Showing posts with label professional development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label professional development. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Thursday, November 15, 2012
My Twenty-Percent Project: Part 2 (Updated)
I am training to be a Ninja... Well, training to be a Gmail ninja at least, but that's besides the point :)
Part two of my twenty-percent project involves diving into the awesomeness that is Gmail. There is sooooo much to learn about gmail besides the basic creating & sending of email! So much so that the tutorial is estimated to take about three hours to complete, not counting the webinar from the Google Apps for Education Professional Development series, which in about an hour long by itself.
I'm not going to lie, this second section is taking much longer to work through than I had anticipated (especially when compared to the relatively short part 1 Introduction section I wrote about). There are eight different chapters to read through and as of now I have only made it through four of them. There's a fair amount of information that I am already familiar with since I use Gmail as my primary email address, but there are a lot of little nuances to each of the parts that I either hadn't used or hadn't even heard about before. I am taking notes along the way so that I'll hopefully remember it all when it comes down to taking the test *fingers crossed*.
I'm still enjoying this adventure and learning new, helpful tips but I'm realizing that I will probably not finish all six of the modules before the semester is over--actually I can almost guarantee that I won't considering that the Docs training is estimated at eight hours by itself(!). I am quite determined to work my way through this though and will keep you posted along the way! :)
I AM a Gmail Ninja :)
I got stubborn after writing my post and decided to plow through as many of the other four chapters as I could stand... only to find out that the last four were significantly shorter than the first--figures! Some of the learning highlights were the group chat option in gchat, color-coding message labels (didn't know you could do that!), and learning what the task function is really capable of (hint: it's great for the list makers out there). Overall, pretty cool stuff! I plan on keeping my notes and showing some of the highlights to the class in a few weeks so we can all benefit from it--but for now I will revel in my ninja status and get myself a well-deserved cookie ;)
Part two of my twenty-percent project involves diving into the awesomeness that is Gmail. There is sooooo much to learn about gmail besides the basic creating & sending of email! So much so that the tutorial is estimated to take about three hours to complete, not counting the webinar from the Google Apps for Education Professional Development series, which in about an hour long by itself.
I'm not going to lie, this second section is taking much longer to work through than I had anticipated (especially when compared to the relatively short part 1 Introduction section I wrote about). There are eight different chapters to read through and as of now I have only made it through four of them. There's a fair amount of information that I am already familiar with since I use Gmail as my primary email address, but there are a lot of little nuances to each of the parts that I either hadn't used or hadn't even heard about before. I am taking notes along the way so that I'll hopefully remember it all when it comes down to taking the test *fingers crossed*.
I'm still enjoying this adventure and learning new, helpful tips but I'm realizing that I will probably not finish all six of the modules before the semester is over--actually I can almost guarantee that I won't considering that the Docs training is estimated at eight hours by itself(!). I am quite determined to work my way through this though and will keep you posted along the way! :)
****UPDATE****
I AM a Gmail Ninja :)
I got stubborn after writing my post and decided to plow through as many of the other four chapters as I could stand... only to find out that the last four were significantly shorter than the first--figures! Some of the learning highlights were the group chat option in gchat, color-coding message labels (didn't know you could do that!), and learning what the task function is really capable of (hint: it's great for the list makers out there). Overall, pretty cool stuff! I plan on keeping my notes and showing some of the highlights to the class in a few weeks so we can all benefit from it--but for now I will revel in my ninja status and get myself a well-deserved cookie ;)
Thursday, October 25, 2012
My Twenty-Percent Project: Part 1
After much thinking and considering the input from my peers, I decided to focus my Twenty-Percent Project around becoming a Google Apps for Education (GAFE) qualified individual. I was really excited to try it out but also scared of what it would look like and what the test would ask me to do to prove that I am qualified.
So ready or not I started Module 1 today: Google Apps for Education (Admin). The training module was straight forward and fairly easy to follow--four chapters with different focus points to read/review. My former district had just begun using Google Apps my last year there so I had experience with what it offers and entails. There was general overview information, FAQs, and a fair amount of site administrator specific information. I wish that my GAFE account had admin privileges so I could click around & see what they were talking about, but even without it I was able to learn some pretty cool things that would have been helpful in my old district and will be helpful in the future. For example, my former district was not using the groups function to be best of their ability. Not only are groups able to be used for specific email lists, but even more useful is that you can share sites, docs, videos, and calendars and their permissions to those groups as well! And that these permissions self-update as you add or remove people from that group, without any extra steps. That by itself would have made our lives a lot easier last year!
