Taking time to reflect allows for a chance to look back and learn even more. That is what I have found to be true with this class. Each week, I have gone through the motions of marking off every item on the checklist we have been given for class. Some weeks, I learn a lot. Other weeks, I do not learn anything, at least, not at first. I have found that I have learned more from this class during times of reflection than when I actually do the assignments.
When I started this class, I had no idea what to expect. My first thought was that this would be just another technology course that had a lot of reading that would not make any sense. After the first week of assignments, I quickly figured out that my initial expectations of the class were a fail.
Literacy in the Digital Age is just the opposite of my expectations. All of the readings we have had to read so far are very easy to understand and contain useful information that I will use while teaching. As for the technology aspect, I was a little skeptical at first about adding a twitter account to my very short list of social media, but it has given me some useful information over the course so far. Overall, this course has exceeded my expectations, and I have learned a lot.
The most challenging module for me so far has been Module Five: Building your PLN (Personal Learning Network). I think this has been the most challenging partly because it was the most time-consuming. It is also the module that requires constant review in order to improve and expand my PLN. This module was also the most challenging because I had no idea where to start. The module gave great examples of what to Google in order to begin, but I felt like I needed to do more than asked. I have also found that some of my resources were not as useful as they first appeared which is frustrating, but it is also a great place to start with the improvement.
As the second semester begins, I hope to learn how to continue adding to my PLN and other ways to successfully add to my social media profiles that will leave a good digital profile. I also hope to learn ways to incorporate social media into a standard classroom. I have picked up on a few tips so far, but I am always open to learning more.
Barbara, I am glad that I was not the only one that found the PLN to be the most challenging module out of all that we have done. I think that choosing a topic to focus on was the hardest part to decide on and I just ended up choosing science education.
I found that choosing the topic was easy for me because I wanted to learn more about math and science, so I did not narrow my searches too much. However, finding quality blogs and twitter accounts to follow was a struggle for me. I find myself unfollowing people all the time and adding in others that are better because I could not tell which one would be better when starting my PLN.
I have been doing the same thing. It kind of like a needle in a hay stack actually finding someone worth while to follow.