, 2017). My learning is richer by learning with others.
As a ‘rural networker’ striving to ‘pioneer change’, using the affordances of social networking allows me the flexibility and cooperative freedoms to learn and contribute to my online PLN as suits my needs (Dron and Anderson, 2014; Oddone, 2018). Yet without bringing that learning back into the community, the effort of developing the PLN seems wasted. The reward of my PLN, certainly for me, comes in the form of creating authentic interactions that encompass both online and f2f relationships and creates value for my community (Oddone, 2018).
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Additional blog post with artefact #1
Additional blog post with artefact #2
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References (not able to be hyperlinked to source)
Lupton, M., Oddone, K. & Dreamson, N. (in press 2018). In R. Bridgstock & N. Tippett (Eds.), Higher Education and the Future of Graduate Employability: A Connectedness Learning Approach. London, UK: Edward Elgar.
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Link to Visual Literacy Home Page - with further links to "The Illustrated Word" sites
Developed Personal Learning Map (PLN) - Visual Literacy for Youth (Image created by Lisa Norris - author of blog in iMindMap)
Comments and responses from Susan Stephenson at "The Book Chook" and Lisa Norris (self). Open web blog post titled "Book Chook Favourites - Wordless Picture Books", April 19, 2017.
Comments and responses made on web blog post "Picture Books and Visual Literacy" at "The Illustrated Word".