See You Later Alligator... My ETMOOC Learning Summary

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     You know that feeling you have as a kid on Labour Day when your whole summer vacation is over?  Well that is how I feel, except it is not a vacation that I am beginning to miss.  Quite the opposite, it is a whole lot of learning that just happened in the last 10 weeks.

     It was 10 short weeks ago that the adventure began.  And what an adventure it was.  I saw a tweet by someone at 11:00 pm on January 12^th about ETMOOC and I signed up and etmooc began the very next day.  I’m glad I didn’t think when I signed up because I had a whole lot of thinking ahead of me. 

What I learned:

Photo Credit: Marc_Smith via Compfight cc

1. ETMOOC is a great place to learn and to be connected to other educators but it doesn’t have to end here.  As we learned with Dave Cormier when he talked about rhizomatic learning,  we are all nodes in a great big growing, organic connection and the learning and creation of knowledge will continue well past ETMOOC.

2.  We need to know who owns our information on-line and we need to be well-Googled.  I’m still pondering the questions “Is anything completely free on-line?  What are the hidden costs?”

3.  Blogs are a great place for reflective learning for students and teachers.  Commenting on other people’s blogs is an important part in learning from them.  I learned so much from Sue Waters.

4.  Everyone has a story to tell and there are amazing tools to help you tell these stories.  Alan Levine's (@cogdog) storytelling tools wiki  is an amazing resource.

5.  Use copyright free materials and give credit for it. (Creative Commons, CompFight etc)

6.  We create who we are.   Your digital identity needs to be managed to convey what you want to say about yourself.  Naively, I am on-line, who I am in person, just a little more guarded about my personal information. 

                        

My successes:

I started to blog.

I participated in twitter chats.

I created a Google account and started some Google Circles.

I used digital storytelling tools such as: Haiku Deck, Glogster, iMovie,  Five Card Flickr, and Animoto to name just a few.
I began to curate my learning.  

I listened to and learned from most of the
Blackboard Collaborate sessions.

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My failures or “I am still working on…”

I did not make strong connections because I still have one foot in the lurker stage of digital participation.

I did not read very many blog posts because the sheer number on the ETMOOC blog hub overwhelmed me. 

I did not respond to as many blog posts as I should have. 

I did not use Google circles effectively to connect with others.

My Biggest Learning

Strangely enough, my most recent take-away from etmooc seems very powerful to me.  In the last session with Bonnie Stewart (@bonstewart), a few people mentioned in the chat that they felt like a fraud.  That resonated with me because that feeling has been with me since I started this course and I especially felt it when I began talking about what I was learning with my colleagues.  They seemed to be impressed with my learning and I just felt like a great big fake.  “I’m not that smart,” I kept thinking to myself.  I remember watching a TED talk by Amy Cuddy called "Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are," and in it she states that, “you fake it till you make it.”  You become what you act like.  So, at the moment, I may think that I am only acting as if I am knowledgeable but I am slowly becoming the part. 

Amy Cuddy: Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are

Sigh… it  (ETMOOC) was great while it was facilitated, now it will just have to be completely self-directed.  I will miss you ETMOC.   I now feel the need to sing the Kindergarten good-bye song.

Goodbye for now….(I may bump into you on Twitter)

See you later alligator… (maybe I’ll curate your work on Diigo)

Toodle-dee-doo kangaroo…(We may wander into each other on Pinterest)

Time to scat little cat… (maybe we'll see each other on Scoop.it)

It’s the end my friend…(so many possibilities - until next time, my friend :)

Our First Genius Hour Sharing

Photo Credit: K's Photo's via Compfight cc 

     Last week, my students shared their first Genius Hour Projects.  It was a hectic week because it was the last week before Spring Break and there were several other projects happening at the same time.  Everyone had something to share, even if it was to share what didn't work and what they would do next time.  During the sharing time, I was pleasantly surprised to see every student engaged in the presentations.  After each student's presentation, the class asked interesting questions and gave some good feedback to the presenter.

     I learned a lot during the entire process of preparing for and sharing our Genius Hour Learning.   Before beginning the project, students were given this planning sheet.  I went over it with each student before they began their projects.  I will be making some changes to it before using it again.  On the sheet, there is a space for student reflections after each work block.  Unfortunately, because of time constraints, students were unable to write their reflections.  I regret skipping such a crucial step in the students' learning process.  Also, I would not schedule Genius Hour to be done at such a busy time of year where I wasn't able to give entire afternoons to the project.

    Despite all of these bumps in the road, the students enjoyed Genius Hour and so did I.  It was a great learning experience and we will definitely be doing it again. Here is a glimpse into our Genius Hour sharing.