I participated in a couple of Blackboard Collaborate Sessions hosed by the ET MOOC and I've been following the Twitter chatter on #etMooc. There's also a Blog Hub, aggregating blogs posted by participants. As one writer said, "it's frustrating because there is so much info and too little time."
If you don't know what a MOOC is, this "What is a MOOC?" article is useful.
I'm participating in these as part of my efforts to connect with others who share the same goals and strategies for making k-12 volunteer-based tutoring, mentoring, learning and career focused programs available to youth in more places. At any given time I'm connected to a diverse base of people from all parts of the world. This Twitter Mention Map from yesterday visualizes who I was connecting with on Twitter.
The MOOCs are free and you can participate at your own pace, learning what you want, when you want. This is a long-term learning process not something that you can master in a day or a week. I hope to see you on-line.
Hi Daniel. From reading your blogpost & your website, I can tell you have worked at making connections for others & birthing vision for volunteerism & leadership in them. I really appreciate the work you're doing. Your first paragraph helped me think about the things that are important to me in this new world of social media: "It's been a busy week. I've continued to reach out to people who are involved in volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs, or who could support the growth of such programs with their time, talent, dollars, etc. I've also continued to expand my own knowledge and network by participating in the EductionTechnology MOOC..." First, you mention, connecting with people, some of who share our vision & those whom we can pass it on to. Secondly, we must be lifelong learners, which keeps us hungering for more to be our best at what we do and encourages others in the learning process. There are always new skills, new knowledge, and new perspectives for us to engage.
ReplyDeleteOne of the challenges we face is learning how to manage the glut of information and the rapid pace of change in our world. I know it is for me as a technology leader for my high school district and those I work with. You can imagine how challenging it must be for young people who have limited life experience and education. Mentoring - coming alongside children is a valuable way for us to them navigate their way. I suppose that's why I enjoy having been a teacher and mentoring teachers.
Another challenge is how we engage relationships. Online relationships are different and definitely take more time to cultivate than those we have face to face. Our expectations have to change, I think, or we can become disappointed. I've seen this in some of the posts on #ETMOOC. What are your thoughts about this? Is it a frustration? Is it an encouragement to meet people with such a variety of backgrounds & experiences?
Thanks again for your online presence. Your writing has given me some new perspective on some ways we can really encourage positive change.
thanks for posting your ideas. I've been using the Internet to expand my network of ideas and people since 1998, thus I'm comfortable with the challenges that are involved.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, as you browse my blog you'll see that I'm trying to connect locally and globally with people who share my passion for building systems of support for inner city youth and how finding talent of people who can write, visualize, and help collect and organize all of this stuff is a priority goal.
I use various graphics to illustrate the 12 years it takes for a young person to go from first grade to high school graduation, and the 4-8 years beyond that to get to a point where they are starting a career (perhaps after many jobs).
While that process takes 20 years and many kids don't have the same support systems as others, there are another 40 to 50 years in most people's lives where they will be working, raising families, and have an opportunity to use their talent, time and dollars more strategically to help younger generations move from birth to work.
I think that we need to motivate learning at all age levels. We also need to aggregate information related to specific problems, like the environment, or AIDS, or poverty, etc. so that people can be encouraged to learn from the same information other people are learning from so that we converge on common solutions and are committed to yearly, and life-long actions that implement these solutions in more places.
Young people can not only be involved in the learning, but can be involved in creating, organizing and communicating the content people learn from.
My hope is that you and other educators will see this opportunity and will reach out to work with me in ways I describe throughout the blog.