New learning for me since the first minute of this class mostly centers around Diigo, the social bookmarking site. Having crashed my computer just a few times in the course of my professional career, this site sounds lifesaving. I confess I haven't mastered the site or become a daily user yet, but I'm confident I will in a month or so.
Although I've had a Twitter account for a year or so, I learned how to do some new things including using hash tags for groups and shortening addresses using bitly. The URL shortener makes me feel more like a pro and less like an amateur because now instead of being a parasite living off of what everyone else posts, I now can be a contributing member of the network by sharing awesome articles I find or my own blog posts. It was great to see Cybraryman's list of hash tags and chats. I saw at least a few I'd like to sit in on at some point in the future.
Mostly, I'm seeing how all the social learning things are connected. I can use Facebook and Twitter to advertise my blog. I can use my blog to find more Twitter followers,etc.
Also, Twitter helps me find things to read online I wouldn't normally know. For example, one of my favorite articles in the past week was on Justin Tarte's blog about Daniel Pink's book, "A Whole New Mind." He described the movement from farmers workers to factory workers to knowledge workers and on up to our current concept workers. He also summarized six main aptitudes teachers might adopt to be educators of the 21st Century including Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play and Meaning.
Overall, I'm enjoying having at least three hours a week dedicated to sitting, browsing, thinking and dreaming about how to incorporate social learning, 21st Century learning, and technology into my life and teaching.
If you're not learning, you're dead, so keep going.
Sincerely,
Sarah
No comments:
Post a Comment