Jeff Utecht at The Thinking Stick has just posted an excellent reflection on the similarities between blogging and Critical Friends Groups (CFG) or Professional Learning Communities (PLC).
I’ve been involved in CFG and PLC work for the past four and a half years (and am also a trained CFG Coach) and I do believe that the online edublogging community is a form of CFG or PLC. Those of you who read my blog from time to time are aware that I frequently will post on topics that I have discussed in one of the “physical” CFG or PLC groups that I meet with — and I post on those topics because I’ve learned that the online community works in a very similar way to the physical groups in pushing the thinking and learning much deeper.
Additionally, CFG and PLC work is all about transparency of our work and I have found that blogging has caused me to become even more transparent in my work than when I was/am involved in face-to-face CFG and PLC groups.
Jeff makes the best point in his final paragraph —
The edublogosphere is very much a professional learning community. Is it better than a CFG? Can it do more? Be more reflective, more powerful to the blogger? I think that depends on the blogger and his or her comfort level with being open and honest on the web. Being able to put your ideas out there…to feel safe enough or be reflective enough to allow others to criticize one’s work. To be able to take comments, even ones that are not positive as feedback, as a way to further one’s understanding is what professional learning communities are all about whether in person or in the blogosphere.
Whether in person or online — trust, comfort, and safety are ingredients that are essential to the learning of the individuals within the group. I believe we can say that this is true for our classrooms as well.
From the moment that I started interacting with other edubloggers I have viewed this activity as a “learning community” on the same level as, and with the same degree of importance as, the physical CFGs and PLCs in which I participate offline.
So — for all of you who read, post, and comment — thank you for the dialogue and the collaborative learning. 
Change Agency by Stephanie Sandifer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. You may copy, distribute, transmit and/or remix this content for noncommercial uses as long as you attribute the work to Stephanie Sandifer (with link back to the original post) and agree to license the work under the same or similar license.
