ETMOOC 10 Years Later: Ten wonderful things ETMOOC has done for me

 Hard to believe it has been 10 years since I first started ETMOOC.

Why after all this time do I still engage with this community and with the people I met along the way? 

Because ETMOOC was the beginning of giving me a space to learn and grow, to share ideas, to experiment fearlessly with people who were willing to let that happen. Not only let it happen, but encourage it, challenge constructed ideas of learning and open new windows to what can be a better way of learning and doing. 

It encouraged curiosity, creativity, openness and sharing, risk taking and fun! 

The first thing you have to understand about ETMOOC is the mastermind behind this course, Dr. Alec Couros, is a networking god. He got together a most superb team and enlisted the help of people everywhere to make an exciting, innovative course. It was obvious he thought very deeply about what he was trying to create and the people who supported the whole learning experience were equally onboard. 

This is not an extensive list by any means nor is it in any particular order except #1. 

1. My Professional Learning Network: This is the greatest gift I received from participating in ETMOOC. I may be a small voice in the wilderness, but the network I have grown started from the kernel sowed by my participation in ETMOOC. I have been engaged with this group for 10 years. From there to #CLMOOC and #Rhizo14, and #ccourses and #olcmooc to #TVSZ (all versions!) I've ended up interacting with amazing people that have been a part of my life since. We've all grown and changed, but we still connect. 

2. Personal Connection: It doesn't matter how often I am online, but I can still reach out to this networked group anytime I want to trial a new idea, comment about the world we live in, offer words of praise, support, enlightenment or have the same reflected back at me. Given the nature of my job and my home life, sometimes I have disappeared for months at a time. But that connection still exists. And I use it. Almost daily when I am online.

3. Self Awareness: I've learned a lot about myself as I took this 10 year ETMOOC journey, both as an educator and a student. Understood why sometimes learning new things is hard and frustrating. How sometimes that frustration is a good thing and sometimes a bad thing, especially if I allow it to turn me away from learning something new. I've also realised I am lousy at self care and won't really be good at it until I stop investing so much of my energy in my job. As a friend once said, "How are you going to use your precious energy?" So I am contemplating that a lot lately. 

4. People: As I look back at the spaces ETMOOC opened up for me, I have been lucky to interact with so many talented people. University professors, classroom educators, artists, instructional designers, graphic designers and other people who value creativity and expression. Sharing and supporting comes so naturally to people. And some of them have remained friends to this day. How often can you say, "I took this course and I still hang out with them 10 years later". Online?

5. Creativity: I enjoy creating silliness just because it is fun. Being introduced during ETMOOC to #DS106 was mind blowing for me. #DS106 Radio? A blast! I had so much fun creating sound content. Whether it was my own Halloween show, Headless DS106,  The 3Ts Cooking Show, Three Fingers of Gin for #DS106 Noir, it was all a mix of goofiness and learning how to use software like Audacity. Where would I be without it? It taught me the art of the possible with their amazing #DS106 handbook.  But also their amazing Daily Create! Do I do the Daily Create everyday? Not anymore but I love seeing what other people produce. Some of my best poetry and life reflections are on the DS106 website. Thank you Jim Groom (I am a True Friend) and Alan Levine! 

6. Being a Zombie (or a DragonBovine): #ETMOOC lead to #TVSZ. I am huge fan of games and #TVSZ 2.0-6.0 were so much fun!!! I created movies, wrote a ton, posted pictures to free myself from being eaten (or to entice people into allowing me to eat them...) and generally paid no attention to my paid employment for a few days in order to play. Created out of the fabulous brains (BrAIns!BRaInS!!!) of Pete Rorabaugh and Jesse Stommel, it was fast paced game with ever evolving rules and layers and always supported by Janine DeBaise and her students. Hugely enjoyable! 

7. The Impermanence of Software: As part of this reflection, I have been rereading my blog. So much of what I created is no longer there. Storify- shutdown 2018. Mozilla Popcorn Maker- video editing software-Is hosted at the Internet Archive as of 2016. Windows Movie Maker-Shut down in 2017. My projects didn't make it over. Piktochart is still here, and Audacity, but I am not sure what else will disappear with my content. DS106 is still there (thank goodness!) but it does make me think of the ephemeral aspects of creating. Maybe I need to learn how to be a stone mason so I can make a more permanent record. (oh wait, that doesn't necessarily last either!)

