During the last ten weeks, I have truly learned so much about social network learning. At the beginning of the course I was a little skeptical about being able to use social media in an elementary classroom, but now I know that it is absolutely possible and should be done.
I learned about the importance of PLNs, Connectivism, and Communities of Practice. This is being reinforced in one of my other Edtech courses this summer. I like that we used Diigo to share our resources and practiced being parts of PLNs and CoPs. We learned many ways to implement Connectivism in our learning and teaching. My main takeaway from this module was that it is not enough to just be a lurker. You must also be an active participant. The more you participate, the more comfortable it will become. This makes me think of the way to work with other teachers at my school and also to continue my learning outside of my school.
Before this course, I had never heard of Twitter chats. Honestly, I didn’t use Twitter much unless it was for a class. I really thought the Twitter chats were beneficial and even fun. I remember telling my husband, “It’s so cool to have everyone liking and retweeting my answers. I actually know what I am talking about and am able to contribute solid answers.” This was a good feeling to be part of a discussion where my input mattered. I was also able to gather great resources and strategies from TONS of other people. During the chats, I expanded who I followed on Twitter based on their responses to the questions and resources that they shared.
I had never used the term curate before this course. At first, I thought it was new, until I understood what it meant. Now, I realize that it is something I have already been doing for my students. I really liked making the Scoop.it with educational technology resources. I like the idea of having all these resources in one spot. I saved MANY, MANY resources from my PLN’s pages as well. Scoop.it would not let me create a second page to curate, so then I tried Pearltrees. I liked Pearltree even better than Scoop.it. With Pearltree, you are able to have different categories within your page. You can even download the browser so that when you find a resource online, you just click the star and add it to your Pearltree page. I really like the idea of having students curate their own resources. I want to use this in my classroom when we are studying certain science or social study topics.
When we had to build and expand our personal learning environments, I learned about so many resources. I already knew about Edmodo, but I didn’t realize all of the groups that you can follow and participate with. I asked a question and received so many responses with suggestions in just a few hours. When I added resources to groups I was complimented by many of the members. I learned about edweb.com and all of the great communities that you can join. They have tons of free webinars that you can join for free. There is so much free learning to be done!
The module on social media policies helped me align the policies that my district already has in place with my own policies that I wish to enforce in my classroom. It was really beneficial to read other classmates’ policies and see what they included that I didn’t. I was able to add more to mine after reviewing theirs. Now I am all set to use them in my own classroom.
Creating a social media unit with three other people online was challenging. We used Facebook to communicate synchronously. We were in three different time zones, so finding a good time was difficult, but we made it work. All of the members of the group had differing ideas and opinions on how the unit should be set up. It was crazy, but everyone worked so well together and respected everyone’s input that it turned out to be a great unit. It was great pulling everyone’s knowledge of different social media platforms and infusing them into one unit. There was a lot of information and pre planning that went into the unit, and it is something I will be able to use in my classroom. I also have the skills necessary to create another unit when I am ready. I am really proud of the way the unit turned out.
Reflecting is such an imperative part of learning. I have been reflecting on assignments throughout this class and really seeing the value of it. I will continue this practice as the school year starts again. I will reflect on my lessons, my learning, and my resources. I will have my students reflect on their learning, reading, and writing as well.
For my self-assessment, I give myself a 75/75 for blog. It has seen a lot of action over the last ten weeks.
