Tuesday, January 12, 2016

#BYOD4L Day Two of On-line Course


I am taking part in a open on-line course https://byod4learning.wordpress.com/ 

Today is day two and I was set some questions -


 1. State how you currently communicate with others in your private and professional life.

I use a range of tools to support my work and my professional development.  Here is a list of the current tools that I use regularly and a timeline of my adoption of these.  It does not happen overnight.


If you have a look at some of the earlier postings on this blog you will get a feel for the range of tools that I have used in the past.

I use Facebook and some other tools only in my private life .

I am comfortable managing both my professional digital identity and my private digital identity.
You can find me on most of these platforms - I adopted the moniker 'joecar' as the  internet arrived and I was living and working in an area of Glasgow called Cardonald  -so Joe at Cardonald College became joecar. If you do an internet search or a search on one of these platforms you will find me as joecar or joecar80 and sometimes as Joe Wilson.

With foresight I could have adopted a more professional by-line but it still reflects my approach to much of this area.  Everything is in Beta and you should have a healthy questioning distrust of experts.


2. Discuss at least one of the scenarios and identify how this/these links/link to your own practice

These apply to both scenarios -

In both scenarios learners and practitioners need to adopt an open and collaborative mind-set and see the value that investing a little time in sharing brings.

Learning now happens beyond and institution. Private sector organisations are threatened by the porousness of information flows but in reality it is something that we all need to embrace.

In my practice I try to exemplify this :

By sharing lots of relevant links and ideas and encouraging people to network through relevant on-line social platforms .It is worth following some key individuals on twitter or other social platforms even if you are just lurking - experience builds confidence.

By encouraging others to become open practitioners while supporting and protecting them around managing their digital identities.

By encouraging teachers and learners - we are all learners - to share their learning journeys and share useful resources openly.


3. Explore opportunities to enhance your communication strategy with peers, tutors and the wider community using smart devices to support inclusive learning and teaching in and outside the classroom.

At moment I am interested in Pinterest as a vehicle building quick e-portfolios for learners .  Learners in the know do a lot of collaboration through tools like Snapchat and Instagram.  If we want all learners to have the same opportunity we need to ensure that they all  have excellent digital literacy skills .

2 comments:

Teresa MacKinnon said...

Nice post Joe, I took a look into your online presence and connected on G+ so I hope we will keep in touch. Your references to using banda machines certainly struck a chord, when I started teaching French in secondary school I would regularly write worksheets and share the spirit masters with colleagues, now I do the same online through slideshare and other open channels. So many advantages, not least better artwork!

Joe Wilson said...

Teresa - Many thanks I just spotted your comment - been buried fortunately in consultancy work