Would you consider about building an online personal teaching network even when you are not a teacher?

I  love one old saying "a best way to learn is by teaching others". I think this also reflects the idea of sharing with others, and collaborative learning. When we share our knowledge with others, we always pay attention to the accuracy and comprehensiveness of it. Every time I feel bored at a lesson or topic I am learning about, I will try to imagine how I will imitate the teacher’s teaching strategy like interesting examples in order to teach my future students. When I think in that way, I will focus on the lesson or topic, and think deeply about it. 

This is why I like the concept of “Building an online personal teaching network”. You can check it by the below picture. Even though I am now a student, I sometimes try to view myself as a teacher especially when I design an online course as an intern or research assistant. So I would try to build my personal teaching and learning network at the same time. 

I think the concept of “building an online personal teaching network (PTN)” is related to the topic “OpenCourse Ware” in this week. Those open courses have been developed by individual teachers in various fields. If each of us allow anyone to be connected with our teaching network, then anyone can learn from our teaching materials, resources, and even connections. Imagine if I am connected with a famous and fabulous teacher like Vanessa in my PTN, others can check Vanessa’s PTN, and then find more useful learning resources. Right?

Siemens proposed that Connectivism is considering Learning as Network Creation (2005). He again claimed “The capacity to know is more critical than what is actually known” (Siemens, 2008, para. 6). In other words, it is of importance to know about which network where we can find information we are interested.

In a nutshell, I think building an online personal teaching network and learning network is worthy, and one part of OCW movement.