Creative Expression

I chose to continue the metaphor of plants to represent my creative expression explaining communities of practice, personal learning networks, and connectivism.

All of the plants in the video are from my front yard and backyard garden. Similar to how our own personal learning networks feed us, my plants are fed through external resources as well. They receive assistance from the sun, water, either via drip lines or gray water, and nutrients in the soil. I also feed them once a year at the beginning of the season. Using their personal learning network, the plants continue to grow, bloom, and bear fruit. The plants also give resources and support the surrounding environment. "A PLN involves an individual's topic-oriented goal, a set of practices & techniques aimed at attracting and organizing a variety of relevant content sources, selected for their value, to hep the owner accomplish a professional goal or personal interest" - D. Warlick

The plants are all connected via the drip lines and they all share the same soil; some plants are also connected to my house through the kitchen sink's gray water. The plant roots in the front yard are connected by one type of soil where the plant roots in the backyard are connected through a more fertile soil to help them grow and flourish. The plants are also connected to the environment benefitting all, they are, ".....comprised of two or more nodes linked in order to share resources" (Downes 2008). The birds, bees, and butterflies help to fertilize the flowers. The small critters eat the fruit and fertilize things in their own way elsewhere.

Similar to Communities of Practice, care has been taken not to plant an invasive species, such as mint, next to tomatoes. All of my plants have been placed in groups with common interests. My plants in the front work together with the common interest of holding back the soil and spreading to cover more ground. Even though all of the creepers are different varieties, they are "a group of engineers working on similar problems" (Wenga circa 2007). My plants in the backyard work with specific groups too. Almost all of the plants in the back are specific to growing food for our family. All of the plants whether in the front or the back have a specific domain, "It has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest. Membership therefore implies a commitment to the domain....." (Wenger c 2007).


Resources:
Wenger, Etienne (c 2007) ‘Communities of practice. A brief introduction’. Communities of practice [http://www.ewenger.com/theory/. Accessed January 14, 2009].

Kop, Rita & Hill, Adrian (2008) Connectivism: learning theory of the future or vestige of the past?http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/523/1103

Sheninger, Eric. Anytime PD.  Personal Learning Networks.  https://sites.google.com/site/anytimepd/home