21st Century Savvy or a Digital Dilettante?

In reflecting on how this series of courses for the International School of Bangkok's Certificate of Educational Technology and Informational Literacy has impacted my professional life thus far, I've decided to use the lenses of the ISB 21’s framework upon which these courses are built: How have I become a more effective learner, communicator, creator, and collaborator?

EFFECTIVE LEARNER

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/1385069960/

In becoming a more effective 21st century learner, I feel I have progressed the most in using the reflection process required by writing the blogs. I have always been highly reflective (in fact, perhaps too much so) and have long realized the benefit of writing as a reflective tool. Having the options of embedding visuals, links, and videos have added 2.0 dimensions to my reflections and brought my references alive. More importantly, however, is the fact that my reflections are out there for the world, availing myself to a larger audience than just myself or “the professor” in a class situation. Having such an opportunity to share with a wider group is a motivator that holds the potential for increased quality and connection to other learners around the world.

The second area of progress as a learner has come through gathering information via my RSS feeder, which has helped me search for and receive timely information on given topics of interest or research. The most useful item in that arena is using the Google search RSS feeder option.

QUESTION: In thinking about developing more effective learners (myself included), I'm wondering How can we help students and ourselves become more tenacious in trying to solve real world problems and not simply being satisfied solving personal problems of entertainment, advancement or social connections?

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATOR & CREATOR

http://www.flickr.com/photos/abhishek-kumar/429409641/

In developing as a more effective communicator & creator, I've become more aware of possible media options to communicate and create in a way that is more linked to the world. I still have yet to use these on a regular basis to create. The most powerful learning related to communication has been in reading and trying to apply the principles of Presentation Zen.

I now feel more equipped to be a more responsible communicator, finding effective visuals (rather than the former favorite Google image search) and giving due credit for these visuals using flikr and Creative Commons. As I move forward in this area, I look forward to creating more of my own visuals to meet specific needs.

QUESTION: Are we developing as effective communicators creators for a better world for all or just for those who are currently connected?

EFFECTIVE GLOBAL COLLABORATOR

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In becoming a more effective global collaborator, I remain a neophyte. I now more regularly use collaborative tools such as wikis and Google apps, but feel I have not really tapped into a global communication network or developed my own virtual professional learning network.

QUESTION: As I read more blogs and tap into sources from around the world, I wonder, How can we encourage more global collaboration across the social, economic, cultural, and ideological divides?

CONCLUSION

I am neither fully 21st century skilled nor simply a digital dabbler, but somewhere in canyon of the digital divide, hoping to help contribute to the bridge that will bring powerful tools and thinking to everyone regardless of where and to whom they happened to be born.

Final Reflection on Course #1- Information Literacy and Ourselves as Learners

Project: ES Curriculum Wiki Resource Page

This resource is something I have been thinking about doing for a long time as there is a need for a centrally located, web-based resource center for subject area curriculum. It will be an on-going effort just to get up and running, but the real success will only happen once it becomes a collaborative endeavor and useful resource for teachers. I’ll be most fascinated to see how it evolves over time.

Life-long Learning

This is the best part of this course, of life—the fact that we continue to learn. We live such privileged lives with the world being so accessible at our fingertips. With all that I’ve read (or heard) from my colleagues and others along the way during this course, I have so much more to learn and explore such as:

• Glogster: Chrissy Hellyer referred to this and I’m intrigued—want to check out the possibilities.
• Google calendar: Because of the collaborative capabilities, I’d like to create a curriculum and professional development calendar that is continually updated so that we can always see what people are involved in. I’ll see where this leads. Also, wouldn’t teams or each of the divisions find a google calendar helpful? To be explored.
• Shelfari: Rob referred to this in one of his blogs. Given my love of books, I look forward to exploring this one further.
• Classroom 2.0 Ning: “the social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in education.” I hope this can be an entry point for myself into a network of educators since they say, “We especially hope that those who are "beginners" will find this a supportive community and a comfortable place to start being part of the digital dialog.”
• Flatclassroom Conference: Julie Lindsay has definitely whetted my appetite to explore this project and other ones they're involved in.
• Zen Presentations: Kim and Jeff have mentioned this before and I understood the general gist, but want to pursue this further and read the book!
• Many blogs—great thinking, provocative questions, links to more ideas, resources . . . Look forward to having the time to respond to many more now.

Remaining Questions:

Once again, I’m reminded that life and learning are much more about the journey than the destination. With the networked world and ever-evolving tools, this is even more evident. I continue to have some fundamental questions that I’ll consider to ponder along the way:

1. Will we come together to continually search for ways to deepen understanding, not only technological tool skills?
2. Will we find ways to increase and improve the f2f community, not just the networked social community?
3. Will we find a way to balance between our virtual and f2f lives, relationships, and commitments?
4. Will we find a way to tap into this amazing social revolution to improve the world for everyone, not just those who happened to be born in the right place?

Thank you, Jeff, Kim, and colleagues for the learning opportunities you helped facilitate, your reflections, and your passion for improving learning for students. I look forward to the on-going journey!