INF532 – Knowledge Network Artefact
Here is the knowledge network artefact that I made for Assignment 2. I have hosted it on Vimeo.
INF532 – KN Artefact from Karla O on Vimeo.
Globally Connected Educator – Apps I Already Use
As part of our learning in INF532 we are expected to select, test/trial and evaluate the use of online tools that we are unfamiliar with. I thought I would discuss the ones that I already use to help me get started on this. The list of tools I would like to try includes:
- Diigo
- Google Maps
- Symbaloo
- PearlTrees
- Nings
- QR Codes
- Project Gutenberg
- Tumblr
- Paper.li
The ones I am already using are:
- Facebook – I am part of several networks on this social media site. English Teachers’ Association, Library Matters NSW and Drama Peeps are the main ones I engage with but I do have a few smaller groups that I follow. The way I connect with other educators is by writing posts when I have a question about something or I contribute an answer to someone else’s question. In evaluating the benefit of these networks I would say I have found them very useful. You often receive replies quite quickly. That immediate help often makes me feel quite relieved because I have been agonising over how to do something and often go to the network as a last resort rather than as a first option. I think I should engage with them much sooner before that.
- Listservs – I joined the OzEdTL Listserv after it was recommended to us during one of my subjects last year. I can’t say I love it. It floods my inbox at work and it is not visually appealing. I often end up deleting a good majority of the emails because I just don’t have time to read them. If I adjusted my email preferences to not receive them that often I think I still wouldn’t read them. I’m not sure if one of the curating sites could help with this. I tend to find my answers in other ways or I will save ones that I want to come back to and read later but I often find I don’t make time to do this so I’m not sure it is the most effective tool for me personally.
- Pinterest – I curate a whole range of things and have two categories one for books and library ideas. I like the function of making some boards private. It’s particularly good for visuals. I find you still have to click on some links to check that they’re credible but it’s amazing how many resources you can build up. The search terms have a lot of sub-categories many of which I had never thought of. That is quite helpful. Most of the links are to blogs so I’m not sure that it would be the best type of curation site for research in an academic capacity but it could be used as a good model to connect students to concept of content curation.
Network Literacy
For this blog post I need to address the following questions:
How do McClure and Rheingold’s views on network literacy differ? What do you see as having changed between these authors’ definitions of being ‘network literate’?
How important are networks? For professional educators? For students? For rethinking teaching, learning and assessment?
McClure (1994) defines network literacy as “the ability to identify, access, and use electronic information from the network.” He says that it consists of knowledge and skills. The knowledge required is that of being aware of a range of networked information resources and services, understand the role of this information in problem solving and performing basic life activities as well as an understanding of how information is generated, managed and made available. The skills required include being able to retrieve specific types of information using information discovery tools, manipulate information by combining it with other existing information so as to increase the value of the information for particular situations and analyse and use information to resolve workplace and personal decisions and obtain services that will enhance their overall quality of life.
Rheingold’s views on network literacy are a little bit different. He draws on several researchers to convey his argument. The key points from Lesig that he highlights are that structure matters. Programming codes are created and evolve once created. Governments have power over these structures. Architecture (programming and legal) confers control. He considers whether or not the networks will be centralised or decentralised and therefore what kind of content is being made available to people. This connects with McClure’s definition as he states that being aware of a range of networked information resources and services is important however what quality of information resources and services can be accessed may impact on the ability to make workplace and personal decisions. The key points from Reed that he highlights are: that the value of networks changes with the way that networks are used. Reed refers to Sarnoff, the creator of the Radio Corporation of America, who said that the value of the network is dependent upon the number of receivers. That the few to many principle means it has more significance, that the collective of networks has more value than a network on its own. This then links to creating social capital which Rheingold sees as being the ease at which people can get things done together unlike a more individual approach by McClure’s definition. Rheingold’s definition sees a merging between social networks and technical aspects. It focuses on the collective and how having mutual interests is also key to ensuring that networks grow faster. From this the value and quality of the content changes so then networks are producing better resources.
In thinking about the importance of networks for educators and students it is evident that aspects of understanding and application can only improve when part of a wider collective. By reconsidering the value of networks there is potential for greater connection with others which could change the dynamic of learning and assessment.
Connected and Social Learning
To finish off the module there were some questions about connected and social learning:
- How important is connected learning to you?
- How do you blend the ‘social’ with the ‘educational’?