8. New Software: I have to admit I haven't kept up with all of the software changes. I think one of the reasons I do more writing and less video and photo oriented Daily Creates is I am a still a beginner with creating product using photo editing and video editing software. It takes some dedicated time for me to learn new programs and currently I have little to none. But when I finally have some breathing room (retire) I'll make the time.

9. Memories: It's been a while since I blogged. Three years. The pandemic has taken a toll and I feel like I work harder now than I ever have. Maybe it's because I've had to restart so many things, rewrite rules, review new policy, etc. It hasn't helped that my father became ill and died during the pandemic. But reading through my blog reconnected me with the joy of the journey, the giddy and heady fun of learning and creating, especially the silly stuff, when it seems I may have had a sense of humour. No ETMOOC, no blog.

But I've also recognized that I stopped writing my blog when I took my current position. I still write all the time, but it is historical, or museum related, or policy oriented, or analytical. Not for pleasure. Not for fun. I spend so much time writing that doing it for my own personal growth and enjoyment has become a thing of the past. And that is sad. 

What else is sad? I can see how safe I felt online back then. When I first got comfortable with Twitter it was a safe space. Much of the free software we were using at that time didn't seem too threatening. Now we all have to really think hard about the impact of social media on our discourse and our lives. Of how much we share. or if we should share at all. It's no longer feels like a safe space. Thanks to Chris Gilliard via Alan Levine who really opened my eyes.

10. Social Media Training: More than ever, students need to be able to  understand how they can be influenced by social media. This means that for the people in the classroom right now, student and teacher, media training is a must. We need an ETMOOC reboot more than ever. Not only how to use the software for making, but how it can be manipulated and made for creating disinformation and misinformation.

Thank you to everyone who created such hilarious, fun, illuminating and worthwhile offerings with me all those years ago. Thank you to everyone who continues to connect and share with me. Who reaches out to encourage me. You make being online uplifting. I hope I do the same for you. 

Thank you ETMOOC. You've been hugely influential on who I am today. And don't the best learning experiences always do that?

Remote Elementary and Secondary Teaching

It's been awhile so forgive me for the long post but I feel I have to write something in the age of Zoom and remote emergency teaching because I am hearing a lot of horror stories coming from parents about what has been sent home and how much screen time students at all grade levels are being asked to consume. About children crying, about parents crying and teachers too.

So let's all start by taking a deep breath. And then just read and breathe.

1) Online/remote emergency teaching is not going to mirror classroom teaching ever. So don't even think it will.

2) As a teacher, if you are relying on old lessons plans that you've used for years, stop. While the material might be solid the delivery method isn't. Forget worksheets, fill in the blank and colouring sheets.

3) How long are you expecting your students from Grade K-12 to be online? Here is a visual guide for the amount of screen time students should be consuming from all media. And you are now, as a teacher using online teaching, part of the time usage for consumed media. So don't expect to lecture for three hours to students and expect them to absorb this information. It's not going to happen.

4) Students are on lockdown. They are worried and they are scared. Their parents are worried and they are scared. And you are worried and scared. Remember everybody's emotional and mental health in this time.

So what are you going to do to deliver the curriculum?

1) Remember nested units? These are your friend. A little more complicated to deliver but much easier to have students work at from home. My advice? Nest art or ICT curriculum into every activity. Most students will find it easier to complete this way. Why art? Art actually has a huge amount of procedure and technique involved in developing competence. ICT curriculum is the same. And what is easiest to teach online? Procedure based tasks. So hang all work off of procedural based tasks. Remember when a student creates a video or audio recording of an assignment this requires creative thinking, problem solving and the understanding of procedure on their part.

2) If you are going to teach online create no more than 5 minutes of video of what you want students to learn. Show an actual example and walk your students through the procedure/task/concept you want them to master. Use lots of pictures, examples and diagrams. Send up a follow up email with all of the tasks you want then to do listed so if they didn't understand the visual /audio cues in the video, they have it in text form. If this is high school coordinate with your fellow teachers as to when an assignment is due so as not to overload anyone. Why do this rather than face to face through Zoom? Online meeting are exhausting both physically and mentally for both you and your students. By creating online videos and or PDFs this allows students and parents to make the decision on what time is right for them to do classroom work according to their schedule. And it means the student can review the video or text over and over again.

