I anticipate that the learning that will stick with me the longest came in module two. Developing a deeper understanding of communities of practice, connectivism, and personal learning networks is most closely connected to the work I care most about in education. It is not necessarily my role, but it helps drive conscious use of technology in my district. I am especially attracted to the ideas behind connectivism. I had been following Siemens and Downes on Twitter for some time, but was late to the party. Now I have greater context to help understand what I am reading.
I was pleased to see that the social media policy my district employs is solid. It holds hope for using social media tools in the future in my district. That said, social media use in schools is increasingly becoming sensitive. I am seeing more and more research examining the risks that the combination of social media and mobile device use present to children. As a parent of two girls of this generation, it is absolutely frightening. Kids are losing their way in digital worlds while adults remain ill-equipped to counsel and model an experience of adolescence they cannot relate to. Schools need to learn to value a deep examination of social-emotional impacts of technology use if school is to reflect the real world we expect them to succeed in. This should make a powerful argument for inquiry driven pedagogy where teachers are learning with students to solve these problems. Unfortunately, someone will have to decide which standards are not covered in order to make this a priority. I am not optimistic.
I think I have consistently made an effort to keep blogging for this course on topic while at the same time working to understand how it applies to my role and my personal interests in education. - 75/75
