Summary of learning for Edci 569

My Tech Toolbelt is now a Toolbox

In Pursuit of Joyful Discomfort

Challenged to Blog & Grow

So many new-to-me tech tools added to my repertoire & increased skills and improved understanding in others I had already tried.

Alec encouraged us to blog weekly and push hard to expand our comfort zone; I blogged like I never have before! I took risks with vlogging and audio blogging and I was inspired to share and enjoy it by the likes of Dean Shareski & Alan Levine.

My #tiegrad learning journey with Alec Courosa at the helm and my #tiegrad peers at my side, has been inspiring, challenging, overwhelming, and satisfying.

@shareski encouraged us not to lose sight of the joy in learning and, by refocusing on my own passions and sparks, I can (I hope) inspire those I work alongside of (students & teachers both) to (re)discover their own joy.

http://bit.ly/1JbqG6a

@cogdog rerouted me back to my youth and my love of storytelling, both as author and reader/listener. I love that he avoids "defining" a story and encourages us to embrace and interpret a story as it is presented. The examples of digital storytelling and variety of tools that he shared with us made me realize that the sky is the limit. Personally, this perspective of digital storytelling brought a new angle to blogging and sharing and I quickly became more motivated to write, create and share as a result.

Final Words

As an educator, I realize that being a lifelong learner is more than seeking out learning opportunities. It's about having a desire to maintain the tension, that element of discomfort, in my day to day practice or life. This discomfort may rise and fall, of course, but the continuum of tension is constant. For me, that moment when discomfort overlaps with joyfulness is the peak of learning; that brief but memorable space in time where, just as the tension begins to ease, joyful realization of something new is achieved. I want a life full of that. And I want to inspire it in others.

Joyful Discomfort is fleeting; I hope to be pursuing it always.

Blogging & Social Media

Sharing

Reflective Practice

Using Blogger, Twitter, and Google+, I finally got the hang of sharing meaningfully. I learned that in order to push my own learning, I needed to do more than retweet and +1. I had to create and contribute, ask questions and offer answers & opinions.

http://bit.ly/1D18uv9

I've realized that blogging is so much more than a reflection. It's an opportunity for me to examine my own learning, share my creations, expose my vulnerabilities & seek knowledge in the public forum that is social media. Blogging feels a little bit like opening the front door and inviting the world in.

The Cormier Session

Guest speakers acted as springboards for my thinking. By reflecting on discussions I was able to make connections to my own learning and teaching, recognize where risk taking has occurred and where it needs to. Blogging on our guest speaker sessions helped me to gain clarity and flesh out the bits and pieces that resonated most with me and, although I had read the Blogging articles and blogs suggested by @courosa early in the course, it was when I went back to read them again recently that I had my own big "a-ha" moment.

#tagging

I learned that to attract the appropriate audience, my tags need to accurately reflect my content. When I've tagged effectively, my blogs receive much more attention and, consequently, my access to knowledge, experts, and resources expands.

Having guest speakers was profoundly worthwhile and I enjoyed what each one brought to the table. However, our session with Dave Cormier, pushed my thinking to a new level of discomfort. Processing the discussion took several weeks and I was literally afraid to blog about it because I was having such a difficult time harnessing my thoughts to be able to articulate them and actually have them make sense. This particular session was rich and deep, and forced me to ask the question, "What can I do differently?" in a way that I had never asked myself before. It was through encouragement from fellow #tiegrad-ers @trev_mackenzie & @MelodyLWatson that I found the courage to finally move forward with this post and begin my writing process.

#blogging

#anxietyined

#makered

#anxietyined

#tiegrad

#tieyoga

#tiebc

#bcedchat

#tiefit

#inquirylearning

#pblchat

That Ever-Familiar Overwhelm

#edtech

#yyjtraffic

#tiefit

#spedchat

#inquiry

#storify

#sd61learn

I frequently found my mind to be in a state of overload after a session with one of our guest speakers. As I would sift through my thoughts, ideas and inspirations afterwards I often struggled with the overwhelm I felt. Attempting to flesh out a focus for my blog post (nevermind organize that thinking), proved to be an extremely difficult process. However, the reflective practice ultimately yielded my greatest learning.

#yyj

Vulnerability

Many points in Steven Wheeler's blog, "Seven reasons teachers should blog", meshed with my thinking when I first read it, but the one that hit me over the head on my second read is #2 on his list of 7: "Blogging can crystalise your thinking." As @timbuckteeth elaborated on this idea in the blog post, alarm bells were literally going off in my head. This is ME!

All of this creating, contributing, sharing, asking, and responding was a pretty huge risk for me, a self-proclaimed introvert who likes to play safe. Inspired by others, I know I have grown in my willingness to put myself out there.

http://bit.ly/1GJnmQ9

Think Critically

Community

As part of my blogging process, one strategy that helped me get started when I was "stuck" was being able to discuss some of the key points with others, including #tiegrad peers, workmates, and, believe it or not, even my children.

Inspiration also came from the courage of others

@audreywatters inspired me to read and view with a critical lens. I'm easily impressed and I walked away from our time with Audrey realizing that I need to look at things from a critical perspective far more often than I do. I can do that by reading and viewing more deeply to understand what drives a particular message or author. It was a bit of a wake-up call and it's motivated me to pay attention when I read, view and/or listen with both a conscience and a renewed level of consciousness, and ask (myself or others) way more questions!

