Abstract
This paper is a practical plan of creating a Personal Learning Network, which is to contribute to my learning in the field, which is completely new for me. For example, I have chosen a field of space exploration. Since the speed of information increases, and most of the books are available in electronic sources, there comes a time when the effectiveness of education in any university or other institution almost equals to creating a Personal Learning Network, which enables you to keep track of all important information straight from decision makers and specialists in the field as well as configure network contacts with like-minded people in order to learn together. In this paper, the goal is to organize a network of different social networks accounts and establish their interaction.
According to the chosen field of study, I am interested to get first-hand information, both in the field of theoretical physics, basic flight vehicles design and cosmos biology as well as to become aware of the details of modern space exploration projects. My goal is to gain knowledge, to make contact, maybe get a job with the field. Because at this stage my level of knowledge allows me only deal with the popularization of the idea of space exploration, it will be the main focus of my posts in social media. Thus it will be desirable to start getting to know people in a similar situation and share our knowledge and experience with each other. As for applying for the job, appropriate aims are finding a newly founded start-up team engaged in neighboring activity or getting a job in the PR department of a big company. The latter is possible with the availability of needed knowledge and skills in the field of PR.
I will create multiple accounts in social networks. In the first place I will turn attention to Twitter, Facebook, Quora. Since I possess limited knowledge in the field and no working experience at all, I believe creating a LinkedIn account to be unnecessary. Twitter is good because it gives you the opportunity to follow famous people without resorting to traditional procedure of friend request as in Facebook. As well as it gives us an opportunity to follow randomly found users in case their news feed is interesting to us (Thompson, 2010). Using Twitter I can instantly notify my followers about activity I am engaged in so that they can join us if they are interested in the topic.
Facebook is needed to communicate with people, who share our interests. Using Facebook I can create different virtual groups as for different real existing groups of people sharing the same interest. In case we assembled to learn together, we can use the common chat to exchange ideas, assign tasks to each other, to discuss debatable issues. We can also split the fundamental theoretical information into logical chunks, each of them will be learn by someone and then prepared as a short presentation. This way of study reduces the time spent on covering the theory as well as adds additional value of working in a team, which lacks in case of working alone. I am talking about a kind of brainstorm activity, when concepts and rule discussed together are easier and faster to comprehend. Also, specific applications of these rules of theories can be found; the greater amount of people, the greater possibility exists.
Quora allows establishing contacts with people who are well versed in the aspect, but still are unknown to greater audience. If I have good ideas to share, or know the right answer to somebody's question, I will answer it. Quora is a rather sympathetic resource, as it brings together people who gain knowledge and those willing to help others get them. Quora present a perfect primary resource for finding colleagues as the users, which are using the service are originally interested in learning this or that field of knowledge. By showing your knowledge in the field or desire to get it, you can get in touch with Quora users, which generally have other social media accounts, and continue communication with them on Facebook or Twitter. They may be interesting people with ideas common to mine. I can either affiliate to their project or propose them to enter mine. In any circumstance, their news and activity feeds on Twitter and Facebook may turn out to be valuable resources of knowledge and up-to-date information.
Also, in the subsequent stages of my works, I will have to create my blog. I will use it for the purpose of publishing my ideas or essays with higher resolution pictures. But this will be possible when I accumulate preliminary knowledge and when I am able to create my own ideas. The blog will be predominantly used for informative and status purposes. All of the social networks I decided to create will have the same name and a good distinguishable photo (Grantham, 2012). I am going to put links to my other profiles in each social media platform as well as fill in the interest field with appropriate information, among which will be mentioned space exploration. I also need to create my own specific hashtag when posting about my own ideas (Dunn, 2013).
Whom should I follow?
The first person I'll include in personal learning network is Elon Musk. He has an account on twitter. In June 2002, Musk founded his third company SpaceX. SpaceX is a private developer of a series of launch vehicles and commercial space operators. Musk is currently its CEO and chief engineer. Up-to-date, the company has developed two types of partially reusable launch vehicles: Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 and reusable spaceship Dragon. SpaceX has billion contracts with NASA for usage of Falcon launch vehicles and Dragon spacecraft to the ISS as a replacement for the Space Shuttle program after the termination of their launch in 2011. Musk aims to reduce the cost required for manned space in 10 times. With these objectives Musk founded SpaceX invested in it $ 100 million of the money earned from the sale of his previous companies. It seems to me that this person can be source of learning not only in the business sphere, but also in motivation. His twitter feed is not only informative in terms of theoretical information, also it will give me an update on projects SpaceX and other projects in the field of space. It is important to note that Elon Musk has set itself two little overlapping goals: to make money and not to give up the idea, importance of which is still far from clear to everyone. He did it. That's why if we want to get seriously engaged in work in this field, we have to convince people why this is important. Musk is a specialist in the popularization of space projects by business means.
