I am currently buried under the self motivated (!?) task of identifying and verbalising concisely why I do what I do at the moment. It stems from the realisation that it is through experiencing with and gaining fluency* in the use of a range of tools that I am seeing the transformative learning processes that they enable. Another root is that through experience and increased fluency has developed an "online me", a digital self, an identity that I have total control over, that is an amplification of who I actually am. This online identity gives me visibility, connectedness and a consciousness of self that leads more naturally to bursts of reflection like this one! To capture learning moments, curate them, share them, get feedback and reflect upon them constitute a journey. A life long learning journey that augments my understanding of self, no end in sight no certificate no pay rise. I am told that it should be leading to plenty of satisfaction. Right now it is pretty messy.
So enters the opportunity to list where I get my inspiration from, and to use a new tool that is pretty useful to bundle together a range of reference websites and display them to share. It is called Bundlr .
This tool could be used in the classroom to bundle reference websites to share with students or students could work together to create a class one on themes that make them tick. What this makes visible to me right now is that my Inspiration comes very much from the world of Education. Which is not surprising considering I am a teacher and trainer. But I take it as a reminder to look at ways at opening my horizons further, especially when considering bringing a range of people from a range of spaces together around eportfolios. I feel this is going to stay messy for a while yet!
*Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano talks about iPad fluency and makes the analogy with grammar and language learning. It talked to me.
"I believe we’ve made learning way more complicated than it should be. As teachers I maintain we have two very important roles to play that support the classic view of learning: model and connect. If we can see ourselves as mentors, mentors in how to learn and then connect our students to other learners who share their passions and interests we’ll have put ourselves in a wonderful position to truly make a difference for kids."
ReplyDeleteI like this quote (from the Ideas & thoughts website). It encapsulates who I'd like to be as a teacher, and who I hope I am at least some of the time. I'm certainly working towards it, at a Mainland cheese pace, it sometimes feels. I often speak to the students about my own language-learning journey and suggest a wide range of ways they might consider for owning their learning rather than waiting for it to be pre-packaged for them. They certainly have frequent opportunities to see me modeling being a passionate user of other languages.
I like your Bundlr. It's an attractive way of making a collection of favourite sites.
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I am pleased you too have enjoyed Dean Shareski. I have never heard him speak live but he shares so many of his presentations that I dont miss out on his take on building communities and digital identity! This is what fascinates me about what i can find at my finger tips really. Talking about teachers as mentors there is quite a lot I am coming across about teachers as coaches at the mo. Something else to investigate I suppose! Glad you like Bundlr too!
DeleteLooking forward to your feedback on the Franseme. Looks like you've had some very satisfied customers in Aaron and Sandrine. It's encouraging to hear that the AK French teachers are keen to exchange rather than just receive. Maybe it mirrors a pedagogical shift and they are realising that one learns better by taking a more active role in the process.
ReplyDeleteLess public feedback is also gathering in the googleform shared to participants. There was a variety of things, information, show and tell and participative workshops. All receive equal amounts of positive feedback by different individuals. Which indicates variety is important. I had to revert to show and tell rather than the hands on tools as planned (discovery through doing) since access to internet was limited and that people were not equipped... it is obvious to me that for many of our French teachers peers their daily experience with tech is poor and a source of pain. There were quite a few new young faces though and it was great to see they were prepared to stand up and share at a moment's notice. The sessions sequence was a bit of a source of frustration for some which is music to my ears: while we built in a lot of network time Fransème was very much organised on the conference type timetable. I am keen to see this evolve towards an Educamp format as I did at FrenchCamp last year. Thinking of Educamp people travel across islands to attend on a Saturday so there is a long way to go to achieve this type of buy in LOL since there were just Auckland teachers at Fransème, I was the only out of towner. It does not have to be like this either. I really really enjoy working with the NZAFT exec people they have so many skills and competence i can learn from also. It is all good!
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