So my PLN ended up being pretty organized. This was surprising to me, as I usually am organized chaos.
I first started with jotting things down on a piece of scratch paper, with circles, balloons, arrows going in all directions, even to outer space.
After our critical friends discussions and the ideas and feedback that were given, made me think a little more about the goal of my PLN and the other teachers involved.
The critical friends session was the most valuable to me. After that meeting, the mind map was easy as 3.14 and really fast compared to my initial brain storm attempts.
Now my thoughts on the Total Package. I really enjoyed LTEC 642, just as i have enjoyed other classes from Dr. Bert. In the beginning, the Twitter, Periscope and Line assignments were a little overwhelming to me, as I never had to speed post, or tag others in one of my social media posts, other than tagging friends...making the deadlines was challenging for us as a whole class group. In the beginning, the additional waves of conversations via Line were a little irritating, but once I figured out how to turn the sound and vibration notifications off, it became a little easier to deal with, and once the "new" wore off, and not every one in our class was blasting message on it any more, Line became my preferred way of staying in touch with project group members for both the Case Studies and the Collaborative Video Project.
Another, mildly frustrating endeavor was the CVP, the time differences between Hawaii, Samoa, Germany and Japan, seemed a little challenging for us to be able to have meaningful meetings, and to be able to collaborate effectively. However, in the end it all ended well.
If I could take more classes from Dr. Bert, I would, although I have already reached my needed number of electives for my Master's. Maybe I could ask him if I could just audit his classes, just for fun!
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Social Media, Learning and Sharing
For the longest time, or at least since I started using Social Media, I thought it was just for fun, following celebrities, news, or other entertaining entities.
Last year, when I started my Master's in Learning Design and Education, and got involved with getting Google Apps for Education going in our school, I discovered that Social Media is much more than just entertainment.
Social Media, think of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+, etc., many legitimate and valid educational organization use Social Media to share their educational offerings, links, webinars, etc. Many of these organizations or savvy individuals I have "followed" or "friended" on various Social Media channels and have had "conversations" with. However, just as many valid sources sharing Info on GAFE, Educational Technology and so on, are just merely "venting" channels. A few select individuals do all the sharing, and when followers ask questions, no answer ever is given. Therefore, I have found that one has to be very selective when truly using certain Social Media channels as a truly educational tool. If just a few, same people share opinions or suggestions, and questions from followers or other group members go unanswered, there might be some issues with the validity of the group.
I realized this too late, after I joined a few dozen Google+ communities on GAFE tools. While I still am part of many of these communities, I have now muted several of their communications, and learned to rely more on groups that do have a more global and credible presence, and are endorsed by other global, credible entities.
This brings me to my assignment for Educators: from all the groups you belong to, be it on Social Media or Professional Communities, list which ones you belong to, which ones you ask questions on, which ones you get answers on, which ones you give answers on. How many of these groups do you truly feel you "belong" to, why? or why not?
Then, create a short presentation (video, Slides, Prezi, Powtoons, etc) on how effective you feel Social Media channels are in helping you become a better educator, what works or doesn't work when using Social Media as a professional learning tool. Share what you like so far, share what you find troubling, share how you would like to see it changed and how you can distinguish between the credible and not-so credible sources.
I am just wondering if I'm the only gullible, trusting educator seeking knowledge from the Web and Social Media, or if there are others like me, who need to learn the hard way... Am I?
Last year, when I started my Master's in Learning Design and Education, and got involved with getting Google Apps for Education going in our school, I discovered that Social Media is much more than just entertainment.
Social Media, think of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+, etc., many legitimate and valid educational organization use Social Media to share their educational offerings, links, webinars, etc. Many of these organizations or savvy individuals I have "followed" or "friended" on various Social Media channels and have had "conversations" with. However, just as many valid sources sharing Info on GAFE, Educational Technology and so on, are just merely "venting" channels. A few select individuals do all the sharing, and when followers ask questions, no answer ever is given. Therefore, I have found that one has to be very selective when truly using certain Social Media channels as a truly educational tool. If just a few, same people share opinions or suggestions, and questions from followers or other group members go unanswered, there might be some issues with the validity of the group.
I realized this too late, after I joined a few dozen Google+ communities on GAFE tools. While I still am part of many of these communities, I have now muted several of their communications, and learned to rely more on groups that do have a more global and credible presence, and are endorsed by other global, credible entities.
This brings me to my assignment for Educators: from all the groups you belong to, be it on Social Media or Professional Communities, list which ones you belong to, which ones you ask questions on, which ones you get answers on, which ones you give answers on. How many of these groups do you truly feel you "belong" to, why? or why not?
Then, create a short presentation (video, Slides, Prezi, Powtoons, etc) on how effective you feel Social Media channels are in helping you become a better educator, what works or doesn't work when using Social Media as a professional learning tool. Share what you like so far, share what you find troubling, share how you would like to see it changed and how you can distinguish between the credible and not-so credible sources.
I am just wondering if I'm the only gullible, trusting educator seeking knowledge from the Web and Social Media, or if there are others like me, who need to learn the hard way... Am I?
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