Aaron Carpenter's blog

Part of the problem in today’s digital age is that there is almost too much information out there for us to be able to absorb. The challenge lies in being able to filter and distill down the information that is pertinent to our long-term learning growth. The way we can do that is to create a learning network. This network, to borrow a term in the reading, is a connection of nodes. Each node represents people or information sources that are trusted by the user. The nodes are beneficial as they provide the filtering ability we need to separate what we need to learn from all the digital noise that is pestering us for attention.

As a learning design student it is of premier importance that we choose the proper tools to best maximize our learning potential. Choosing these tools requires research and there is not one size fits all approach.  Each person has their own learning style and they need to choose the tools that best fit. For instance, if one were primarily a visual learner then sources that include video (ex: Youtube) would be wisely chosen.

Another point is to select a variety of different learning tools. If the user only selects one type of tool (ex: RSS feeds) they can miss out on knowledge that can only be available via another source. Granted, there is some crossover and services such as Twitter can be a great way to keep abreast of a variety of topics and types, but it’s never safe to put all yours eggs in one basket.