As I sit here and reflect on how EDTC 300 went for me throughout the semester, I cannot help but think about doing it without the interactions and help I have had from my fellow classmates. For this blog post, I am going to go over how my classmates have helped me as well as what my contributions to the class were. Throughout the semester, there were four different ways that I communicated with the class and contributed to their learning: writing my own blog posts, commenting on my classmates blog posts, using Slack, as well as Twitter.
SIMPLY CIERA: My Blog Page
For EDTC 300, we were required to create a blog and write weekly blog post. At first I was nervous as I had never done anything like it but I soon came to enjoy it and have realized the importance of it. Having your own Blog gives you the freedom to explain your thoughts and share them with whomever, for example your classmates. You are able to easily share links, pictures, videos, and many other things all at once! Another thing I was able to do was use my Blog as a platform for my Learning Project. I was able to share my meals, recipes, pictures with my classmates as well as get their feedback on all of my Blog posts.
Commenting on my Classmates Blog Posts
I had a lot of fun doing this part as it was an easy, quick, fun way to connect with your classmates and catch up on what they had been busy writing about and doing each week. It was neat to see how their blog looked, how they felt about certain things like the prompted blog posts, which were their go to resources, or even just to watch their Learning Project over the semester. I think that commenting on their posts is so important. Not only did you get to have a conversation with them but you also got to feel like you supported them and helped them in a way. When I seen that someone commented on one of my blog posts I got so excited and could not wait to hear what they thought about it. Being able to reflect on ones way of thinking can teach you something and get you to think about something from a different perspective. The following pictures are examples of how I contributed to the learning of others:
The Slack Community
Slack was something that was very new to me this semester as I had never heard of it before. It is a way to communicate with your team. It’s faster, better organized, and more secure than email. I found this to be a super useful throughout the semester because it was easy to communicate and ask questions while getting quick replies because it is like texting. With everything currently being all online, Slack would be a great way to communicate with your students especially for the younger grades as it is easier to navigate compared to sending an email. I tend to take awhile to answer emails or I miss some because I receive quite a few of them or do not have my laptop on me. Slack you can get on your phone which is super convenient.
I am not going to lie, Twitter was something I struggled with at the beginning but soon figured out how to make more use of it and use it to my advantage. I barely went on Twitter or used it. At the beginning of the semester I maybe went on twitter once a week or twice max. Now, I check my twitter feed and am sharing stuff on it daily. I have found so many useful resources on Twitter that I re-tweeted so that I have them for later. One of my favourite things to do on Twitter is to attend a Twitter Chat called #saskedchat. It is a great way to connect with other Educators from all across the world! Here is my Twitter handle: Ciera Romanow.
Although I only covered four of the main platforms I used this semester, there are many more out there that I have used and that I do not even know about. They allowed me to communicate and reflect with my classmates as well as expand my learning resources. I am excited for the future and using all of these resources as a Teacher in the future!
Ciera