Faith Vietti
Week 14
Week 14
December 8, 2014
LTEC 642
LTEC 642
Herein lie my closing
thoughts on what has been truly an enjoyable learning adventure into the world
of social media. Admittedly, I came into this course reluctantly, mainly
because of my concern for privacy and sharing information publicly. Another
reason was that I was uncertain of the value of what I would learn. However in
retrospect, I do see the value and benefit of “authentic learning through
collaboration”.
As this course has been primarily centered on collaboration and
authentic learning pedagogical principles, each tool learned and collaboration
has furthered my respect and appreciation for the new technologies adopted and
the collaborative learning that took place with online group activities.
While in the thick of things,
I wasn’t able to see personal development or growth so clearly. Now, taking a
step back, to look reflectively at where I started and where I am at the
conclusion of this program, tells me that much was achieved.
The highlights for me began
the first week with the personal introductions. This was the first time for me
to use an online tool such as Animoto. It was also the first time for me to create
a multimedia object where I would cut, splice and edit a video segment, and
drop it into an online tool. The reading for that week that was of particular benefit
was the journal article by Kristin Sherman, How social media changes our
thinking and learning. And indeed it has done just that, “it has changed my
thinking and learning.”
The outcomes from the collaborative
learning activities, which provided authentic tasks, did lead to deeper
learning, and higher levels of cognition. It was of interest to me that those with whom
I collaborated in week 4 on the topic of multitasking, lead me to understand
that many of us do multitask. However, the question we pondered was how
effective are we at multitasking. It was a lively and memorable dialogue, one that I appreciated; which
lead me to the conclusion that everyone in the learning activity had a
propensity toward doing a number of things at one time. One case in point was The
TCCfx Mini-Conference. It was insightful and more than I expected it would be;
however, trying to multitask and use Twitter to tweet while listening to speakers was quite the task.
Other highlights were Content
curation, building a Twitter network and building social capital with Pinterest
and Storify. Throughout the online learning process, I least enjoyed blogging;
not because I dislike writing, rather, much of the time it seemed to be
linear communication without much interaction. Without active and engaging discussion,
I felt I was merely writing for the sake of writing in a vacuum.
What I enjoyed the most was
our collectively coming together on Mondays through Blackboard Collaborative. It
was such a wonderful way to hear the voices and thoughts of others. Through it
all, I increased my knowledge, was able to use the Web 2.0 tools and apply
it to real-life situations.
Priceless.
References
Sherman, K. (2013). How social media changes our thinking and
learning. The Language Teacher, 37(4). Retrieved from jalt-publications.org/files/pdf-article/37.4tlt_plenary3.pdf
