July 27th, 2020: the first day of the last week of the Summer Semester.
With no new tools or readings to react to this week, I want to focus on reflecting on the long strange trip we have taken over the last twelve weeks. Instead of starting at the beginning and going through step-by-step, lets just start with the topic of projects in general.
Now I should preface this by reminding everyone that this is only the second semester of in the ISLT program. Thus far in my academic journey, there has been a significant emphasis placed on research and papers and annotated bibliographies and the standard three separate postings on discussion boards.
Formulaic and (probably) effective.
I am a wordy son-of-a-gun and meeting minimum word counts or pages has very rarely been an issue of mine. While I can't say that I live for reviewing academic journals, I do love writing a good paper. I was taken aback this semester to find not just a limit on word counts, but a pretty significantly small limit on word counts. Overall, the biggest challenge I faced in EME6414 was trying to convey my experience with zero frills and little background to just get down to brass tax. While I say challenge, it was such a welcomed change of pace.
Now, lets dig into each assignment a little more:
Community Assignment
The first project of the semester did wonders for my self-efficacy. While in the trenches of my two groups, I felt like a boat with no sail. What was I doing? What was I supposed to really be looking for within these groups? How would I adequetly share my experience? Then I sat down to write. And it came. I brain dumped all over the place. It all felt so relevant and important and it just flowed. I was then faced with the challenge of nixing information that felt crucial to the picture I was trying to paint. As I would make cuts, I was then faced with the issue of later content feeling unexplained and had to cut it as well. When all said and done, I still was a few lines over the limit, but it physically pained me to have to cut certain observations that truthfully needed all of that space on the page.
But I did it, and I felt good about it!
From an instruction standpoint, I absolutely loved having learners thrown into the wild west of the internet. I couldn't help but lose myself in thought of how a condensed version of this project could play into various lessons in a traditional education or training scenario.
From a personal stand-point, this assignment helped me see the value of true interaction beyond lurking within communities I was already a part of.
Knowledge Sharing and Tracking
The best laid plans, am I right? While I had set out with the noblest of intentions this semester, life got in the way right as I should have been gearing up for this assignment. By the time I had a moment to breathe and set out to jump into the project, I felt it too late to really engage in a way that would show through in my work. Thus, I decided to settle for the concept.
In my paper, I compared Twitter and YouTube and the strengths and weaknesses present in each platform's ability to collect, curate, share, broker, negotiate and construct knowledge. Being that I have such a personal interest in content creators and their uses for each platform, it was fun to imagine it through an educational lens. I think if I had more time I would have liked to produce the contents from the paper alongside a video comparing and contrasting experiences on Twitter to YouTube.
Overall, I was happy with some of the distinctions I made, although with no feedback on the assignment, I am hoping I at least met expectation.
Produsage
Alright, back on track! I was discouraged by having to settle for the concept version of the second assignment and refused to settle for less than the full version of the third project. I shuffled through all of our tools through the semester trying to create the most Web 2.0-infused course I possibly could -- and I did! And it was terrible. It read like I was trying too hard. It didn't feel realistic. So before even setting out to plan the lesson, I scrapped it for some tried and true interaction. I used social sites I was familiar with prior to the course, but did this because I decided that my group of learners would be from a commuter-based institution enrolling in a lower-level elective course. I centered my topic in a hobby of mine, photography, and tried to think about how to situate a class within the subject in an online space. I focused on building community between students while teaching the actual lesson but simultaneously boost their digital literacy.
My thought was that this fantasy learner profile would include non-traditional students. They may or may not be familiar with some of these "basic" social sites. Even if they were, there would probably be room for improvement in their using the site in general and especially for a professional/formal use.
I found the assignment unconventional, but very much enjoyed it nonetheless. It was my first lesson planning experience. While I have created training sessions, participant workbooks, and conference curriculum, creating one stand-alone lesson plan challenged me more than any other part of the project.
PLN
The final unchecked box. This 3-5 page reflection on where my personal learning network has been and where it is going is an exciting topic. I am still undecided as to if I will focus my efforts on a hobby or my professional network which I have worked to grow pretty significantly (with the help of tools discovered in this course!) over the summer.