After completing the training module it was time to take the test. Once you purchase the test and start it, you have 90 minutes to complete 60 multiple choice questions about the module you just completed. I was freaking out a little at first until I realized that you can go back into the training readings to find the answer if you're not sure (*phew!). After figuring that out and relaxing a bit, the test went smoothly and I was done with plenty of time (even with looking up a few answers). Anxiously clicking the "End Test" button I found the results below:
So ready or not I started Module 1 today: Google Apps for Education (Admin). The training module was straight forward and fairly easy to follow--four chapters with different focus points to read/review. My former district had just begun using Google Apps my last year there so I had experience with what it offers and entails. There was general overview information, FAQs, and a fair amount of site administrator specific information. I wish that my GAFE account had admin privileges so I could click around & see what they were talking about, but even without it I was able to learn some pretty cool things that would have been helpful in my old district and will be helpful in the future. For example, my former district was not using the groups function to be best of their ability. Not only are groups able to be used for specific email lists, but even more useful is that you can share sites, docs, videos, and calendars and their permissions to those groups as well! And that these permissions self-update as you add or remove people from that group, without any extra steps. That by itself would have made our lives a lot easier last year!
After completing the training module it was time to take the test. Once you purchase the test and start it, you have 90 minutes to complete 60 multiple choice questions about the module you just completed. I was freaking out a little at first until I realized that you can go back into the training readings to find the answer if you're not sure (*phew!). After figuring that out and relaxing a bit, the test went smoothly and I was done with plenty of time (even with looking up a few answers). Anxiously clicking the "End Test" button I found the results below:
Yay! Go me! :) You have to get 80% or higher to pass, so I was in the clear. The only thing I wish they would change is allow you to see what questions you missed--it drives me crazy when I get something wrong and I don't know why! But all in all, a good first Twenty-Percent Project day.
One part down, five more to go....
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Communities of Practice and My PLN
What is a community of practice (CoP)? Etienne Wenger defines it as such:
As I was reading the reference pages below I didn’t initially find myself feeling all that surprised with what I was seeing. These CoPs are already ingrained in our lives and experiences, and they seem so common sense. Sharing information with other teachers will make our own teaching better? Of course. Applying this shared information in the classroom can be more effective than relying solely on yourself? I hope so. I was wondering what the point of giving these groups a ‘name’ and writing about it was until I encountered this:
“In fact, communities of practice are everywhere. They are a familiar experience, so familiar perhaps that it often escapes our attention. Yet when it is given a name and brought into focus, it becomes a perspective that can help us understand our world better. In particular, it allows us to see past more obvious formal structures such as organizations, classrooms, or nations, and perceive the structures defined by engagement in practice and the informal learning that comes with it.”
Ok, good. I’m not totally crazy then--we have been doing this already. And giving it a name so that we can analyze it to use it in other contexts definitely makes more sense now.
And you know what? After reading that I gained a newfound appreciation of the fact that I have been participating in CoPs for a while now and that it seems so second nature to me. Collaborating with other educators is so important, necessary even, to ensure that we are helping our students learn as much as they possibly can under our guidance. These communities of practice can provide encouragement, inspiration, a support system, expertise, and much more as we interact with them throughout our teaching careers.
I think this concept of CoPs has a lot do with my own PLN and in analyzing where I want it to go. As Mark Smith mentions in “‘Communities of Practice,’ the encyclopedia of informal education”,
In terms of my in-person community of practice/PLN at school I feel like I have a lot to offer and have been more of a full participant--collaborating in world language department meetings, working with my grade level teammates to create individual action plans for students, and applying new practices in my classroom per the advice of my coworkers. These things have provided me with the opportunity to both give and take in my CoP and have been very positive experiences.
In order for my online PLN to become more of a community of practice, along with its positive experiences and benefits, I need to:
I’ve focused a lot on what a CoP means to me as an educator working on professional development but there is also the idea that the CoP model could work in the classroom as well, with the students working together with themselves and the teacher to bring real-world application into their learning. From what I’ve read of it it sounds like an interesting idea with great potential for enhancing student learning, but it is not without it’s issues or concerns.
In the work “Using Communities of Practice to Enhance Student Learning” Edward Bilodeau addresses some of the issues that can arise when using the CoP model directly with students. While he focuses a lot of the positives, he acknowledges that there could be issues in evaluation, community memberships, and power relationships among others. It's something I'd like to read more about to see how this concept could work with students in the classroom.
