Sharing on-line – Why do we blog or shy away from it?

ccoffa Blogs, Professional_learning

I am involved in an online community called ETMOOC  (which I hesitate to call a Course for reasons explained here).  It is suggested that we use a blog as a reflective and communication tool.  I was happy with this as blogging has become part of my professional activity over the past few years and it fits with my learning style, interests and skills.  Quite naturally though, there are many who are new to blogging and I have noticed a large degree of trepidation amongst the first nervous posts.  I have seen this amongst my colleagues as well, a mixture of people who are comfortable in this medium and those who are not, or at least use it in only one facet of their professional lives.   It makes sense, as we know that we are all different, have different learning styles, are somewhere along the introversion/extroversion scale and will therefore all have different comfort levels at exposing our thinking in a public medium.

Four barriers to Blogging, by Ian Gray, suggests that Perfectionism and Procrastination are two major reasons why people don’t blog.   My thinking is that the Perfectionism is the major one: many people believe that they have nothing to offer or that others know more than them and therefore their contributions would be of lesser value.   I would like to encourage people to re-think their attitude if Perfectionism is hindering their involvement. I have mentioned this short clip before “Obvious to you. Amazing to others” but it remains relevant .

Are you holding back because you think you have nothing worthwhile to share?  If so, I would like you to re-consider, think about how you happily read other people’s posts and how ideas and fears resonate with you.  In my experience, the benefits gained from putting yourself out there far outweigh the nervous apprehension felt when your mouse hovers over the PUBLISH button.   I admit that blogging is a risky experience but so too are most learning opportunities!

“Nothing spectacular just my ordinary thoughts” – Derek Sivers

If you are new to blogging I congratulate you and suggest you persist, find a purpose (ETMOOC for example) and blog away.  Don’t be deterred by a lack of comments as sadly there is only a very small number of people who read and actually comment despite enjoying what they read!   If you are an experienced blogger perhaps you could add to the conversation?  Why do you blog?

On-line learning – a MOOC

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Another opportunity to learn has come to me through Twitter connections.  An online course, a Massive Open Online Course or MOOC, in this case ETMOOC.  Reading the Introduction and this post by Donna Fry (@fryed) caught my attention as it appears that this course will have some structure and planned content in areas that interest me but also plenty of flexibility to harness the power of the group of people who are participating.  The Google+ community is already being populated by an amazing group of people who come from across the world.   I am enjoying watching the Introductory messages people are posting on Google + as well as via Twitter. The global nature of this course will be a highlight.

So here goes …. my first MOOC which still think it sounds strange but so did Blog and Wiki a while ago! 😉  It seems reasonable at this stage to ask the question, So what is a MOOC?

By way of introduction to the new #etmooc community, I am a teacher in a small primary school in Melbourne Australia.  This year, I am also taking on a coaching role, assisting schools to implement online learning and harness the value of ICT’s.    I have participated in online learning opportunities before, in particular, the State Library of Victoria’s Personal learning Network program.   This opened the world to me and was my introduction to blogging and Twitter, which have transformed my thinking as an educational professional.  The concept of sharing online was scary and still is at times, but the benefits it has given me far outweigh the discomfort I have felt.

I have participated in Reform Symposium’s online learning opportunities as well but never before in a MOOC !  I think this will be a wonderful extension of my previous experience and be another wonderful opportunity to extend my network. The first task is to introduce ourselves and this post and this short Animoto video are my contribution.

Change

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Glitter Words
[Glitterfy.com – *Glitter Words*]
Whilst still on holidays, my mind is now turning towards the new school year.  I will be experiencing a number of changes this year, having taken on a coaching role, as well as continuing my previous work in a slightly reduced role.  I was asked recently how I feel about change, and I responded that I enjoy it – in fact, I get easily bored and thrive on change.  Along with change however does come some challenge.  To change, you must relinquish something, and our tendency is often to avoid that risk.     Risk taking is a trait we often cite as one we want to promote in the children we teach: in order to enable them to be efficient learners, they need to take risks.   So it seems obvious that teachers need to take risks too.   I  am happy to say that I regularly witness teachers who are risk takers and teachers who are willing to expose their learning to their students –  I believe this is a significant change in the past few years.  As a student, I certainly never witnessed it in my teachers.

