JOURNAL #7: Professional Learning Network

JOURNAL #7: Professional Learning Network

I opened a Twitter account and I also researched teaching material in the Digg Reader. I joined a women’s math affinity group called Mathwise. I also finally learned how to create repeated posts to my blog (through Bloggr). I must say that this topic is my least favorite of the class. I am not involved with social media and am reluctant to become involved. I know that may sound strange for someone who wants to develop website and pursue a multimedia career. I guess I do need to understand what the “norm” is and social media is certainly the norm.

In my search in the Digg Reader I was able to find teaching material that would be useful for preparing lessons. I want to do additional research into Common Core and see what people are doing with it. I know one source that does have some interesting details about Common Core. It came from an app created by Jonathan Wray. It is a tool that is used to count the number of times Common Core performance is observed in a classroom. However, the app also has an additional, amazing benefit. They have gone as far as creating videos with their concept of what a classroom would be like when Common Core is used. So you actually get to see what some of the top educational people think is a representation of good Common Core teaching.

The other material I reviewed in the Digg Reader was more about global events and world-wide politics. This is just a personal interest and doesn’t directly help with my educational career. But one thing I realized, it is difficult to determine where the truth is on line.

I didn’t use Twitter extensively at all. I am reluctant to be involved with this type of media. I would get email messages from the Twitter account.

I did use my blog roll to get examples of what other classmates were doing with certain assignments. I didn’t frequently use it to communicate, though I can see how it would be easy to do. I really enjoyed the blog roll because the updates were only a click away.

The affinity group I joined is a Math department affinity group from Brown’s university-wide Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) group. It is set up to encourage women to pursue studies and careers in the mathematical sciences. This group provided more of an intellectual support rather than an occupational resource. I don’t think it was a complete match for me because they were primarily involved with local Brown university activities more than the more universal topics. But it was good to hear what other collegiate women are involved with.

As far as using these tools in the classroom… I like the blog roll for the students. Even in math it is important to have writing assignments and the blog roll could be the place where they are entered. Having other classmates be able to access your writing could be good or bad. I think some students would relish having others interested in their ideas. After all, students are so into communicating via media already. Plus I’ve seen situations where writing in this way has produced more creative results, and helped students become more innovative. I do know that organizing what a student has learned that day and summarizing it into a writing assignment will help them increase their learning. It will help them make sense out of what they’ve heard (organize the material) and by writing it down, it is suppose to increase their transfer from short term memory to long term memory. So a blog roll of what you learned from today’s class would be good, plus this would be less personal and reading other students would help them remember and learn even more.