More from Melanie

A. I am your friend. I don’t work in education. You are talking to me about the idea that we all learn from each other, in all kinds of contexts, and that this can often be richer than more formal classroom based learning. I am sceptical. Tell me about an informal learning experience you have had online in which collaboration was involved, show me a concrete example to help me to see what you mean.
I am a true believer in the concept of lifelong learning. Just think about the many ways everyday you pick up a new skill, a new word to add to your vocabulary or a new understanding just because someone shares a story with you or helps you with a problem. This could happen at home, at work or just incidently in public, somewhere unsolicited. So much of what I have learned about technology has been shared with me by others or I have discovered myself and in turn shared that with others still. An example that easily comes to mind is using Voicethread. This is a Web 2.0 tool that allows images and or video to be shared and then annotated by a group of willing particpants by webcam video, text or voice. A person I follow in twitter posted a voicethread on her blog and then asked via twitter whether anyone would care to help her figure out how it worked by adding their thoughts to it. It is a simple example but also a nice one where we were all learning together in a very informal way.

B. Tell us about that new tool, or set of tools, you have just discovered that really excites you, talk about the potential it has to change your work. What do you want to do with it?

Twitter has revolutionised the way I work. I have been using it for a little less than a year. It has opened up a professional and social network to me that I had no idea existed. I am excited by it because it allows me to learn from others informally and incidentally as they post their thoughts and links to web pages and articles that interest them. By building a network of like-minded people I am able to engage in professional learning discussions at all hours of the day and night and most importantly to ask advice and to share my thoughts and resources. I am constantly introducing this tool (and others like it) to teachers as part of my work and believe it will make a big difference to many of them particularly those in rural areas.

C. Do you see yourself as a pioneer? Do you think you are more innovative than others in your organization? Do you think your organization is lagging behind? Tell us how you feel about this. As I grow older I am pretty sure I am an innovator as far as technology goes. I realise that there are other people out there more innovative than I am but I am always willing and wanting to try new things, and to stumble and learn in the process.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 at 10:31 pm and is filed under mvn08. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.