3) Use the time you were supposed to be teaching in a classroom to make one on one connections with your students and parents. Where are they having problems? Is there anything you can clarify? Be available by email, Skype or Google Hangout. Zoom unfortunately has privacy issues. Make a weekly or bi-weekly calendar and have parents and older students sign up for a 5 to 10 minute chat. Make sure you contact every student if only just to check in and maintain the bonds you have already forged.

4) Be creative. But there are lots of teacher created videos and material on the web. Not everything has to be created by you. You need to be kind to yourself too.

5) Take advantage of online supports that already exist. For instance, the National Writing Project in the USA is celebrating National Poetry Month in April.  The poetry prompts start April 6th. In Canada, Indigenous Arts and Stories provides resources for teachers at all grade levels. There are tons of great resources just waiting for you.

6) Use this time to master a few online tools that will make your life easier. Where I learned a lot of the tools I currently use now was here and here. Seven years later I am still using many of the tools that were taught in these two courses and I am still in communication with many of these brilliant people. When you look at the list of who put these courses together some of the best educational thinkers today were way ahead of the curve. It wasn't just mastering the technology, but showing how to incorporate it into my practice that was so useful. It's okay to try and fail with this stuff, because it is how we all learn.

7) Embrace the online design experience. To teach online content you need to be very clear in your own mind about what the outcome is to be. What do you want the students to learn? Good online design means thinking about what you want to achieve first, then how are you going to measure that achievement and then creating the content that will get students to the place they need to be. It will actually improve your face to face classroom teaching when you get back.

And if your stuck? Don't know what to do or how to do it? Sign up on Twitter. And then post a tweet to someone in the #etmooc #clmooc world. A Great Teacher will get back to you soonest and help. I know. I reach out to them all the time.

Be safe and stay at home. 

Using Piktochart

I have mixed feelings about Piktochart. I like that it was easy to sign up with a Google account. As a free user there are not a lot of themed pages for you to access (just seven) and you have to move to a pro account to get access to more. I chose the minimalist theme since it was the first time I had used the program. There is a tutorial, so to speak, on the page that shows you where all the buttons are, but while it was helpful it wasn't enough for a first time user. I did struggle with this program on a few key issues. I ended up having to create a second presentation because I messed up the first one.

So what can you do with Piktochart? You can move around all the lines, remove all of the pictures, add icons, move around the banners and headings, add another block of colour to extend the poster if you want, move graph bars, change numbers into letters, etc. It really is flexible that way.

Where did I have my problems? I had enough information for a page and quarter but not enough to justify adding another colour block. So I ended moving everything up the page a bit to make room for my thoughts. It was clunky to move all of the design elements up the page. When I wanted to leave the text but get rid of the picture, they were coupled together. I know there was an unlock button but the tutorial didn't cover that. I still don't know what the unlock button does- that's for next time. So I moved everything up the page and then tried to copy one of the banner headings to use further down on the page. You can copy elements alright but they just remain on top of each other. That's when I tried the unlock button so that I could move the second banner off the first. I pulled the banner apart but not in the manner I intended. I gave up after about 20 minutes and just created a text banner for the last element. Just don't remove the design elements if you want to keep using them as they are not found in the  icon bar in the same way. You have to build your own icons then (a circle, then layer another icon on top, etc) and I couldn't find the banner I wanted to reuse within the icon bars (and there are a lot of icons.) So that part of the program was frustrating. You also have to double click to edit but sometimes I felt like I was quadruple clicking to be able to open up the design elements so I could type in my own text.

 I know there is website to visit but the link is embedded in the icons so you have to double click to edit, then copy the link into your search engine and then try and decide which tutorial you need to view to solve your problem (so you have to know what your problem is, then how to express it, then search for the solution- if it is there.) You also have to do that before you start working on the chart because once you've removed that design element, the link to the help page is gone.

So will I use Piktochart again? Probably, but I know that there will be times I will be frustrated with the program. Can you use it in the classroom? Yes, but be prepared to provide lots of support.

On the last day of clmooc my true love gave to me....

Sung badly and off key...

Well, this is "officially" the last day of clmooc but if I know anything about community I would say that we'll be meeting, making and reflecting together in the future. I certainly hope so. I still have to make a stop action film that I look forward to sharing. (I do have the photos so I'll try to do that in the next few days and I'll post about it too.)

So here's my list of twelve gifts (in honour of the song) that have made my journey through #clmooc so memorable:

1. New connections, old connections renewed and deepening of connections. There is something so lovely about meeting new people and being exposed to new ways of thinking and doing. It also wonderful to interact more deeply with those that I've brushed up against in the past. The generosity in sharing has been tremendous. Thank you to everyone for making this a great community.

