One of the most impactful things that technology makes possible is giving people the chance to connect with each other no matter where they are in the world. At the beginning of the semester, we were assigned to watch Michael Wesch’s video, An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube. In this video, Wesch describes media as a human mediator as he states, “I think of media as mediating human relationship and that’s important because when media changes, then human relationships change.” Given that this course was completely web-delivered, we could definitely see how media does mediate relationships. Although we never met each other in person, we were still able to make connections with each other digitally. For this final blog post, I will be sharing all the different ways that I have connected with my EDTC 300 classmates and have contributed to their learning.
Course Blogs
Our course blogs were a great way to see each other’s learning project progress and thoughts on the assigned blog prompts. These blogs also allowed us to offer and receive advice or words of encouragement or ask questions. Every week, I made sure to make an effort by taking the time to leave comments on my peers’ blog posts, as well as reply to all the comments made on mine. Below are some of the contributions I made, as well as my responses to the contributions my peers made on my blog posts.
Contributions to the blogs of others (click to enlarge):
Links to the blog posts pictured above (in the same order as the photos):
- Learning to Cook: Introduction! by Celine Miskolczi
- Buongiorno! Perfect Pasta Project by Tracey Beaven
- Learning New Skills can be Deliciously Fun! By Shelly Ekren
- Rising to the Challenge by April Hildebrandt
- VideoScribe – a dream come true for visual learners by Kaeli Yoo
- I’ve Got My Head in the Clouds by Raylin Janzen
- Shrimp Jambalaya by Terrell Draude
- My Second Piano Journey by Meegan Svedahl
- Digital World = Digital Classrooms by Morgan Bray
- Week Four: Facebook Fondant Flowers by Sarah Stroeder
- Kelloggs Pyjamas and Self-Advocacy: This is serious business! by Cassie McCallum
- ABC’s, 123’s in ASL by Brianne Munro
- Going Back to My Roots by Jordan Wenger
- Week Two: The PERFECT Chocolate Chip Cookie by Sarah Stroeder
- New Tools, New Embroidery by Hailey Sills
- Let’s Start Baking by Jordan Wenger
- Learning to Code with a Turtle by Sarah Stroeder
- Making Faces by Raylin Janzen
Replies to comments made on my own blog posts (click to enlarge):
I believe that Twitter was the most interactive platform I engaged with throughout this course. Through Twitter, I was able to share several resources, reply to or retweet the resources or tweets that my peers tweeted, and even participate in some Twitter chats (#SaskEdChat, #TLAP, & #EdAdventures). Through these interactions, I was able to build upon my PLN by reconnecting with past professors and classmates and even with educators from different parts of the world. In the beginning, I was very nervous to use Twitter. However, I really grew to appreciate it. I genuinely enjoyed learning from and connecting with others and participating in Twitter chats. I think that Twitter will be one platform that I will continue to use throughout my teaching journey. The video above is a screen recording of my Twitter feed as of June 17, 2020.
Through Twitter, I also shared some of my own resources and projects I created in previous classes (see below).
Slack
Slack was the one tool that I rarely used and often forgot about. Although this was the case, I can still definitely see how much of a useful tool it can be, especially for asking questions directly related to the course. With that being said, I have used it in very few occasions. First was to share a relatable picture on the #random page, the second was to give a suggestion to one of my peers, and the last was when I was looking for someone to collaborate with for the cybersleuthing activity. I have scrolled and read through the discussions happening in the question and answer section, however I cannot say that I have actively contributed a lot. Below are the contributions that I did make.
Contributions on Slack (click to enlarge):
Although all of our interactions were online, I feel that we have been able to connect with each other at a personal level. I truly appreciate the connections that we were able to make through this course. Thanks for a great semester and I hope our paths cross again in the future. For now, I hope to keep in touch with all of you through Twitter! 🙂