This past week has been a wave of new learning experiences for me. I have jumped (er…been pushed??!) into the digital landscape in a way that I never have before. My motto for social media has been (and in many other realms of life as well): only do something that you have the time and capacity to do well. All that changed earlier this week when I posted my first tweet (gulp) and started this blog.
LinkedIn has been my “go to” form of social media. I admit it…I am a LinkedIn junkie and love to promote this platform to my students and colleagues. It’s my professional learning community. I learn from other career practitioners across Niagara, Ontario, Canada, America and the world. In my daily work, we use the term “community of practice” to describe this process of collaborative learning and sharing of knowledge. I recently started a LinkedIn group for one of my community initiatives as part of developing a community of practice for youth service providers in Niagara. Although this technically falls outside of my Master of Education studies (and the #5P42 Innovative Curriculum and Assessment) it is part of my story through this educational journal of digital learning in the 21st century.
I feel quite overwhelmed by all of this recent digital exposure. For someone who has successfully avoided signing up on Facebook…my online presence just received a huge boost.
Things that I have learned in the 3 days that I have been on Twitter:
– creating a username is challenging
– having something meaningful to say is even more challenging
– people will follow you…and you actually do have meaningful things to say
– people will challenge you…on what you say
– social media is a platform for challenge
– I am seriously starting to like some of this stuff and exploring the interconnectedness of these platforms
– I have 5 followers and am following 14 “people”
– I cannot figure out why my #hashtags are not viewing – and for once Google is not helping!
I hope that I do not “fail to thrive” during this process. Although, I am encouraged by Professor Susan Drake’s commitment in the syllabus that states: BE open to new approaches, making mistakes and learning from them (check), BE an engaged contributing participant (check), BE the co-creator of the new story of education (er…gulp?)…
More to come as this journey towards curriculum, assessment in the 21st century unfolds and as I learn to navigate the digital space while learning from my peers. All from the lens of a career practitioner focused on school-work transitions, experiential learning and single mom of a 5 year old. Let the exploration begin!
risbrown 