Creating my social network - Response Blog #1

Defining my social network seems equivalent to defining part of my personal learning environment. I am networking resources and people I want to receive information from and provide information to. In this process, before considering a tool or network, I ask myself the following questions:

• Who do I want to connect with?
• How will I do it?
• Will I be able to contribute?
• Do I have the time?

Staying connected with a network has not been very easy. The tool must be transparent and not require too many steps to access. Some tools that have worked for me are Diigo, Facebook, Twitter, and CNN.com. CNN may have just raised an eyebrow but let me explain Diigo and Facebook first.

The Diigo user groups are a good way to find an instant network. For a while now, Dr. Fritz has recommended that we connect with Vicki Davis' CoolCatTeacher blog. As much as I respect her suggestions, I could never find the energy or enthusiasm to add another source to my reading. When I joined the Diigo network I decided to join the 'Educators' group - guess who started the group? Yep, Vicki Davis. As a member of that group, I get a weekly digest of links to the most relevant readings, blogs, tools, sites, etc… for educators. With the digest, I get the essence of her blog. I also follow Vicki Davis on twitter. Everything she posts into the 'Educators' group in Diigo she sends as a tweet as well. So, although I do not follow the blog closely, I am connected to her network in other ways; learning from the tools and readings she is recommending.

Now for the CNN.com clarification; CNN.com is a good example of a site that socially networks around topics in the news. After reading a news article, CNN.com gives the reader an opportunity to discuss the topic in an open forum with other readers. Also, the site connects you with blogs that are linking to the story you are reading and also to blogs that share similar tags. The benefit of incorporating a social network to the daily news has been great. There is reading the news, and then there is socially networking the news. Socially networking the news creates greater and more frequent opportunities to discuss issues with higher order thinking skills. For example, you read about the economy, then proceed to a discussion where you compare, contrast, explain, relate, debate, etc… Get the point? It is more than just the morning coffee and a paper!

Finally, I try to make my social network a little more than just educational - I need some fun! I have had a great and rewarding time reconnecting with friends through Facebook. FB has provided me with an opportunity to grow a network of friends and colleagues that I can call on to share, reflect and collaborate with when the opportunity arises. We talk, share pictures, and form part of a network.

New course, new challenge

I am excited for the assignment/challenge of creating a social network. One of the ideas that I have been thinking about for this assignment is diversity/affinity group support. I am going to try to create a social environment that facilitates discussions based on the topic of multi-cultural inclusion for high school students. In previous projects, I have dealt with topics directly related to my academic instruction - this time I want to focus on students' social well-being.

Class Reflection

This week in my Constructivist Learning Environment class, we were fortunate to experience a sample lesson that emphasized the importance of engaging learners immediately in a lesson and the effects of a strong learner response. In the sample lesson, the presenter displayed a collage of images that stimulated strong, engaged, and extremely varied responses from the groups. As an instructor, I believe the response was fantastic but there was a challenge - some of the responses from the groups were "off" the intended target/objective the presenter had anticipated. As a result, the unanticipated responses became an issue during the debrief session of the activity when the presenter was not able to reach his intended goal of the lesson. Fortunately, this lesson was just a practice constructivist lesson and therefore the issue was only a learning experience. It demonstrated the amount of preparation and facilitator skills required to bring varied ideas together and focus them back to the agenda for the day.

Personally, the best part of the day came after the presentation, during the critique. I felt that the interactions during the critique of the process was an amazing learning experience. The class engagement and the groups ability to clearly contrast between this lesson and previous ones, made it very easy to identify and analyze the differences in supporting and scaffolding the learner's experience. It emphasized in practical terms the theoretical information we have been investigating regarding constructivist instructors and the preparation, skill, and facilitation necessary to guide the learning experience in an appropriate direction.

Parent's Day - As a teacher

So now I am convinced that the audience plays an important role in directing your activities and approach on Parents Day. This week, I was the instructor giving a Parent's Day presentation. My principal instructed us to teach a lesson, as we normally would with our students, as a manner of giving parents insight to the class. This element immediately created a difference between my experience last week as a parent and the experience my parents would have in my class. Parents experienced the course versus sitting their for an "information dump". This method may not have worked at the evening Parent' Day I attend last week. The difference between this Parent's Day and the one I attended a week ago, is that one is a day school and the other a boarding school. Therefore, my parents are seeing their children for the first time in many weeks and they are also visiting for a longer period of time - Friday to Sunday. Due to the longer visit, parents follow their child through a typical day. Their attention is focused on the emotional and social well being that the boarding experience is creating in their child. Experiencing the environment for themselves may be the best way to facilitate that understanding.

Back to school night as a parent

This week (9/25) was 'Parent's Night' at my son's high school. The process for the night was to attend all his classes for eight minutes... for the INSYS 527 people who may be reading this - I'm not 'blowing smoke' when I say that I really wish that the instructors had done more that just present the information. The "information dump "by teachers was boring and not even remotely engaging. As I sat through the teacher presentations, I was obviously still thinking about the Constructivist class I am taking at PSU . What would have happened if the instructor had "sprinkled" in a constructivist flavored activity? It may have been more interesting... but I'm pretty sure some parents may have complained. It was an evening presentation - after a long work day, and now a longer evening... some people may just want the information given to them. On a parents day presentation, instructors must be aware of their audience - come to think of it, my son's school may have done the right thing in facilitating a quick evening at school.