02 | July | 2013 | doug — off the record

Any day now, there are many educators that will be starting Additional Qualification courses over the summer. There are a couple of things that will be certain to happen during these courses.

Some sort of goofy ice-breaking, get-to-know-ya activity. This activity will definitely take up at least the first hour of any course. They are a necessity since you’ll be learning with others in a concentrated period of time;
What’s your Twitter handle? Any AQ leader worth their muster will be gathering these names and/or encouraging those who are not online learning to do so. Then, there’s the mandatory “Hello World” Twitter message followed by “Is this thing on?” and then often little more.

The challenge with additional qualification courses lies in generating value after the course has ended. This value comes from professional relationships or professional conversations after the last day. Having taken a large number of these courses, I was bad with that. At the time, working in groups was a necessary activity since the presentations that you did in for class required group work. But, once the class was over, that was it. We departed; often never to see each other again. I was an out of towner, taking the courses in London and Toronto so it wasn’t even like I could car pool with a co-learner. When it was over, it was over.

I was recently reminded of this by @pmcash. We took the Data Processing Specialist course at the University of Western Ontario more years ago than either of us will admit. I just received a message from Peter that he had found an assignment of mine.

I hope that he hangs on to it so that I can take a look at it. It will affirm how far we’ve come! If you know Peter, you’ll know what I mean when I say that he was about the only person I can remember from those courses. As computer science teachers, our paths have crossed a few times over the years but the rest of the class – sadly, I don’t remember.

Back to the current AQ course. Your instructor will have asked for your Twitter ID. For some, that will be as far as it goes. Why don’t you take it further?

Follow everyone in your class. For the duration of the course, use that as a way to share resources and enhance your learning. How do you keep track? Put them into a Twitter List. I’ve mentioned the concept of a Twitter List before. Particularly if you’re a regular Twitter user, it’s the best way to keep track of the conversation. Put them all into a list and then follow the postings to the list in your Twitter browser. What a great way to share the learning (and the load) of your class! Hopefully, all will find it so useful that the sharing continues after the course.

It’s also an immediate way to monitor any back channel that you’ve got going during those hours of presentations that typically form the core of these courses. Of course, your AQ course supports BYOD and connectivity and encourages a back channel – right?

But the learning and connections shouldn’t stop there. There will come a time when the course ends and summer enjoyment ramps up. Keep the list alive. If your learning is good enough for the AQ course, it should be even better when September returns and you’re all back in your classrooms – maybe even teaching that subject or that grade level for the first time. Share your resources and ideas – don’t do what Peter and I did and leave it until years later, if at all. To our defence, we weren’t preparing to be 21st Century teachers! The concept wasn’t even conceived of at the time. It would be completely different if we were in Prof. Walsh’s class now.

But you are! The greatest gift and learning that you may walk away with from your course is your own Instant Personal Learning Network that extends far beyond your few weeks in the summer.