References:
Bilodeau, Edward. “Using Communities of Practice to Enhance Student Learning: Examples and Issues” (2003). http://www.coolweblog.com/bilodeau/docs/2003-10-01-cop-enhancing-student-learning.pdf
Smith, M. K. (2003, 2009) 'Communities of practice', the encyclopedia of informal education. www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm.
Wenger, Etienne. “Communities of Practice: A Brief Introduction” (2006). http://www.ewenger.com/theory/
| Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. |
As I was reading the reference pages below I didn’t initially find myself feeling all that surprised with what I was seeing. These CoPs are already ingrained in our lives and experiences, and they seem so common sense. Sharing information with other teachers will make our own teaching better? Of course. Applying this shared information in the classroom can be more effective than relying solely on yourself? I hope so. I was wondering what the point of giving these groups a ‘name’ and writing about it was until I encountered this:
“In fact, communities of practice are everywhere. They are a familiar experience, so familiar perhaps that it often escapes our attention. Yet when it is given a name and brought into focus, it becomes a perspective that can help us understand our world better. In particular, it allows us to see past more obvious formal structures such as organizations, classrooms, or nations, and perceive the structures defined by engagement in practice and the informal learning that comes with it.”
Ok, good. I’m not totally crazy then--we have been doing this already. And giving it a name so that we can analyze it to use it in other contexts definitely makes more sense now.
And you know what? After reading that I gained a newfound appreciation of the fact that I have been participating in CoPs for a while now and that it seems so second nature to me. Collaborating with other educators is so important, necessary even, to ensure that we are helping our students learn as much as they possibly can under our guidance. These communities of practice can provide encouragement, inspiration, a support system, expertise, and much more as we interact with them throughout our teaching careers.
I think this concept of CoPs has a lot do with my own PLN and in analyzing where I want it to go. As Mark Smith mentions in “‘Communities of Practice,’ the encyclopedia of informal education”,
“Initially people have to join communities and learn at the periphery. The things they are involved in, the tasks they do may be less key to the community than others.”
I feel like that is where I am at right now in terms of my own online PLN. I’m slowly starting to join different communities, exploring what they have to offer and teach me, but not really being able to provide much back to them yet. I cultivate a lot of information via Twitter, but I haven’t gotten into providing a lot of my own; I read other educator’s blogs but am still working on posting my own regularly; I have a Diigo account but haven’t started using it to connect and share with others. In terms of my in-person community of practice/PLN at school I feel like I have a lot to offer and have been more of a full participant--collaborating in world language department meetings, working with my grade level teammates to create individual action plans for students, and applying new practices in my classroom per the advice of my coworkers. These things have provided me with the opportunity to both give and take in my CoP and have been very positive experiences.
In order for my online PLN to become more of a community of practice, along with its positive experiences and benefits, I need to:
- become more involved. You can’t be a visitor in a CoP and reach the full potential of what that community can be and provide.
- practice what I/they preach. A CoP isn’t about just gleaning ideas and thinking about it--it is about putting them into practice and sharing with others what works and what doesn’t.
I’ve focused a lot on what a CoP means to me as an educator working on professional development but there is also the idea that the CoP model could work in the classroom as well, with the students working together with themselves and the teacher to bring real-world application into their learning. From what I’ve read of it it sounds like an interesting idea with great potential for enhancing student learning, but it is not without it’s issues or concerns.
In the work “Using Communities of Practice to Enhance Student Learning” Edward Bilodeau addresses some of the issues that can arise when using the CoP model directly with students. While he focuses a lot of the positives, he acknowledges that there could be issues in evaluation, community memberships, and power relationships among others. It's something I'd like to read more about to see how this concept could work with students in the classroom.
What does your community of practice look like? What areas would you focus on to make improvements and get the most out of it?
Image credit: Allan, B. (Designer). (2008). Knowledge creation within a community of practice. [Web]. Retrieved from http://masters.bilbea.com/extras/Chinese_teacher_PD/Chinese_teacher_PD_final.html via http://convcme.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/communities-of-practice-a-framework-for-learning-and-improvement/
References:
Bilodeau, Edward. “Using Communities of Practice to Enhance Student Learning: Examples and Issues” (2003). http://www.coolweblog.com/bilodeau/docs/2003-10-01-cop-enhancing-student-learning.pdf
Smith, M. K. (2003, 2009) 'Communities of practice', the encyclopedia of informal education. www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm.
Wenger, Etienne. “Communities of Practice: A Brief Introduction” (2006). http://www.ewenger.com/theory/
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