Every now and again, something happens that just reinforces that we live in such a connected world and the value that it generates. It happened to me recently.
I’ve mentioned many times that I’ve always been about sharing of some of the best ideas in education that come along. I’ve always done that. In my previous role as a computer consultant for a school district, we were always talking about the need to be a life long learner. It’s one thing to send the message and then complain when you don’t see it happen. It’s quite another to actually do it yourself.
The rewards are so genuine. You can’t beat a good opportunity to learn. Fortunately, I follow a lot of people that feel the same way.
A perfect example of this happened this morning. I’m a big fan of Miguel Guhlin’s thinking. Just this morning, I read a post on his blog titled “App Smashing Madness!” It was a great read and I have a few things on my “Need to Learn” list as a result of my read. Thanks, Miguel. Although I’ve been to a number of ISTE Conferences, including two in San Antonio, I don’t believe that we’ve actually met face to face. I sure would like to think that we’ve got a meaningful learning relationship online. I’ve learned so much about Moodle and Evernote, for example, just following his lead.
For me, it’s a confirmation that we can learn so much just by being connected.
So, back to me. I like to think of one thing that I’ve learned on any particular day and blog about it. Unlike some that will talk about a resource and maybe copy a piece of the documentation and call it a blog post, I do like to play around and see if I can make the connection. If I can, it makes a post. There’s nothing proprietary about my work – in fact, if you check the “About Me” page, and scroll to the bottom, I have a pretty liberal creative commons license. Copy, do what you want, but just make sure that you credit me and don’t change the content.
I don’t actively check this out – who but an educator would even care what I’ve written about?
Every now and again, I’ll get a comment from someone taking Educational Studies at a Faculty of Education. They’ll identify themselves and the course that they’re taking. It’s pretty obvious that they’ve got to read some educational blogs as a course requirement and somehow they drew the short straw and got mine.
In this day of living dangerously online, I don’t think it hurts to have a bit of healthy paranoia. So, I do have WordPress configured to let me know if there’s a comment or when a post is created or updated. I look at the first as a way to get rid of a piece of spam that slips by Akismet and the second as a bit of protection in case someone learns my dog’s name and logs on as me and starts to create a post.
But there’s another notification that comes across every now and again.
It’s the concept of a reblog. In this case, someone has taken an entire blog post and put it on their blog. Some may consider it an easy way to plagiarize. Or, it could be a test to see what reblog does. Or, it could be that the post resonated with someone and they wanted to share more than just the link with someone else. I hope that it was the latter in this case.
As you see, Ms. Couture liked the post “Watching the World Tweet”. It was quite a popular post and I, personally, get a kick out of just going to the website and watch it draw itself. I did follow WordPress’ advice and checked out Rose’ website. It’s a WordPress blog with many references to courses at the University of Regina. You know, “those Saskatchewan guys”. As I poked around her blog, I see that she’s very visible about her learning and her aspirations for a career once she becomes a qualified teacher. Her efforts have not gone unnoticed as there’s a comment on at least one of her reflections from her professor. She even reported back about my “Childhood Community” posts. (which I think encompasses so much that it should be a project at any Faculty of Education…”
One needs to look at the entirety of the digital presence that she’s created for herself. You can’t help but be impressed.
If someone is looking for a well connected French Immersion teacher who “gets it” when it comes to technology and the desire to create a personal network while at a Faculty of Education, they need to offer this young lady an interview when she graduates. She shouldn’t remain on the market for long.
Check out her blog and follow her on Twitter.
doug --- off the record 