I have been engaged in an online course which focused on helping educators understand the importance of developing a personal learning network, PLN. The final requirement for this course requires me to spend time reflecting on the following thoughts:
Reflect on how my PLN has changed & grown during this course. Discuss my plan to continue to grow and develop my PLN and how I hope to contribute to the professional learning of my colleagues.
Prior to this course I viewed "tweeting'"as something best left to the imagination and wasteful time of young people. The most I knew about pod casting was sketches of scenes caught while folding clothes and pretending to watch the Disney show "ICARLY" with my children. I viewed these resource tools and others like them as time wasters, objects of corruptions for young minds and just another responsibility to my already enormous list of things to do. As I participated in the various course activities, long held opinions and personal fears began to dissolve. The wealth of information I have obtained has enabled me to become a participant and not just a fearful onlooker. I am learning to embrace new ideas regarding the strengths and importance of technology in education.
My colleagues have shared suggestions that will enable me to quickly find a place for these new changes quickly and with ease. I plan to continue developing my PLN by rejuvinating my class blog and using it as a teaching and learning platform for both parents and students. During grade level meetings I will present sites from my blog and demonstrate the simplicity of creating and maintaining one. As suggested to me by a colleague, reading is very auditory. What better way to maintain young people interest than using pod casting as a vehicle. With the this pod cast parents are not left out of the loop. Many times the techniques taught at school are not modeled when the student is at home. Pod casting will eliminate this problem because this tool will provide them with hands on training.
The possibilites are enourmous. I feel giddy about the changes that are about to happen. Fear is a necessary emotion but it can also cause you to become stagnant. There is new information every day regarding best teaching practices. As educators we have to be ready to make necessary changes for the benefit of our students.
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1 comment:
It looks like you have a plan in place, and a good one.
There is so much in the news these days about the lack of money in education. The neat thing about all of the tools covered in this course is they are all free. Al that's needed is vision, and vision is free. To some, that's the scariest part of all.
Some years ago, we fashioned a vision for technology for your school, and included a statement that "technology makes things easy." Those who truly get it understand just how true that statement is. It let's us harness resources and communicate with others on a scale impossible before. Once you reach that level, you will never want to go back to the ways it used to be.
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