2. Feedback. This community has been wonderful about giving feedback, which helps me to reflect and look at something I've created or said from a different perspective, as well as reflect and think on what others have said. As someone who needs feedback to round out my ideas this has been invaluable.

3. Makes. The ideas about remixing, creating, the choice of topics and the ideas have been wonderful. I am so impressed with the creativity of all participants. Great makes deserve to be shared and there have been some wonderful makes. Hopefully I'll get a make into the make bank soon.

4. Software. The range of software being produced to help create and share is mind boggling and can be overwhelming. The clmooc facilitators made inspired choices for getting us out of comfort zones and into new ways of looking, creating, thinking and sharing about the world around us. Thank you so much for expanding my repertoire!

5. Networks. To everyone who is brave enough to network, and share something of ourselves digitally, thank you for being part of my connected learning network. I so appreciate being invited into the clmooc space. I feel like I could go into a classroom tomorrow and have all of you as back up if I run into problems. What an empowering feeling.

6.  Lurkers. Thank you for thinking about lurkers and what they bring to a mooc or any other learning situation. We've all been a lurker, whether in person (does everyone put up their hand first to do a task? volunteer? etc.) or in our digitalverse and it is right to acknowledge their contribution. Fear in a learning situation needs to be acknowledged, not as a negative, but as the first step towards learning in a new environment.

7. Power. Who has the power in a learning relationship? I've been fascinated with this discussion and the idea that I don't have to have the power to be a successful teacher. I look forward to having the opportunity to put this idea into practice. 

8. Open ended community. The idea that we can continue to make and share, make and share has a powerful allure. I hope that even once we've gone back to work that we continue to make time for each other and continue our connection.

9. Experts. Thank you to all of you who shared powerful ideas and creations, plus provided support and inspiration to us all on this journey. Your making expertise and encouragement allowed the rest of us to be successful and become experts in our own right.

10. Organization. Clmooc has been very well thought out. The care you have put into creating a digital learning community is very evident. I appreciate being a beneficiary of that thoughtfulness.

11. The acknowledgement of my own gifts as a creator. Through clmooc I have recognized that I am, indeed, a good writer and creator and that I should foster those talents. How can I foster and nurture the talents of others if I cannot do it for myself? Thank you clmooc for making that so much clearer.

12. The opportunity to write with purpose. Purpose helps fuel my writing. Because of the reflective nature of clmooc I've re-read my own blog to see how far I've come. Certainly many of my attitudes have changed over time this year as I've been exposed to new ideas and new ways of making and sharing. I'm still resistant to the term curation for anything other than museum/archival work but other than that I can seen I've grown tremendously as a person and a teacher.

Thank you clmooc 2013!

Connected Learning and reflections on making

Well I've hacked Chad's Thimble page. Unfortunately, I am not thimbley enough to be able to alter the map so I've added in what I thought originally was superfluous information (my children, my siblings, etc.) However, on reflection, my place in the family as the eldest of five, and the impact that my children have had on my growth and learning over the years had to be included. It's connected. It's connected to my emotional well being as well as my need to learn. There was no spot for my husband specifically but he is the long pink line (and I included the times he was away that impacted most heavily on our family- not all- my tube map would then run out of London and into the country side.) Sometimes I wonder why I have invested so much into formal learning, since financially it hasn't always been the smartest thing for me to do. My resume is littered with incomplete transcripts from universities I've attended but left because we've moved. I've commuted over 6 hours a week to get to class and then had to pack it in because we've moved yet again. Thank goodness I am stubborn. It took me over 15 years to get my Masters at more than three universities.

What is the power of making? The power of understanding. The power of reflection. To create this map I started first with Sara Green's titles and filled them in. But I hadn't entered more than three titles before I realized I needed to think and reflect on my learning, not Sara's. Not to treat this as an exercise/fill in the blank opportunity, but as an exercise to study how does everything I do (pottery workshops, moocs, classes, cooking with my mother) impacts on everything I teach and learn. How has my personal life impacted on my professional life? They are intertwined and cannot be disconnected, just as my interactions in moocs cannot be disconnected from my work as an instructional designer.