This module has helped me to reconnect with the reasons why I started a PLN way back in 2011. It has helped me to reflect on my reasons for closing my PLN down. Ultimately though, I do believe, being connected to other educators outside of your school helps to keep you fresh and innovative. I think about the three years since I closed my PLN down and I wonder if the feelings I have had of not being inspired by my work would have been alleviated if I had remained active in my online community. It’s hard to say because life happens, but it may have. I do worry now about blending my social online world with my educational one. I think that was what was happening somewhat for me. I had a personal account on Facebook but I also had one for my blog. My personal time was being taken up with online social interactions for work and I was resenting how much time this was taking. Upon reflection, perhaps by making clearer boundaries with which platforms I am using for my PLN and which are being used socially, may make me feel better about starting a PLN again. Also, setting a specific time per day to work on my PLN might be useful but as we’re talking about very fluid technologies and times I’m not sure how practical that will be. I will keep experimenting and see.
Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels
4 Big Ideas Around the Connected Educator
The next reading I had to look at was a slide show by Tolisano (2014) and a blog post that was connected to it. In this she discusses four key ideas about the connected educator:
- Local Isolation
- Gaining Perspective
- Data Crowdsource Resources
- Model for Students
From this, I need to address a couple of questions. They are:
- How essential are the 4 ideas around being a connected educator and how do they relate to being a globally connected educator?
- How would you present this to your colleagues/staff in your school/institution?
- What reaction would you get from them? Why?
- Is there anything you could add?
From my understanding of Tolistano’s reading, the four ideas she explores relate to becoming a globally connected educator in several ways: the nature of teaching is that we are often isolated in our classrooms. This feeling can act as a catalyst to either seek out connection or not. I think for young, tech-savvy staff, reaching out online for resources at least is second nature. Collaborating through those tools may not be as common. For older staff I think this would be challenging. It would be important to try to pitch this idea as not being extra work. I’m not sure how much buy in they would have initially. I have often found though, that if you chip away and particularly if you model successful strategies and guide them through how to do it they may be able to emulate it in their classroom. There are so many demands on teachers that they need to feel like this is worthwhile. When the pressure is on to achieve results sometimes these kinds of tasks get left by the wayside for more traditional methods that will ensure they learn the content for the exam. At the same time, I think we’re losing sight of the skill set students need and as such becoming a globally connected educator and modelling some of these strategies in the classroom would be helpful to preparing them for the real world.
The Connected Educator – Reflections
There were a series of readings and activities in Module 2 that I was required to complete. Here are my thoughts:
Nussbaum-Beach & Hall Reading:
Have you moved beyond co-operation? What role is collaboration playing in your professional learning and your practice? What’s new and different about collaboration for 21st Century learners?
I would say much of our faculty planning looks like co-operation but probably gets labelled as collaboration. That being said, the characteristic of working together to solve a problem I think is something that is being done at a faculty level. But the loss of group members, and utilising individual talents does not have an impact on programming.
For a time I was collaborating when I had my previous PLN but I consciously shut it all down about three-four years ago after I had a bit of a professional crisis in relation to it and questioned the value it had for me professionally. Despite my reservations, at the moment I am working on rebuilding connections but in a new field – Teacher Librarianship and trying to learn from my previous experience and mistakes. I am finding it hard as I want to create a delineation between my work and home life but I am still dipping my toe back into the water nonetheless.
Social media creates a bit of a safety barrier to approach other teaching professionals about areas in education you would like to discuss. The irony is, that once those barriers are crossed they come down completely and it is quite easy to communicate with relative strangers about topics of common interest. I made friends with an educator in St Louis, USA. He came out to Australia for the Google Educators Conference and I hosted him in my home as a result. It was a cool experience!
Are you multiliterate? Of these literacies, which is most surprising to you? Which do you find least and most challenging?
The literacies that were identified in the survey taken were:
- Facilitate and inspire learning and creativity
- Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments
- Model digital-age working and learning
- Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility
- Engage in professional growth and leadership
To some extent I am multi-literate. I am doing some of the things needed to promote digital tools and collaborative learning but I could be doing more. The most surprising to me was engaging in professional growth and leadership. In terms of how the questions were phrased and my current practice I thought I was doing an OK job at this but apparently I am not advocating for these skills and tools. However I am only a term into the TL role so this may change over the course of the year.
I think there are several challenges relating to these literacies. The syllabi and the time given to develop meaningful teaching and learning activities that incorporate these skills. The inequity of access to computers, laptops and portable devices. The levels of competency and willingness amongst staff to get on board with using the tools. In theory the statements are rather idealistic and do not necessary reflect the capabilities of all school contexts and systems.
We’ve described how we think about the connected educator? Take a moment to reflect on your understanding. How are our perspectives alike? How are they different.
