Week 6

This week, we talked about Personal Learning Networks (PLN) and what they can do for educators. You can build up your PLN through the web, social media and other internet sources.

Twitter is a great place to find other groups and individuals. There are so many groups that offer advice, resources and a cheerful note to help teachers make it through these long weeks. There are so many groups that also offer opportunities for professional development, either by advertising courses or by sharing what they have learned from previous professional development sessions. Other social media platforms that are great for this are Instagram, Facebook, etc. Many teachers and educators share their experiences with others so that we can all support each other in this crazy profession.

We also spoke this week on research and the best ways to do it. For example, we did research for our final project and it was very important that we found sources that were not only helpful, but credible. Searching on sites like Google Scholar and through the Temple online Library allow us to find sources that we know will be accurate and written by someone who understands the topic. When I worked on the research for my final project, I specifically looked for articles that were relevant first, current second, and interesting third. I felt that the content of the article and the usefulness of it were more important than when it was written (as long as it wasn’t too outdated). Overall the research process for the final project went well because there are so many different ways to approach my topic of virtual reality in the classroom.

Lastly, I want to reflect on this course and how I will carry the things I learned here in my future classes. There were many different tools that I would like to use, but I’ll mention a few here. One of the ones I would like to use in the future is screen cast. I assign a lot of assignments through Google Classroom, and to be able to show them directly on my computer what they should do will make that easier when explaining what to do. Another one that I regularly use is Google forms. I like the options that it gives me, and it allows me to give a test that is greener (and also grades it for me!). The last one I’d like to mention is the website alexa.com/siteinfo. I like this website because it allows me to check the resources my students are using in order to make sure they are appropriate and authentic.

Overall, this was a great course and I look forward to carrying what I’ve learned into the future!