My First MOOC Certificate!

I'm so excited. I know, I know, it's just a piece of paper. But to me it's a revelation. It's free learning. How it should be. Life-long learners sharing their opinions, developing new ideas and sharing it all for free!

I have just received my First MOOC Certificate. One thing's for sure... it won't be my last!

My SOLE Sugata's Wish

I would like to share with you my experiences of self-organised learning.
I started this journey as a natural response to the lack of enthusiasm for research amongst many of my students. We were investigating the big question "How and why do landforms change over time?" And despite their initial enthusiasm, I was having trouble getting them to transition to writing notes o as a means of collecting disseminating new information.

Then I decided to give them all the control and see how that went...

I introduced them to Thinglink, an interactive, multimedia, digital poster. They asked if they could do some searches, they spent one lesson doing key word searches to find other people's work. Just like the opening of the lesson, they were enthralled by what they discovered and began asking each other lots of questions about how it worked and where the linked information came from. They began tinkering with their own.

In their groups, the students began asking how, what and where to source the links that they wanted to attach to their Thinglink. They wondered about how to share and save what they found. One bright spark suddenly remember how they could share in real time with a Google Doc.

And so they were away...
The most startling revelation for me was the way that the students moved fluidly between groups sharing what they had learned about the technology. How freely they asked for help and how quickly they synthesized what their peers had shown them. Mostly I was impressed by the depth and commitment they went to in search of the "just right" pieces of information: the perfect links, the ideal images.

We had class discussions on how to source reliable information and how important the presentation of their learning was. The students spent more time researching than I'd ever experienced before and I had a hard time convincing them to go to recess when the bell rang. Each new piece of information seemed to draw them deeper into their learning and create new questions that they sought answer for.

A time to reflect...
As individuals completed their projects they were very eager to show and discuss their artefacts with other students. My students are used to reflecting on their learning and several of them chose to do this on our class blog.
 

An idea for week 3 #edumooc

A Visual for a New Wave of Learning

a   Multitude of

     Oustanding

     Opportunities

to  Connect ...

The ending is deliberately left open to interpretation.

In my mind, it symbolizes connecting the dots but it could just as easily be connecting the world, connecting people, connecting ideas, connecting knowledge, connecting the lives, connecting thoughts, etc.

Your feedback is much appreciated.

EDMOOC Week 2 Reflections

 Productivity Future Vision

This video was confusing. If the woman was able to hold a meeting online in real time why was she even travelling? And, couldn’t the daughter have searched for a recipe without her mother’s help? The man seemed very relaxed and leisurely, almost as though his only role was to help with the cooking. Best of all, just how dated was that frying pan!?

It was definitely meant to be Utopian with all its smooth, white, clinically-clean surfaces, smiling, happy, attractive people who seemingly had all the time in the world. But there was very little humanity. The man and girl barely shared a word, let alone a conversation or a hug…. The home was stark and soulless. Sorry Microsoft, sitting in a hotel room wired into my tablet devices is not my idea of a better use of my time…

A Day of Glass

Definitely highly utopian influences. Suggesting that learning could happen anywhere, anytime, that access to info is at fingertips 24/7. That learning can be recorded and shared later. I was disturbed by classroom uniformity and teacher-directed learning. PLEASE let the future be more learning-centric. Field trip was exciting but felt more like a 3D computer game. Not sure any of my students would take time searching for elk’s hoof-prints if they could go hunt down 3D dinosaurs instead!

Communication seemed to revolve around common experiences, or common interest.

Definitely technology-centric

Charlie 13

I can’t really see past the bleakness of this predicted future. I wonder what the perceived danger of the old ways was and, if this is such a positive and balanced community of tagged people, why do they have to lie about those who choose not to be tagged? To me, it is like the current practice of tagging prisoners but in reverse. Instead of the bad guys being tracked, now the innocent are rounded up and branded like cattle. The police officers conversation with the mum could be interpreted as supportive and friendly or, in my case, disturbingly invasive and personal. I don’t want some complete stranger knowing that I live by myself and taking pity on me!

