Going through the orientation for #ETMOOC, two questions were asked of participants:
- How will you make your learning visible to others?
- How are you contributing to the learning of others?
I was already a little stressed about figuring out #ETMOOC and how it would fit into my already full schedule, but really wanted to participate in the experience and thought the benefits definitely outweighed the stresses over the coming weeks. So as I thought about these two questions I was thinking, “Okay, which one of these comes first? Which do I do first – making learning visible to others(chicken) or contributing to the learning of others(egg)?”
After thinking about this awhile, I realized that you really must have one to have the other. Perhaps they are even the same thing. If you are making your learning visible, for me it’s through blog posts, actively participating in synchronous sessions, sharing helpful information on Twitter, and responding back and forth with other participants through Twitter, Google+, and blog comments, then it has in turn I am contributing to the learning of others. Am I right here?!
Identifying the relationship between these two actions has also prompted me to think about how powerful this facilitation would be in a K-12 classroom. In traditional K-12 education, a majority of the time students make learning visible only to the teacher, and contribute to the learning of others in very prescribed situations. How can an environment be created where students continually make their learning visible/contribute to the learning of others, similar to #ETMOOC? I am so excited to explore strategies and tools that could make this possible-and hope you will help by sharing any insight/suggestions.
