Key Takeaways and Going Forward

After exploring so many new things in Phase 2, I feel I'm having information overload. But my plan is to do as so many others have commented on their blogs, to pick a few things to focus on at a time so its not so overwhelming. Anytime someone has mentioned in their blog about a good app or web tool that I haven't heard of, I jot it down on a list of things to explore at a later time. At the same time I have come so far in the last year in learning digital literacy from someone who resisted technology for so long. This has been one of the most valuable courses I have taken because it everything we are learning is so current and can be applied immediately to the classroom or learning commons. This course has allowed me to face my hesitancy to dive in and learn new digital tools. I am still reluctant with twitter, but am feeling comfortable with blogging and have been now using Edmodo www.edmodo.com with the class I'm in and have just finished a project with Explain Everything,https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/explain-everything/id431493086?mt=8 ,so a little at a time!

Key Takeaways  

The key takeaways after exploring Phase 2 for me were:

• The importance of developing my own personal network 
• Ways to support the school staff in terms of professional development resources
• Learning about mobile technology uses in developing countries
• Inquiry based learning and "hack schooling"

Developing my own personal network

After completing phase 2, I now know what my own PLN might look like and how to go about creating my own personal learning network. I now have a better idea of how much information is out there and so therefore how important it is to zero in on a few specific relevant sites to my professional interests. Otherwise sorting through the mountains of daily information is unproductive and uninspiring! 

I enjoyed watching the video that Sarah shared on her blog titled "What is a PLN- Marc Andre Lalande's take"http://youtu.be/hLLpWqp-owo. I found it interesting how Marc said you can either be a "lurker" or a "sharer" of information on you personal learning network. Although I don't really like the term "lurker", I am definitely spending more time reading other peoples opinions and information than I am sharing my own at this point. As I become more confident with my digital knowledge and expertise and using a social networking system, I hopefully will move more towards the role of a "sharer".

After looking into different networks to join, I think for me; BC Teacher Librarians Ning http://bcteacherlibrarians.ning.com is one that I will include in my personal network, as well as Classroom 2.0 http://www.classroom20.com, Ted Talks http://www.ted.com/watch/ted-ed, and LM_Net listserv for Librarians http://lmnet.wordpress.com. I haven't embraced Twitter yet, still reluctant but have learned of the amazing professional networking capabilities. The hashtags I have highlighted to follow on Twitter are #edchat, #edteach, #iPaded, #EdApps, and #flipclass. I know there are other great ones out there as well as personal educators that I could follow down the road, but these ones will get me started.
Supporting Professional Development in the School

Image courtesy of cc.csusm.edu

The key takeaways in terms of supporting professional development in my school are the importance of  sharing professional resources with staff and setting up a library website to include professional resources. Clare suggested a site such as "Delicious" https://delicious.com for sharing professional resources with staff. This is something I am going to be looking into further. I also liked Leslie's idea of creating a twitter account for staff to follow and the teacher-librarian could tweet out links to useful articles & video for staff to look at on their own time. As I move forward and build future relationships with staff members to support their professional development another key concept that was reiterated in phase 2 was the importance of collaboration and building relationships with staff is key above all.

image courtesy of logo pond.com

Mobile Technology in Developing Countries

Another takeaway from phase 2 was learning about how mobile technology was being used in developing countries. I found this topic fascinating and enlightening because I didn't know it was happening to the extent that it is. I found it amazing how technology is reaching even the remotest part of Ghana and helping pregnant women learn prenatal information through text messages on iPhones and farmers are learning better farming techniques through the use of the internet in remote farming areas of developing countries. The key points I learned here was that technology is reaching even the remotest villages of the word, which will have monumental effects and decrease the disadvantage that developing countries have had for so long. I found it inspirational and truly amazing all the ways that mobile devices are helping people improve their livelihoods and health in developing countries.

Image courtesy of www.w3.org "The Web on the Move"

Inquiry Learning & "Hack School"

The final takeaway from Phase 2 that resonated with me the most was a video in Kacy's blog titled "This is what happens when a kid leaves traditional education" on Ted talks.

This video was so powerful to me it really made me think critically about traditional school. The  13 year old speaker quoted, "Schools focus on teaching students to make a living rather than make a life." This speaker also talked about the Science of being happy and healthy. This student left traditional school and began an independent inquiry based style of learning where he learned about topics that really interested him such as skiing. Although I don't believe everyone should leave school and do independent studies such as the speaker did, I believe there is a lot of room for improvement in modern classrooms. If we did just some of what the speaker talks about on Ted Talks it would make a tremendous difference in learning to have students engaged in learning about things relevant to them, using technology in the moment to take advantage of learning opportunities, and to teach students skills to live a balanced healthy life, not just get a job. Moving forward in my own personal learning in this area, I am going to explore Inquiry Learning more and what that looks like and how to implement that in a classroom.

References:

Laplante, Logan (2014, Jan.9). This is what happens when a kid leaves traditional education (Video file). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46La-hV_PLs