There did seem to be only a very minute hint of choice but, at what cost? Charlie would have to abandon his mum, break her heart, and live behind a wire fence. It suggested that Charlie could tow the line or be excommunicated. Of course, Charlie’s the hero so the video does lead us to want to back his revolt.

Many people argue that Big Brother is already watching our every move and I don’t remember being consulted on whether that was OK with me. Having said that, it is actually OK with me so long as it is only used to catch “the bad guys” and not misused.

I wonder why the society waits until the kids are 13 to tag them. If this were ever a reality I find it much more realistic that they would be tagged from birth, before they could have an opinion.

E-learning and Digital Cultures MOOC #EDUMOOC

I read a blog entry by a fellow course participant and I realised just how inportant it is to share your thoughts and feelings online. I'm of the generation where it was socially unacceptable to "air your dirty laundry in public" (that's a British expression meaning to share your trials and tribulations with other people). I realise that this practice is both out of date and culture-centric. I can't help it though. I am just not accustomed, or comfortable with, excessive amounts of sharing online with people I've never met and am likely never to meet.

Nonetheless, I do appreciate those who can so I want to thank Brittany Chan for her blog posting "There are 40,000 people in my class… My strategy to avoid becoming overwhelmed #edcmooc"

Below are my reflections on her posting...

Your first MOOC is overwhelming but it is also a brave new world. We may well be at the cutting edge of a paradym shift in mass education.
When I went to University there were several hundred people on some of my courses. That was overwhelming too. So many people in one lecture hall. I felt so small and alone. Very quickly though I began striking up conversations with people and found myself slipping into a habit of sitting next to the same people, sharing opinions with like-minded people and seeking out those who challenged my ideas.
Isn’t it just the same thing here? Will we pick our network, or will they pick us, or both? Will we stay with the same group all the way through or will people come and go?
The issue is that the learning community is only as strong as the individuals in it. Or is it? Is the best learning community the one where everyone thinks alike or everyone thinks differently? Hummm… so much to consider.

UDL Guidelines in Practice: Grade 1 Mathematics

EDUC 6713 REFLECTION

The acronym GAME really helped me focus on the steps I needed to achieve my goals and I think this will be especially helpful for my students. My first goal of explicitly teaching and modelling safe, legal and ethical use of digital information (NETS-T 4a) has already lead me to plan this exposure into my curriculum. I have spent considerable time planning for implementation. My lesson plans are ready to go. I am ready to monitor and collect data so I can evaluate the impact on my students and, assuming all goes well, I am excited about sharing these new techniques with my colleagues and administration. My second goal (NETS-T 5c) was easier to implement since it involved me monitoring and reflecting on emergent technology tools and resources. My personal learning network has offered plenty of opportunities and a large amount of helpful advice. I have prepared my technology journal but, until school starts, it will not be possible to reflect on the implementation of new tools and resources.

As I mentioned, the acronym GAME will help my students see each step of the process clearly. However, with such young students (first graders), I will need to give the students clear examples and alternative language for the words Monitor and Evaluate. Plenty of modelled examples should help them to see how they can look reflect back over their learning in order to measure its effectiveness. Teacher-assessments, peer-assessments, audience feedback and self-assessments have always featured heavily in my instructional practice.

I had already thought that I was doing a good job of integrating technology. However, this course has shown me that there are gaps that need filling. Mostly, I feel that there needs to be an increase in conversations about the ethical use of technology school-wide. Many teachers use technology for research but it is not always effective and students are not expected to quote sources.

Our curriculum is based on inquiry and therefore problem-based learning is a big feature of what we already do. Students are guided to locate their own inquiry questions and the teachers provoke deeper thought with problem-based questioning.

This course has made me reconsider the effectiveness of social networking/online collaboration. I feel that this is an area that I have tended to avoid with my young first graders in favour of all the other wonderful things that can be done with technology to extend my students’ learning. However, this year I will be moving to third grade and I already have plans to include online collaboration as a regular way for my students to reflect and report on their collaborative projects. In order to do this, I will assign time at the beginning of the year to explicitly teach some rituals for the regular use of these technology tools. With regards to digital storytelling, it is my intention to spend more time investigation and evaluating the most appropriate digital storytelling tools for my particular group of students for this upcoming academic year.