Class Wrap Up

 

What I’ve Learned

                Through this class I learned different avenues of storytelling, methods of building a learning community, and ways to present myself online. One of my favorite projects was our storyboarding project. It brought back my love of animation and the arts as a form of connecting to an online audience. I've also noticed I use social media more effectively. I found one of the grassroot organizations I follow started to go in a direction I did not want to associate with. I removed myself from their socials and apologized to followers as I had openly shared this organizations posts before. I'm more comfortable identifying what to say online and how transparency is both a good and bad thing.

 

New Tools, Ideas

                My favorite part of the text we read in class, The Connected Educator, is how open and flexible the book is. While I would have enjoyed some more stability and plans for community building, I understand there’s only so much the authors can account for. My favorite advice from the authors is to cultivate your learning circle. The advice does not need to be specific to a learning community but can include professional connections, personal connections, and even clientele. Another aspect of online I have learned is that, while outrage is fast it's typically short lived. Through our social media project, I discovered online backlash is swift and aggressive. However, if someone waits out the original backlash, generally the whole ordeal is forgotten within a year. It is important to note, there are a few situations in which the internet never forgets. Below are screens of some of my most used and favorite new tools.



Screenshot of Canva


Screenshot of Unsplash



 

For Future Students

                One thing I wish we did this semester is a group project or some sort of class RP where we built a learning community together. We would be tasked with building a learning community from the ground up using the tools and resources listed in our book. The class could check in via Zoom or discussion board weekly culminating in a big project seeing if the community was successful or unsuccessful and a blog post detailing the journey of the class.



Image by Chris Montgomery via Unsplash



Text Referenced:

Nussbaum-Beach, S., & Hall, L. R. (2012). The connected educator: Learning and leading in a Digital age. Solution Tree Press.

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