Powerful learning from my #tiegrad peers, Jake Main and Liane Loeppky. Jake shared his decision to change the focus of his Learning Project midway through the term in his blog post, "Reconciling Reality"

http://bit.ly/1Pdwj8m

And Liane did the same in her post titled, "Failure is not an Option" http://bit.ly/1DdPgm8

Being able to read about what led both Jake and Liane to bravely abandon their Learning Projects part way through gave me the courage I needed to consider what I needed to do to have more success in my own Learning Project. I appreciated their commitment to the task and, more importantly, taking steps to take care of themselves. Both seemed to maintain enough awareness of their learning process to be able to recognize and acknowledge that "the plan" wasn't working, and both were able to revamp their plan to be able to move forward. This was an important moment for me as I observed my peers' make their learning process visible while maintaining authenticity. I learned that this awareness comes through practice of self-reflection during learning and is capable of leading us to the most significant growth.

I've learned that the potential impact of community on many aspects of education is profoundly significant. I've made so many connections to the idea of community and the role it plays in learning this term, that I know my explanation of it here will not, in any way, shape, or form, do it justice. From our #tiefit group to the #tiegrad cohort to my growing PLN, community encourages strong connections, a network of support, meaningful collaborations, and a venue for sharing..

What Next?

As we finish up with our EDCI 569 reflections and Summaries of Learning, the question of, "what next?" has meandered into my brain. What I've learned in these last few months will undoubtdedly influence route choices as I move forward.

Yes, obviously, there is our #tiegrad cohort, an incredible community of sharers and learners who readily reach out to one another and collaborate together on a regular basis. While this blogpost was for our 515 class, it's a great example of the incredible shift in our approach to learning.

Create, share & reflect

http://bit.ly/1ChaMI0

I'm motivated to continue creating and sharing, and most importantly, reflecting. I have a strong desire to establish a routine for regularly reflecting on my practice. I know there will be a degree of that expected throughout the remaining months of my Master's program anyways, but I am talking beyond this MEd. I have learned that I really do need to walk the talk; if I'm not able to authentically model an effective learning process for my learners, it's most likely that I'm not effectively learning...possibly not even learning at all.

Keep working up the courage to try new & different

First and foremost, I plan to keep on practicing my ability to act boldly and speak bravely. By asking questions publicly, maintaining awareness of my own willingness to be open, and taking scary plunges into new territory, technology based or otherwise, I plan to "get my courage on."

Our most awesome #tiegrad class. Photo creds to @mrjkemp http://bit.ly/1O640XI

Seek out the perspectives & opinions of others

https://storify.com/spedlearner/sharing-the-joy-on-twitter

I'm skilled when it comes to asking people I'm comfortable with for their thoughts and opinions. My work through this term has moved me to be better at speaking up to a group of unknown experts. I know I still have a ways to go, but I understand the opportunities that sit quite literally at our fingertips via social media to reach people who, ten years ago, would have been unreachable. The wealth of resources that are available to us in the way of experts and other professionals is nearly unfathomable. So, whether it's a children's author in Texas, a world-renowned physicist in Cork, a teacher from Sooke or an organic farmer in Salmon Arm, I know I can ask. If the target doesn't throw out a response, there's a pretty good chance someone else will.

Create & Contribute

In order to create and contribute, I had to explore new tools, ask for help, make plenty of mistakes and even start over. My #tieyoga Learning Project and my participation in the #tiefit community provided me with a lot of opportunity to experiment.

#makered

Getting Messy

Having Sylvia Martinez as a guest speaker made me reconsider much of what we do in education. When I consider that we need to "give kids time for guided exploration," I was left questioning the gradual disappearance of center time and play as our children move up through the grade levels. My take-aways were reinforced by @davecormier who echoed some of Sylvia's ideas when he said, "The purpose of education is to nurture creativity (and) decision making." I can see that creating and making are integral to the kind of stick-to-your-ribs learning that I yearn for and throughout our session with @smartinez, I made numerous connections to the messages of Sugata Mitra & Sir Kenneth Robinson regarding creativity and curiosity.

I've learned to embrace my mistakes...That's not to say I don't find them to be frustrating, though! One example of a learning mess that seemed to surface again and again for me this term was my reluctance to read/view instructional information. I learned that if I haven't "figured it out" in the first 10 mins, I'm better off spending 5 or 10 minutes perusing the how-to information. This isn't a lesson that has been easily learned on my part, but I'm far more aware of the downfalls of my learning style than I ever was before.

iMovie Mess

I spent a significant amount of time creating an iMovie vlog and then couldn't get it to upload from my iPad to Youtube. I abandoned ship and went used Explain Everything instead. I made a point of going back to iMovie, searching out a "How to" Youtube tutorial to help me successfully upload iMovies from the iPad and was able to successfully complete the task the next time around.

Another Messy Example

#tieyoga was pretty messy for the first 4-6 weeks; I had to continually reassess my goals and strategies as I tried to work through this Learning Project, not quite even understanding what my obstacles were! My progress was slow and inconsistent and, although I love yoga, I did not feel motivated. My reflective process and participation in the #tiefit community helped me to gain insight into some of the impediments and moved me to revamp my plan, but even more importantly, I was able to determine that my #tieyoga's lack of community was a key factor in my struggle.

iMovie Success

http://t.co/b1JQjAvhZW

Summary of learning for Edci 569: I'm all over the map