Reflections of – the way life used to be….

Neurons in the brain

… much simpler!  

     In many ways, this class seems to have flown by so quickly. The weekly scramble to write something meaningful (at least to me) in my blog, reading everyone else’s blog entries and commenting on the one’s where I felt I had something to contribute, commiserate with,  or could encourage a fellow classmate.  I hope my fellow classmates realize that if I didn’t comment on your blog, it wasn’t because I didn’t enjoy it – there were many blogs I learned a lot from – but because I didn’t feel I could add anything of substance to the discussion that wasn’t already there. However, in looking back over the material we have covered and my weekly responses to it, I can see I have gained a lot of new knowledge and skills which will benefit my teaching practice as well as my day-to-day life.  The learning curve seemed more like a vertical line at times, but somehow we all persevered and made it – and I credit the help from Alec, Bettina and my fellow classmates for that!

 

As I mentioned in my first blog, I really knew nothing about social media when we started this class. I am a private person and was also concerned about privacy issues.  This class was going to be a challenge. However, I soon realized (blogs 2, 4, 5) that I needed to learn how to stay current with what my students were doing to reach them effectively, develop a community of learning and teach them how to use properly use the tools - I had no idea how many different tools were available for social networking or why people were involved.

 

Using the Tools  

I agree with Amy that Google Reader was a lifesaver! I am very grateful for this application as it really helped keep track of everyone’s blogs and other feeds I liked to follow and see when they were updated so I didn’t have to keep checking each one individually. It’s a keeper! I haven’t been making very much use of delicious, but I am monitoring the ECI831 feed from it in Google Reader .  I’ll need more time to explore it before I can decide how useful it will be for me – I have 100′s of bookmarks for places I want to explore, but haven’t had the time. I’m enjoying my blogging – it is a great way to reflect and discuss issues from class and share about other issues of importance.  Thanks for all the helpful advice Sue, especially about linking and pingbacks! I have also discovered that YouTube has actual educational videos and lectures  and not just thousand’s of videos of people finding ways to injure their groins or show off stupid pet tricks…  I loved our session on digital storytelling (blog 8) and being exposed to many of the ways people are sharing their stories. I will definitely be exploring these tools farther to see which of them will benefit my learners the most and I will be using the Shining,  Scary Mary and Story of a Sign as examples of how the mood or the message of a story can be shaped. A tool I am just beginning to find useful is Twitter.  At first, I just didn’t understand how it could be useful – a constant stream of possibly interesting data or comments from others whom I could choose to follow. OK – I didn’t know who to follow, had no idea how to find someone interesting to follow, and I didn’t want to have a constant stream of distracting information which would cause me the same problems as I had with the class backchannel. However, I recently made use of it to try connect with other math teachers who may have a use for my final project (blog 18), and I think I need to consider using Twitter and Twibes to expand (or begin to create)  my personal learning network.  I haven’t had the time to explore customized search engines, but when I do, I will.

 Intriguing Ideas 

As much as I struggled with some of the ideas presented in this course, there were many ideas that I wouldn’t have thought of on my own and I’m glad they came up. The importance of social media (blog 4); the role of the teacher of the future in teaching of, the tools for, and responsible use,  promotion and filtering of online learning (blogs 5, 6, 10, 12, 17)  all have had an impact on the way I view learning online.  The discussion on filtering in this class has really opened my eyes to some of the issues and implicit messages we send in our schools by filtering what our learners view. 

I really appreciated the open education lecture and the exposure to the Creative Commons. Now I can find media to use in my presentations without violating copyright laws. By choosing the appropriate filter in Flickr of Google Images, it is very simple to find a wealth of images.  

Professional Practice 

Now for the big question, how will all of this effect my professional practice? Well, to answer bluntly, as much as I’m allowed to under the conditions I work under and my classroom setting. I became more aware of my “old school” teaching habits after last weeks class on the power of sharing given by Dean Shareski (Blog 17). I know I will be implementing many more activities in which my learners will be working together or at least sharing their work, thoughts and opinions – whether we are online, or just in the classroom setting. After our session on LOLcats by Stephen Downes, I will also monitor how much I am focusing my instruction on tools and content and make sure to include to importance and/or the context of the material we are exploring (Blog 16). I will become an advocate for less filtering and guide my learners in discovering appropriate use of social media and the net, how this may change depending on the situational context and what personal responsibility they have (blog 12).  I have a small advantage over some here – I teach in an adult educational setting so our access to the net is not filtered quite as heavily as a regular school system’s would be. However, this can cause additional problems because adults are used to doing, and viewing, whatever they want when they want. It does make for interesting discoveries (and discussions) on occasion… J. I have become more tolerant of facebook – but not during class time (unless we do a class project). I think the biggest change for me is the new awareness of the tools available on the net, the opportunities for learning provided by social media and the value of open education. I must admit I was sceptical when I started this course, but I seem to have been able to overcome many of my concerns. I feel I have participated in this class more fully than I have with any other class I have taken as part of my post-graduate work. As I mentioned above, the learning curve was steep, but as the class moved (raced) along, I became more and more comfortable with the tools, concepts, and that pesky idea of sharing… Not bad for an old introvert if I do say so myself. 

 So long and thanks for all the fish….  

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Chinese proverb.  – The International Thesaurus of Quotations, ed. Rhoda Thomas Tripp, p. 76, no. 3 (1970).  

 To Alec, Bettina, and all my classmates – thanks for a great learning experience and all you have taught me! This class will have a lasting and continuing effect on both my personal and professional lives. I’m sure I’ll run into you online on occasion, and hope we can all collaborate to improve the use of social media and open education within our schools.  

 Take care!  

 Greg  

 Note: I tried to create clip marks for the reference links to my blog entries in my post, but I experienced MUCH technical difficulty. So, instead of launching my system onto the lawn, I thought it more productive to link to the entire post instead of cutting and pasting all of the relevant material (and you though this post was long…J). My apologies. 

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