This weekend a couple of things happened which helped me appreciate my virtual learning network. First, as part of the webtools course requirements, I participated in a live elluminate seminar. The topic was clip art for use in interactive online courses. Now, I don't teach any online courses, but I do teach students who occasionally get bored or distracted (rather like me). I did not walk away from this course with ideas I will use as presented, but I did come away with ideas to help make my presentations more learner-friendly.
I learned something else from attending this seminar: I don't multi-task well. I could either listen to the audio presentation, or read the chat, but there was no way I could concentrate on both at once. I know that research shows that students do much less well when trying to study and listen to music, but I watched this in action as I participated. I learned that I need to give my students time to first listen and then look, or the other way around, but to expect both at once is irresponsible.
The other learning event was the outbreak of several fires in the West Kelowna area. Yesterday afternoon a major forest fire broke out near Gorman Brothers Mill. People were evacuated almost right away, and as the fire spread I found myself following AM 1150 on Twitter. I also followed my facebook friends and the radio for news. Telus asked people to refrain from using cell phones except in emergency, so tweets sent by reporters from the front lines were really appreciated. When my son was called up to fight the fire I was able to let all my friends and relatives know. When one of my co-workers feared being evacuated I could see his facebook status; when another told us that her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter were safe, if not allowed home, we all rejoiced; we all knew when two more fires broke out during the evening and night and we all knew to stay away when another fire broke out this morning on this side of the lake. My PLN of virtual friends is almost identical to my PLN I see and work with, but online tools certainly help me keep up with changes.
I'm not sure how helpful this is with shaping how I teach, but it is certainly helpful as I build relationships with the people around me.
I hope all is well with the fire. I have not lived in an area which may be threatened with fire, but do know how natural disasters can affect a community (tornadoes, flooding).
ReplyDeleteI was on that Elluminate seminar last week. That same instructor teaches a course on setting up a Moodle, if you're interested.