Module 2: Creative Expression

 

This assignment took me a while to land on a format for my creative expression. I thought quite a bit about what I wanted to include, especially after reading about personal learning communities. I ended up choosing Canva. I use Canva quite often in my classroom and it is easy to navigate.

My image shows Communities of Practice (CoPs), Personal Learning Networks (PLN), and Connectivism. All three of these have their own identity but at the same time relate to one another. That is why I chose to have circular arrows going from each group to the other.

Connectivism Learning Theory is called the learning theory for the digital age. People learn through networking and learning from others. I think YouTube is a great example of that. When someone doesn’t know how to do something they can find a video on YouTube. People are interconnected, they use Google to find answers and they collaborate with other using tools like Office 365.

In the Communities of Practice section, I chose to have images of groupings of people interacting. I see that as more of a structured environment, like formal professional development.  The people involved in them share some sort of identity (Smith, 2003). The images here are sharing and connected to each other.

In Personal Learning Networks there are some social media outlets, such as Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and Google Hangouts. These are more personalized and user directed. These kinds of outlets help the user to form a community with other users in a more informal way. This can be a group resource for teachers, “I believe the strong community feeling comes from being able to chat with likeminded educators about things you find important in education” (Dober, 2012).

Learning is not one dimensional and takes place in varying places. Through the use of digital space, learning is different than in the classroom. There are so many resources available in the digital world, and this expands into building communities. It’s amazing, and perhaps overwhelming to many, that they don’t need to be directed to learn that they can learn from people all over the world.  I feel blessed to be living in this day and age where I can collaborate with colleagues all over the world through digital spaces like Facebook and Twitter.

 

Refrences

Connectivism. (n.d.). Retrieved September 11, 2017, from http://education-2020.wikispaces.com/Connectivism

Dobler, E. (2012). Professional learning networks: Driving discussions through Twitter. Reading Today, 29(6), 16-17. Retrieved from http://libproxy.boisestate.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=77747575&site=ehost-live

Smith, M. K. (2003). Jean Lave, Etienne Wenger and communities of practice. The encyclopedia of informal education. Retrieved from http://www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm

Social Media Beginings

This is my second to last semester in the Ed TEch Master’s program! On one hand I feel like I’ve just started and on the other hand, I feel like I’ve been working for FOREVER. I’ve been looking forward to taking this course. I am a social media user. I use Facebook regularly, I’m on Twitter and Instagram sporadically, and rarely use Snapchat.  I’m old enough that when I originally joined Facebook I had to have a college email address.

I haven’t used much social media for my own PD. Recently I have started following other educators on Twitter. I haven’t been an active participant other than reading articles or watching videos that have been posted. This summer I attended a conference where one of the presenters showed how she uses Twitter in her elementary class. This was really interesting, especially since my district seems scared by social media.  We don’t even have a district Facebook page. I mentioned to our superintendent that I was taking this class and he wants to chat with me about it later into the semester, so that sounds like a step in the right direction.

My only real expectation is to learn how to take what I already know about social media and figure out how to transfer those skills into my classroom. Also, my sister is a small business owner so she wants me to learn skills I can share with her to use in her business.

Welcome!

Welcome to my Ed Tech Learning Log Website!

This is where I will document myjourney through the Boise State Educational Technology Master’s program. As I progress through the program I will post and reflect here. I am very excited for the challenges that lie ahead of me in this amazing journey!