ETMOOC so far….
I’ve been lucky to have been to 2 courses run by Alec Couros in Sydney. So the first session the connected/networked educator I had been to before. But the beauty of it is that there is always something new to learn. The Blogging session was interesting to those new to blogging, like me. So many of the participants on that morning were from Australia, also I didn’t realise that Sue Waters was also Australian.
Today’s session Sharing is Accountability with Dean Shareski was a highlight. It really made me think about the way we do our weekly PD sessions for the staff. As an Assistant Principal I work in the executive team in constructing a timetable for our Wednesday sessions. What we need to cover, targets, training and reporting back from outside courses. It has never occurred to me to ask the staff what they would like to discuss or learn more about. It is generally left up to myself and another Assistant Principal at the school to run these sessions. It is us sharing our knowledge with the rest , very oneway , but not meaning to be.
The hour webinar covered many ideas with collaboration from educators worldwide. However it came down to the following:-
LEARN & SHARE – these are a moral imperative – we learn something ,we share something. Dean then went on to outline examples of how educators can share their knowledge with various degrees of personal exposure. e.g. Share on Pinterest, Diigo, classroom blogs, encouragers, the “how to” people, curators and self reflectors of personal teaching practice.
He left us with these responsibilities as educators-
More autonomy for teachers – we allow students to choose their own learning direction with the use of PBL but we dictate what teachers need to know. We do not let them choose their learning projects.
More connections – build knowledge base
More sharing – the ultimate purpose
The following is Dean’s pre conference Keynote for K12 online 2010 – it is this mornings session in a nutshell. I know I will go back to school next week with a few suggestions on how we can make learning more personalised and meaningful for our teachers.
Enjoy.