This crazy world we live in.......I am in the process of having a massive clear out at school. It's long over due and it has got me thinking about how quickly things have changed with regards to the use of digital technologies and tools in education.
When I first started teaching, maybe 14 years ago, I had a massive, cumbersome and dated computer on my desk at home and a basic printer to the side of it. I am not even sure I had internet access? Every week I would type up my lesson plans, print them off and report to work with my folder containing all my bits and pieces needed to engage and inspire my students in Science.
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1946 The first all-purpose general computer - my first one was a little more advanced! (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC) |
The digital revolution has changed a teachers life forever. We no longer need to keep physical folders upon folders taking up space at school (and in the garage, much to my husbands dismay). The digital revolution has allowed us to store everything in the 'cloud' or saved on a small piece of metal, known as a memory stick or hard drive.
Educational resources have been digitalised, instead of only being able to reach out for a book or a friendly colleague to help us we are now able to reach out to the whole world via on-line social media and educational networks. Professional development no longer needs to consist of a day out of school and a drive into the unknown.....or traffic, if it's in Auckland! No, one can educate and resource oneself right from the comforts of your own home. I can have a tea break, cook the dinner, walk the dog and generally make good time by being able to make use of my school issued laptop, home internet and the ooodles of professional online social network sites.
(Source:http://www.comscore.com/)
I love the flexibility, support and sharing of ideas that social media platforms offer. I no longer need to sit at a formal PD session which doesn't suit my requirements. I am not restricted by budget constraints, taking time out of school or gaining approval by the powers that be to attend a desired PD session. Instead, I can sift and rummage through on-line sites to find the deeper knowledge and understanding that is personable to me.
I have student choice - an important factor for the life-long learner that I am!
I can connect, share, support and collaborate with like-minded people or people I would not normally meet in person due to them working in different age groups or subject areas. The geographical location of my colleagues holds no bounds!
This extension of connectivity with my educator colleagues allows me to extend my students learning, engagement and achievement by seeking out advice, resources and knowledge from others, as well as sharing my own, and deepening my own understanding of my curriculum area that I teach.
At present, I seem to head towards Facebook as my preferred social media platform. I find the fact that I can join related educational groups and just 'listen' in on the live feeds or comment on resources or idea that may appear in the live feed really useful. It allows me to reflect on my own practice and keep up to date with new initiatives. I have found the Mindlab Google+ community has provided a 'safe' and informal place to ask questions and gain advice from other more experienced educators. I have also found the reflective blogging and the feedback I have received really useful in enhancing my professional development. It has allowed me to understand and develop a more inquiry and reflective practice approach. I have also developed a greater understanding of different concepts from the comments that people have made. Reading and reflecting on other teachers blogs has provided new ideas and kept me up-to-date with new initiative.
I do get email feeds from the Virtual Learning Network (VLN) and Twitter and am often inspired and interested in the topic choice. I have not commented..YET! I think the reason for this is just lack of confidence and a bit of worry that I will say something stupid in front of such a big audience. Maybe I need to have a little more faith in myself and this would be the perfect opportunity to jump on board the VLN and Twitter train.
References
Melhuish, K.(2013). Online social networking and its impact on New Zealand educators’professional learning. Master Thesis. The University of Waikato. Retrived on 05 May, 2015 from http://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10289/8482/thesis.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y
I too have belonged to VLN for a while and not posted a comment, probably for the same reason. I agree with your comment about PD as most of us have sat for a day or more and found that either there was too much information and your mind goes into overload or that a lot of it was not relevant for you and you were sitting there checking emails and completing planning for the following week. My problem is that there is so much out there that it is difficult to know what to tap into that won't use up valuable time that could be spent on things that are more productive in the classroom. Perhaps I am just too 'long in the tooth' to be engaging with social media!
ReplyDeleteHi Rosemary, Thank you for commenting on my blog. I think it can be difficult to judge what is worthwhile and a lot of time is spent looking at things that are not relevant and sifting through information to find things that are really useful and relevant for our learning and our students learning. I suppose it also depends upon what way it is illustrated or how the learning or points are put across. I have been part of PD meetings that I have found was difficult to engage with but there seemed little choice but to attend. I have also found that often I am sat in PD and being taught stuff I have already done and in a 'chalk and talk' style... this amazes me as we are saying we have moved on from teaching our students in this way and then we are force to sit and be taught in the chalk and talk way or time is not spent finding out our prior knowledge. With regards to the VLN, maybe we should challenge ourselves to post a comment in the next school holidays when we have a little more time to reflect :)
ReplyDeleteHi Alison, I'd have to say I quite like attending PD seesions out of school. I like meeting new people with new ideas and I usually come away feeling recharged. When our face to face sessions finished at the mindlab I felt a bit " cast out to sea"!!but I also agree withvyou that there is nothing worse than sitting through PD that has little relevance and is poorly presented!
ReplyDeleteI also belong to various VLN groups but found it interesting that in one of our readings for this assignment, Melhuish (2013) pointed out that the groups tend to be isolated from each other and therefore the sharing of ideas and debate isn't transferred across networks.
Hi Stephanie, Thank you for commenting on my blog. I totally agree with you, I also felt a little sad to think that I wouldn't be meeting all my mindlab buddies on our weekly sessions. I have learnt so much from being part of such a positive and experienced collaborative group. I love to get out to new PD and find it empowering and exciting to meet new people and hear about new ideas..I wish there was more time to visit other schools and see all the amazing things that are going on.
DeleteHi Alison, I'd have to say I quite like attending PD seesions out of school. I like meeting new people with new ideas and I usually come away feeling recharged. When our face to face sessions finished at the mindlab I felt a bit " cast out to sea"!!but I also agree withvyou that there is nothing worse than sitting through PD that has little relevance and is poorly presented!
ReplyDeleteI also belong to various VLN groups but found it interesting that in one of our readings for this assignment, Melhuish (2013) pointed out that the groups tend to be isolated from each other and therefore the sharing of ideas and debate isn't transferred across networks.
Hi Alison,
ReplyDeleteI particularly liked your comment "I can connect, share, support and collaborate with like-minded people or people I would not normally meet in person due to them working in different age groups or subject areas. The geographical location of my colleagues holds no bounds!"
I think this has probably one of the biggest benefits in the age of technology where it really does make you feel connected on a global scale. I have found our Google + page more and more beneficial as the course has gone along and really do hope that it will continue for many years to come so that we can still all collaborate and discuss professionally any new trends that have surfaced and what we can do in order to best suit our learners needs. This brings me back to reflect upon our first blog post about communities and consolidates for me that we do have a really neat community that has been made available because of digital technologies.
Hi Emma-Lea, your comments highlight one of the positives of the use of technology. The fact that we can connect, share, view, collaborate allows our own world be become richer for the benefit of the students learning. I think as we connect more we are also modelling skills we want our students to make use of especially with regards to collaborative learning and the use of digital technologies.
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