I can hardly name such a well-known and successful man working in a highly specialized niche where it is still difficult to monetize earnings in scales comparable with traditional business and yet succeeds. His success is the reason why many people know his name, and why I cannot ignore putting his name in my list.
The second person I would like to add to my twitter following list is Bobak Ferdowsi. He works in another important organization that is involved in the process of learning space and the possibility of settling other planets. In this case, the conversation is not about how to use the resources in terms of business level efficiency and do self-sustainable projects. But NASA has progress in the strategic projects as in 2012 they were able to land the Curiosity Rover on Mars. This achievement will allow us to know the surface of Mars. Bobak is engaged in robotics, a subject that will play a key role in space exploration. Robots will explore the planet in search of suspected water supplies, measure temperature, pressure, gravity and other parameters necessary for calculating the possibility of our settlement on this or that planet. I saw Bobak during a live broadcast from the control center of Curiosity rover, when the last landed on Mars August 6, 2012 (Dunbar, 2012). I remembered the original hairstyle. Not long ago I started to follow his twitter. Learning that he regularly writes and gives interviews, I followed him.
A third man, whose twitter I would follow and whose column on space and science on NBC I would constantly read, would be Alan Boyle. He is a popular journalist who writes regularly on the topic of space exploration, and physics. I stumbled on him among the Bobak Ferdowski's following list. Acquainted with his articles, I found out them to be rather understandable, and most importantly, informative. I included him because a systematic review of the events written in simple language is just what I need.
The fourth man, whom I would follow, is Phil Plait. I detected him apart from all the rest. I searched in Google for top blogs on space exploration. Through one of the sites I found out about his project, which he founded in 1998, called Badastronomy (Bad Astronomy). His main idea was to popularize science in society through debunking well-known and little-known myths about science and space in particular. He also appears frequently in scientific documentary films, such as How the Universe Works. His accent on the myths and common mistakes is extremely important for a person who is just beginning to explore this area, it is crucial to secure from possible errors.
Previous 4 people were direct executors, from which it was possible to learn the details of their operation. Mask reveals information on the improvement of cargo delivery into orbit aimed at launching reusable rockets, and while Bob Ferdowski reveals new data from Curiosity mission on Mars. Alan Boyle and Phil Plait give more popular information about science and space in general. To keep abreast of developments and be able to apply the knowledge in practice I need to be aware not only of fundamental knowledge, but also in the course of technological development. That's why I need a resource that would inform me about all sorts of technological innovation and innovation in the broadest sense, including robotics, artificial intelligence and new types of energy (cold fusion). These communities can be found in the list of Elon Musk. They have a name Techmeme and Ars Technica. Their aim is to highlight the events that occurred in the world of technology, writing analytical articles and reviews, stories about new applications for Android and iStore, as well as major investments and market dynamics. In my opinion, the best option for maintaining a general understanding of what is happening.
Using the mentioned above primary 5 social resources I can not only get necessary information but found other valuable resources in the way I found Alan Boyle through Bobak Ferdowski’s account. When my level of knowledge is high enough to produce my own ideas in the sphere, I can use the listed above resources to promote my ideas, get feedback on them or even to get acquainted with those famous people.
Works cited
Grantham, N. (2012, April 17). 5 steps to building a healthy PLN with Twitter [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.fractuslearning.com/2012/04/17/pln-twitter/
Dunbar, B. (2013, February 6). Bobak Ferdowsi, MSL Flight Engineer and NASA's 'Mohawk Guy' Retrieved December 9, 2014, from http://www.nasa.gov/connect/artspace/creative_works/feature-bobak-ferdowsi.html
Bad Astronomy. (n.d.). Retrieved December 9, 2014, from http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy.html
Dunn, J. (2013, July 10). 10 simple ways to build your personal learning network [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.edudemic.com/10-simple-ways-to-build-your-personal-learning-network/
Thompson, S. (2012, May 20). Personal learning networks (PLN) 101: Twitter [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://technologyembedded.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/twitter-101/
