Documenting & Sharing my Learning
In a recent post, about a Skype conversation with Silvia Tolisano, I described my search for an authentic audience for my students’ blogs and the purpose of students commenting on each others blog. In the hope of creating interest and driving traffic towards my students’ blogs, I gave details about my students and my subject content in a Google doc and on my blog’s Lesson page. These were two of Silvia’s suggestions.
This post is to document my self-determined learning resulting from our conversation.
In Silvia’s Blog, Langwitches, she has written about Documenting for Learning and Heutagogy
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a supporting piece for the study of self-determined learning–> Heutagogy
So what is Heutagogy? Here is one definition that I found on Heutagogy Community of Practice
knowledge sharing’ rather than ‘knowledge hoarding’. In this respect heutagogy looks to the future in which knowing how to learn will be a fundamental skill given the pace of innovation and the changing structure of communities and workplaces.
I see The Possibility Post as a forum to share, to reflect, curate links and teaching ideas, to remember and to provide documented evidence of my PD hours that I can also use for my Teacher Registration.
This is my documentation of my Skype conversation with Silvia on student blogs and how to drive traffic to my student’s blogs.
Silvia’s suggestions on a strategy to build an authentic audience for my students:
- post a blog about who I am and to introduce my students.
- be definite and to outline a purpose for blogging and comment
- give details: topics and times: Google doc
- develop my Personal Learning Network
- find 3-4 teachers from my PLN who are committed
- organise a ‘QuadBlog‘ for 1 month with teachers from my PLN
- document and share on my blog as a model of best practice
- read Vicki Davis and her website Cool Cat Teacher
- read Angela Maiers Choose 2 Matter: Liberating Genius in The Classroom
- follow hashtags such as #bringbackthecomments and #mrkrndvs
Cool Cat Teacher: Vicki Davis
Below are some quotes from Vickie Davis that resonate with me from her post entitled, 3 Simple Steps to help students become global citizens
The Arab-Israeli Conflict simulation out of the University of Michigan is a powerful way to connect and learn and so are ePals, iEarn, Taking IT Globaland many transformative organizations. Skype and Google Hangout have made the world a closer, more intimate place. But so have hashtags.
But to me, the best way to engage the classroom in a global conversation is to help the conversations become part of the classroom.
Resources for Student Blogging
Bringing Authenticity to Blogging
George Couros and the Innovator’s Mindset
After you build your PLN, help your students build theirs. Here is Cool Cat Teacher’s lesson plans on PLN building using Feedly.
How to Create a Robust and Meaningful Personal Learning Network [PLN]
Interesting, Ann. I downloaded and read Angela Maiers and Mark’s book on liberating genius and can see it being useful in the primary school. Thanks for your post, thought provoking as usual. Bess
Hi Bess,
Thanks for the comment. Have a look at the Tools page in Angela’s e-Book. The use of OneNote as a free tool to organise and collaborate will be very useful at all levels. I am also interested in how to use OneNote Class Notebook to help students take effective notes and manage their learning. Ann