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| Image courtesy of the Patterson Foundation |
As I reflect back on my learning over the past several inquiries, the concept of collaboration appears to span each topic. I have come to understand that the true notion of 'learning' only fully takes place when we as an educational community share our knowledge. In doing so, we not only better ourselves but we add back to the educational community we rely so much upon. Up to this point, the inquiry phase of my learning has seen me through two distinct phases: discovery and exploration. Initially, I discovered the potential impact web 2.0 tools such as Twitter and Google + could have on my education and prepared myself to step into the world wide web as an informed educator willing to discover new avenues of learning through reflection and feedback. As any wise investor does, I wanted to maximize my returns. However, I must admit once I began my exploration phase, I was overwhelmed. Despite this, I tried not to get discouraged and personally have come leaps and bounds since I originally started my journey. That being said, I'm still in the initial stages of using web 2.0 technologies to evolve my educational practice. I continue to 'lurk' and acquire information from various individuals and sources but have yet to fully provide my own innovations in critical thinking to the community aside from these blog posts.
Moving forward, I plan to continue my development as a learning partner by beginning to be more outspoken about my passions, perspectives, and ideas through various mediums. Since creating this blog post, it's no surprise that one of my key takeaways in furthering my own collaboration and lifelong learning comes from a fellow classmate, Meagan Cordeiro. Through her blog, Ms. Cordeiro TL, Meagan exposed me to the concept of EdCamp, which as a relatively new teacher and teacher-librarian I had never heard of before. I hopefully plan on attending a local EdCamp in the near future to expand my horizons! Until then, when I feel comfortable enough and when the topic being discussed is of interest to me, I aim at participating in an #edchat.
With that said, I think it's clear that the inquiry topics that resonated with me the most touch on the importance of collaboration and involve professional development and personal learning networks. The power of collaboration is the innovation of education as we reinvent the ways in which we teach and learn. Powerful web 2.0 tools only increase the opportunities that lay before us and enhance our experience.
Work Cited
Lee, Su Hun. "EdCamp 101." YouTube, 11 Jan. 2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.
Corderio, M. (2015, February 16). Ms. Cordeiro TL. Retrieved March 6, 2015, from http://mscordeirotl.blogspot.ca/2015/02/developing-ict-skills.html
This was a decent reflection with some discussion of the few key concepts you've identified from your inquiry phase. You have captured the essential learning with your collaboration and connection building focus. You have shared some good resources that explore very useful activities like Edcamps and PLN building using social media. A little more discussion, some more detailed sharing and reflection and perhaps a few more key resources you've found and are bringing with you into the future would have been benificial.
ReplyDelete"I have come to understand that the true notion of 'learning' only fully takes place when we as an educational community share our knowledge." -- I really like this, and it is very true!
ReplyDeleteCheers,