I would concur with much of how this reading portrays a connected educator (2012, pg 19):
- Is a co-learner, co-creator, co-leader
- Is self-directed
- Is open-minded
- Is transparent in thinking
- Is dedicated to the ongoing development of expertise
- Commits to deep reflection
- Engages in inquiry
- Values and engages in a culture of collegiality
- Shares and contributes
- Commits to understanding gained by listening and asking good questions
- Explores ideas and concepts, rethinks, revises and continuously repacks and unpacks, resisting urges to finish prematurely
- Exhibits the courage and initiative to engage in discussions on difficult topics
- Engages in strengths based appreciative approaches
- Demonstrates mindfulness
- Displays a willingness to experiment with new strategies
How this differs is that these bullet points characterise an ideal connected individual. The challenge is getting staff on board with this model and up skilling them.
INF 532 – A new culture of learning reading
The next reading I had to look at was Thomas and Brown’s Arc-of-Life learning from A new culture of learning. Cultivating the imagination for a world of constant change. The question I have to address is:
How does Thomas and Brown’s ‘new culture of learning’ reflect your own experiences as an educator and learner in the past two-three years? Identify those aspects that are similar, and those aspects that are different?
The key ideas that stemmed from this reading for me personally were that learning is happening everywhere. That it has changed from the stable infrastructure of the 20th Century and is now much more fluid. It is constantly being created as a response to change. We have access to near unlimited resources but also have the ability to connect with others at the same time. Many examples given in the reading do just that. They have been cultivating minds, seeing other students as resources and have been figuring out how to learn from each other. As such there is now a bridge between two worlds: the public and information based and the personal and structured. It was the connection between personal motivation and resources that led people to cultivate their imaginations and recreate the learning space in a new way.
In thinking about my own learning journey in relation to this, I think I was doing this earlier than two or three years ago. If anything I have been in a stale mate these past few years. As far back as 8 years ago was when I think I started doing things like what was mentioned above. When I signed up for the Edublogs Teacher Challenge. I was craving connection with other educators as I was the only one in my school teaching my subject area. It was through the establishment of my first blog and making connections on Twitter that I developed my confidence as a voice for drama and theatre education. I did question my immersion in it at one point however. The boundaries between work and personal time became very blurred and it started not to sit well with me as I wanted to make a distinction between the two. I still do in some ways but I appreciate that much of the professional development I need will require me to go out and look for this myself as schools are just too time and fiscally pressured to be able to give you time to learn new things. In some ways, I think it is through PLNs that you develop far better as a professional anyway because you are learning from others who are just like you.
INF 532 – Philosophy of Information
In Module 1 for INF 532 we were introduced to the foundations of the philosophy of information. We had to read De Saulles’, New Models of Information Production. In reading, the whopping 40 something pages of information, we had to focus on two key questions:
- What are some of the defining characteristics of the Internet and world wide web that have stimulated the creation for new models of information production?
- What are some of the challenges that these models present to educators and/or information professionals.
I have taken notes on this reading (paraphrased as best as possible) and tried to compile my understanding:
The catalyst for the creation of new models for information production is Web 2.0 content. Individuals producing blogs has allowed for the opening up of debates and discussions about topics away from the control of commercial and state media. In the existing information sphere, online newspapers have adopted, for example, live blogging as a means of engaging users. Whilst it has advantages: users can contribute to the stories, connect it to social media and the story can include a live feed, the blogs can sometimes be difficult to navigate. Other problems include journalists feeling threatened by user content. These contributions need to be validated as credible as well, otherwise it is difficult to build and maintain user trust. Users as well do not feel as though they are appropriately credited for their contribution. Therefore, news teams need to be educated around how to utilise user generated content and the quality of user content needs to be cognisant that it may be used in a journalistic capacity.
The online sphere has also meant that people expect their information to be freely available. It is not valued as highly because of the ease of access. As such, newspapers are struggling for survival because most users will try as best as possible to get their information without a subscription. Thus, attempting to include live blogs on newspaper websites. News agencies have had to think creatively about how to obtain revenue. One means is through the establishment of an advertising based revenue model. They have adapted the size of the paper to fit smartphones and added social media sharing functions to entice younger, tech-savvy users. Despite these measures, if the revenue issue is not addressed and effective solutions put in place, newspapers will be unable to fulfill their societal role and democracy will inevitably be weakened. Blogs should not be solely relied upon as a source of news but rather as supplementary to the outputs of traditional newspapers.