To embrace the possibilities that the increased access to information and Web 2.0 technologies allow, most teachers must change to a mindset that did not exist in their earlier careers.   Access to the wonders of the internet and the tools we have that connect, collaborate and create mean that we must continue to change our way of thinking – we must accept that our classrooms extend well beyond the constraints of the bricks and mortar that used to limit us.     There are so many wonderful examples of this already happening, but much more needs to be done to match the lives our students are already living beyond our schools.

One thing that concerns me is that there appears to be a divide between those who are open to change and those who are unaware of the opportunities, fearful of the changes, or downright indignant that they are being asked to adapt.   Matt Esterman in his recent blogpost “Mind the Cows”, puts a beautifully positive slant on this :

The paradox of being a teacher is, I think, that on the one hand we are constantly told to keep developing professionally (and personally, as ours is such a personal vocation) and yet at the same time to retain and foster those aspects of our practice that are positive, passionate and/or already effective. We are definitely complex beings if only we had the time to truly map out our own complexity.

I would like to argue that educators can and should do both. To straddle the paradox. To grow and build on knowledge and skills in order to become better whilst at the same time maintain aspects of our professional lives that are of benefit to our students and our colleagues. Part of this is to instil a sense of independence fused to collegiality and collaboration, to feel that we are contributing as an individual to a shared vision alongside others.

The issue is; what needs changing? Or as Matt asks “What sacred cows do you want to push over?”.   Those risks that we take when we make changes are reduced when we have clear purpose and understanding.

Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change – this is the rhythm of living. Out of our over-confidence, fear; out of our fear, clearer vision, fresh hope. And out of hope, progress.”  Bruce Barton  (from BrainyQuote)

 

2000 Tweets

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If anyone had told me a few years ago that as of December 2012, I would have accumulated a story of 2000 tweets, 1166 followers and be following 883 others, I would have seriously doubted it. But here I am today, and these are the statistics.

It has been an amazing journey and I have enjoyed every bit. I followed what appears to be the traditional route – sign up, lurk, follow a few, a few retweets and then getting in to the full swing of it and encouraging others to participate too.  As a professional, I think differently because of the potential Twitter has opened up for me.  I now have connections and in some case new friendships with an amazing network of educators – educators from all over the world, from all sectors of education and involved in leadership, as well as all levels of education – primary, secondary and tertiary. I follow a few of the ‘celebrity’ educational tweeters, but draw more support from the every day teachers who so generously participate in this global staffroom.

It has been very encouraging over the past few months to see positive stories about the use of Twitter as a tool to enhance our learning.  Hopefully this is un-doing some of the bad reputation Twitter has accumulated by the poor use of a few celebrities.

When you are so convinced that something is great, it is easy to be evangelistic and suggest that everyone should get involved, but I will not be that idealistic.  I do hope however, that all teachers in some way accept that our profession is no longer private, we should be looking for opportunities to share our questions, or ideas and our passions. Whether they join a Ning, read blogs, participate in online learning opportunities or at the very least talk to the teachers in their school and share ideas and thoughts. We owe it to our students to model this style of learning.

There are many other posts on the value of Twitter – a few below

Again; Relevance, Why Twitter by Tom Whitby

Are you ready 4 Twitter? Another wonderful post by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano.

Does Twitter improve education? or “Does the USE of Twitter Improve Education?” by George Couros

A video from AITSL’s Teacher Feature Collection

Finally a wonderful post by Bec Spink, about her use of Twitter with students as well as a professional learning opportunity.

Thanks to all those who have been part of this journey and in particular to the State Library of Victoria’s PLN program that was the instigator for my original connection. I wonder what I will be tweeting about in 2 more years or 2000 tweets away?

TeachMeet Wrap up

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Last Saturday, we had another TeachMeet Melbourne. Once again there was a beautiful variety of presentations and as had become part of the TMMelb nature, we were hosted in a wonderful educational setting – this time the Gould League, Centre for Sustainability Education. The numbers were smaller than other meetings, but the busy time of year with report writing etc probably explains that. I will let the following Storify tell the story.

I am so grateful to have become part of this wonderful and ever expanding group of educators, I am constantly re-invigorated by my association with teachers from all spheres and all levels of education. I hope that in 2013 we can continue to develop and provide an opportunity for more people to come on board.