Course 5: Post 5 - Community Engagement

I have been a fairly connected learner/teacher for a few years now, but have really tried to push myself more since January. Below are a few examples of how I tried to continue conversations and connect even more with educators online.

Twitter Chats

Besides #PubPDAsia and #PubPDEurope, I had never participated in a traditional Twitter chat before. In February, the stars aligned and there was a #PYPchat about technology hosted by one of my future colleagues. I was on holiday at the time, and decided to hop on board for the first time. I enjoyed the thoughtful questions and dialogue that happened in this hour. Below are the links to the Wakelet record of the whole chat (or to the beginning of the conversation for the last one), as well as some screenshots.
February 10, 2021 - #PYPchat - Technology Learning
February 24, 2021 - #PYPchat - Transdisciplinary Collaboration
​March 26, 2021 - #whatisschool - Edtech Tools to Spice Up Your Classroom
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Connecting with COETAIL-ers

Earlier in the program I started a Twitter message group for our online 12 cohort. This has been a great place for us to connect with each other, particularly during course 5. We have encouraged each other, shared our posts, and even had a Google Meet with a few of us who could make it! We talked through our final projects, shared ideas, and kept each other accountable and on track.

Connecting With my MALDT Cohort

As mentioned in my previous Course 5 blogs, I also started working on my Masters Degree in January (Master of Arts in Learning, Design, and Technology). Because of this, I am connecting with a whole new group of educators, mainly in the USA but a few others are abroad as well. We have used multiple platforms to stay connected and learn from each other, such as discussion boards on BlackBoard, FlipGrid, Twitter, and Facebook.

Connecting With Future Colleagues

I am moving to a school in South Korea in July, and I think this is the first time before a move where I have connected with SO many new colleagues. In the past, I have connected with maybe one or two who either I knew or was "buddied up" with by the school. But this time, because of my online connections, the ease of talking to these educators online has been great. I really feel like it will make my transition a lot smoother, and hopefully will be able to move into the coaching role with them easier. I have used Twitter, e-mail, and Facebook to connect with educators at my new school.

Sharing More Resources (to Further the Conversation)

Even with my Masters and COETAIL happening, I wanted to continue to share resources to educators who might find them valuable. I shared some "assessment as learning" examples with Yuni Santosa for her webinar about assessment with Toddle, I shared some templates for March Mammal Madness that educators might like to use and got many many hits and downloads after the creators quoted my tweet, and in January I had a guest blog post published on innovatemyschool.com.

Reflection

Taking these extra steps to connect with my PLN has helped me grow as an educator. It has widened my PLN to educators I would not normally converse with, which broadens the scope of my Twitter feed and the ideas which are run past me. I also feel like I know my fellow COETAIL-ers better. Doing some sort of virtual chat (or FlipGrid) throughout the course might be a nice addition to the program.