How do we learn? What are the necessary aspects to learning that we have to have in order to learn? And once we have an idea of what those are, how do we optimize for learning? These are some of the ideas that we explored in EDTECH 543 this semester. Yes, the course was predominantly about using social networks for learning, but we also explored many of these topics and themes that are universal to learning no matter the environment or platform.
At first, this course seemed like it might be a bit easy for me. After all, I’ve got years of experience using social media for blogs (like this one) so how much different could it be to use those same accounts for developing professional networks and learning? What I found was that there are many similarities and some of the activities were indeed somewhat simple. Other activities were much more interesting and difficult. It turns out that using social media for networking is pretty close to using it for promotional purposes. You still want to build a network of like-minded people in order to share ideas with. Using social media for learning goes in a different direction. You become the consumer of information first, then curate and value add to the information in order to broaden the overall community’s thought and learning on the subject.
The tools are a bit different as well. Or can be. I can see the value of using some of the tools that I’ve discovered (like GroupTweet) for marketing purposes, but they’re also incredibly useful for learning and teaching online with social media. The challenge, I found, was that there are so many ways to do just about anything is to be able to identify the right tool for the job.
Overall, through the semester, I’ve added skills in building social media networks and learning through them, I’ve added skills in integrating social media into curriculum and learning, I’ve discovered new tools and ways of learning online, and I’ve found a renewed interest in developing a robust network on social media. This last thing is somewhat difficult as it requires time and intent which also requires some level of dedication to building that network. Going forward, this will be challenging, as it’s something that I haven’t been good about in the past and will have to learn to do more of. But, much like entering the semester, I think it’s still important to have an open mind and embrace new things as we learn and grow as educators.
Shane Ede: My EDTECH Learning Log 