Monthly Archives: October 2013

How Being Connected had Impacted my Classroom

Posted on by

3

World Influence

I totally love the above picture. I took this a few minutes ago from my wordpress statistics and it shows a map of everywhere in the world my blog has been read. Imagine…. that my thoughts have been shared with people on almost every corner of the globe. I first began my connected education journey less than a year ago.

Since becoming a connected educator I have:
-collaborated with colleagues to develop an online teacher training program
-established an international bookclub for a group of grade 3 students.
– Began a pen pal program between Japan, Canada and America.
-vlogged
– collaborated with colleagues to develop a number of google+ communities
-co-wrote Haiku Deck stories with students in my office
-participated in the DS106 Daily Create
-Completed 5 different MOOC`s
-Google Hung Out
-Skyped
-Blogged
-developed a number of different pinterest pages
-co-created the Canadian School Counsellor hash tag #cscchat
– Set up a meeting in Calgary from my desk in Japan
– created a number of Livebinders to help with my various teaching assignments, ESL, counselling etc..
-continued to connect with colleagues, family and students in Canada while living in Japan.
-Read countless blogs and tweets
-Taught myself basic Japanese using pod casts.

How has connecting impacted your classroom? I am interested in your ideas both as a form of celebration and inspiration.

Erin

Connecting Today

Posted on by

0

This morning I participated in the following Connected Educator event*
StephenJones
Unfortunately the original key speaker was unavailable due to illness. However we had the pleasure of being able to work with Roz Hussin https://plus.google.com/117219403239374562288#117219403239374562288/posts
who agreed to facilitate the session in Stephen`s place. Roz did a fabulous job of sharing with us how being a member of an online environment can reduce isolation. I`ve chosen to highlight a few of her slides which had the most impact on me.

Roz`s 3Rs
In today`s world it is no longer enough to be able to read and write and perform basic math. She proposes the following 5R`s to be the minimum requirements to become an individual who is able to coexist in with others.

step by step process
New technology can be SCARY which can cause those who are not comfortable to develop a technophobia. Roz suggests that helping students to have such a good time learning tech stuff, they forget that they were originally worried is a great strategy. Engage Technophilia- Make Learning Fun

creating a positive perception on line
Creating a postive digital footprint is one way of demonstrating a postive character and impression. We are more than our high school transcripts. Open source online communities are one way to help reduce societies economic barriers.

Our class came up with the following ways that connecting has impacted our lives*
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1tbssgApCIiAv8Kg7JVBBlx75ksdrBYLHSJBcWUgoTdc/edit#slide=id.p

Great reads
What Connectivism Is (Stephen Downes) http://halfanhour.blogspot.de/2007/02/what-connectivism-is.html

What Connectivism Is Not (Stephen Downes) http://www.downes.ca/post/53657

Potential impact in mainstream and non-traditional education (Hussin & Kim)
Slides – https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B65XgVipBfIFbVB3d0M4bDJFQmM/edit?usp=sharing
Paper – https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B65XgVipBfIFSUI2Q0dNSUtqbU0/edit?usp=sharing