Some of the other factors contributing to information production include collaborative platforms such as Wikipedia. Challenges in the collaborative space include ensuring that the pages are credible but also that there is a balance in the topics that are explored. For example Pokemon vs. female novelists. The farming of data by search engines like Google has also had implications on how search results are then filtered to users. Google Analytics has provided website owners with the ability to link articles to key words that are commonly used search terms to ensure they feature in search results. This is great for visitor stats but if the quality of information is poor that is problematic. Google have also had the power to change the search algorithm meaning content farms that are created for clicks and quick advertising revenue are filtered from results. There are questions around the ethics of this. There is also a ruling called the “right to be forgotten” in which a link can be hidden from search results. This brings with it its own challenges. Overall, Google has become incredibly powerful in this regard. They need to consider carefully how they use this data. For what good or betterment of society? By taking out selected search results does that then limit freedom of speech, are the public not being given the full scope of a situation that may be in their best interest? Corporate interests need to align with users. Otherwise users become the source that needs to monetized. Either way, data is changing rapidly so it is difficult to make strategic business decisions. For educators and information professionals the challenge is ensuring that a wide scope of information is still accessed and this needs to come through the skills that are specifically taught.
Photo by Markus Spiske temporausch.com from Pexels
ETL 504 – Part B – Reflective Practice
In reflecting on my learning in this subject, I have come to understand that leadership is the actions which an individual takes either individually or collaboratively to achieve outcomes. Individuals do not necessarily need to be in positions of management to lead (Korodaj, 2018). This is very true of teachers. Teachers are leaders of their students every day. If “leaders” was the term used to describe teachers, it is worth considering how society’s perception of the role and importance of teaching might change.
I attempted to adopt this thinking as I learnt about the leadership role of the Teacher Librarian. The Teacher Librarian role is multi-faceted and dependent on the individual circumstances of the school. There were aspects of the case studies that were relatable in my own school context but there were others I had not which made considering appropriate leadership styles and strategies to manage the difficulties quite challenging. The ever-changing nature of the school environment means there is a need for flexibility in leadership style. This is true for the Teacher Librarian.
In Case Study 2 perspectives on collaboration and communication were addressed. In our group, I initiated a discussion thread to try to eliminate issues relating to this. It established lines of communication and ensured transparency in terms of the processes used to complete each task. (Olmos, 2018). The key ideas we generated through our wiki were communication initiatives such as structured meeting agendas and minute taking. Our suggestions were quite practical so it was beneficial to read Group 10’s perspective where they specifically addressed the leadership theory identifying the need to move from an autocratic style of leadership to one that is more transformational (Moses, 2018). This reiterated my understanding that leadership style requires flexibility.
Case Study 3 focused on conflict resolution between personnel. Most of our group did contribute to the wiki each fortnight. We had a group member leave (V Bishop, personal communication, August 2018) part way through the semester which didn’t overly impact things as our structure was well established and we could continue to work around the issue. If members were in conflict this was not openly discussed on the forums. One week I was delegated to post the case study and another group member posted it before me. I felt I needed to justify that I wasn’t being lazy so I responded to a thread of communication (Olmos, 2018) on the group discussion board to make sure that it was clear I hadn’t forgotten, that I appreciated her effort and that I could be relied upon to follow through on what I had said I would do. In Group 9’s response they offered some good strategies to managing personnel including addressing issues of conflict directly (Coventry, 2018). Whilst this was not conflict directly I felt I took a step towards ensuring that this would not develop.
References
Coventry, D (2018, August 4th) Case Study 3 Group 9 [Online discussion comment] Retrieved from Charles Sturt University website: https://bit.ly/2IATCLF
Korodaj, L. (2018). Introduction to leadership. Leadership for learning. [ETL 504 Modules: Topic 4] Retrieved from Charles Sturt University website: https://bit.ly/2NkAwKw
Moses, M. (2018, August 4th). Group 10 response case study 2 [Online discussion comment] Retrieved from Charles Sturt University website: https://bit.ly/2DWoqru
Olmos, K. (2018, August 4th). Introductions [Online discussion comment] Retrieved from Charles Sturt University website: https://bit.ly/2IAOCXp
Olmos, K. (2018, September 9th). Case Study 4 [Online discussion comment] Retrieved from Charles Sturt University website: https://bit.ly/2OCctLM
New Semester, New Approach
I made it through my first semester of study in 15 years in June.
I have just begun this new semester and am planning on taking a similar approach to last semester with the assignments and modules, however I really want to improve on my blogging and reflection.
Last semester I didn’t establish a good habit in which to do this. This was reflected in my results. I think the bigger impact though, was that I could have developed deeper knowledge through my reflections. Consolidated my learning a bit better.
So my new approach is to try to be a little more frequent in my posting. They may not be particularly long and may not always reference a reading. I just want to get into a better habit first and foremost and then I’ll look at developing the quality of my posts.
First step to achieving my goal, done!