For me, I pursue both formal and informal learning opportunities for a number of reasons: employment, curiosity, enhancement and/or exploration of new skills, and for the needed external push to keep on improving. But why connected learning? Because I am someone who recognized early in my life that I need feedback, conversation and exposure to different perspectives to make my learning happen at the highest level. It is when I connect the most, that my brain is firing the fastest. I literally could spend my life just conversing about ideas with others. In the end though, while my learning is socially driven, the satisfaction is always personal. And perhaps, that is why it is so important to me to share. Wouldn't it be nice for all of our students to be connected and have that sense of personal satisfaction from their learning?

Infinite Monkeys: Part III

Well here it is: My first app.

Feedback welcome!

I ended up making a document with links to my YouTube playlist and a number of blogs so that I could add some more information to the app. Publishing the app is very easy.

So my overall rating for using the program is mixed. There is an assumption of knowledge (like how to submit RSS feeds) that did make it challenging, but having created the app if I had a particular subject I am interested in sharing I can see using this again.

If I was teaching this (and I did use this video for support) I would have structured it differently. I would have talked about the gathering of resources a little more and perhaps how to choose resources (since your limited to nine icons) and different ways to stretch out the content through the use of documents, etc. Many of the resources that are used in the video were not relevant to the building of my app. As you work through the video, you can see how he is embedding already made content (calendars, etc.) with the words, "Real simple." I loathe those words as it always makes me feel 'real dumb' as I struggle to build the content required to make the app at least somewhat useful. This would be an extremely useful app builder if I was a business owner.

All in all, I learned a lot!

Infinite Monkeys: Part II

So yesterday I was writing about creating an app (short for software application) for teachers using MS Paint for Grade 1. I'm still working on it and since Kevin asked for a debrief on the software I thought I'd write another post on the process of building this app.

So far, there have been two areas of concern for me. The first has nothing to do with the software, but with the surprising lack of good lesson plans for MS Paint at Grade 1 that are on the web. Honestly, I feel we should have a mooc just to create quality technologically based lesson plans for other teachers.  Lots of teacher websites saying that MS Paint will help improve fine motor control and using the software is part of their technology plan but nothing that actually guides/informs other teachers about how you can accomplish that using Paint. (And what happens if you're in a district that can't afford a technology specialist?) So other than the ICT curriculum documents saying "Thou shalt use Paint!" if you're not comfortable using technology where are the resources?

Now onto the app building program Infinite Monkeys. It is easy to use, if you know how to attach RSS feeds from your various websites. I eventually found the solution to solve my YouTube RSS problem. You need to create your own channel with a distinct user name. This means you have to disconnect your Google+ account from your YouTube account and create a user name for your channel. It is that user name by itself (nothing else- no http, no www, etc.) that hooks your channel to the app builder when using Infinite Monkeys. The down side of it is that when you hook your channel to the app, it is only going to show the videos you've created not the playlists you've compiled. So all that work to attach my channel and none of it has anything to do with teaching MS Paint skills.

The other aspect of Infinite Monkeys I find frustrating is how quickly it becomes unresponsive. While I'm searching for solutions to various problems like locating an RSS feed the platform shuts down and you have to log back in. Not that this is difficult, just a click of a button, but when you are attempting to fine tune and see exactly what each link displays this can be a real time waster.

Finally, lets talk about the different links you can attach. You can only attach 9 elements and you get to choose from a variety of different links- Twitter, YouTube, your blog, documents, websites, etc. so there is a wide range of options. If you were to use this for self promotion for example, this is a great tool. If you have lesson plans already created with documents, forms, videos, a specific website, etc that can be downloaded, it is also amazing. But if you're trying to create a compilation of other work that is out on the web (because do you really wish to reinvent the wheel every time?) this is a difficult platform to use.

So if I was going to do this again ( and I might- I now have my own YouTube channel!) I would structure the process differently. Much like creating any unit plan, I would have to decide what specifically the app would teach, design the assets separately and use the app to compile all the links as a whole. A lot of creating/making to do to make a truly worthy app.

On reflection, to make a solid MS Paint unit, I would need to create a video for students and a video for teachers. My choices are limited right now to my channel on YouTube (no Animoto, GoAnimate or PopcornMaker for instance, unless I found a way to link directly to what I have created using those platforms), my blog, the creation of a Word document where I could compile all the links, a web link to a curriculum document (but which province or state?), probably a Thimble page on the topic and perhaps my Twitter account if it was relevant.

However, you can just build a website using Thimble or Weebly to compile all the necessary elements that already exist and spend your energy creating good quality lesson plans. It may be the easier route for creating, displaying and managing content.