Friday, August 26, 2011

I own my learning

I summarize my worse learning experiences as top-down, externally mandated, out-of-context, irrelevant to me and little to no purpose events that I am expected to play a passive role.

When learning most resembles spam, it isn't likely to be of any good.

I initially struggled with identifying my best learning experience as a teacher because my first thoughts went to the conferences or conventions that I have attended... but I found that focusing on these events left me wanting.

My best professional development is a process that began when I unplugged myself from the top-down, mandated professional development matrix. It began when I became so disenfranchised with the education system that I began to question everything.

Because of social networking (which for me mostly includes blogging and twittering), I have been able to make time and place all but obsolete.

I am able to engage in two-way dialogue with educators from around the world and access information and research from the sources I trust without a third-party filter. Because I play an active role with this research and dialogue, I am able to engage intensely in reflecting upon my beliefs and practices.

No longer am I dependent on someone else to provide me with the motivation or resources to learn.

I am unplugged.

I own my learning.

Who owns yours?

2 comments:

  1. My story matches yours. As I moved into the use of learning networks based around social media, my learning has taken a huge leap forward. There is such a great amount of high quality information out there, With the use of Twitter, RSS feeds, Facebook, and now Google Plus, this finds me, so that I don't have to spend hours looking. I do find I'm spending hours reading, learning and reflecting, which is a much more beneficial state. This should be the endpoint of children's education as well.

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  2. This tends to hit home all to well...however the unfortunate part is that I "unplugged" my self a couple years short of my Ed degree. The learning curve I have been on since I entered the social media community has been...well, to say the least, engaging. So engaging I found my self focusing mainly on my education and not my schooling. Not to mention the anxiety and conflict that arrives when the professors are not an active part of the community we speak of; in fact many still suppress the idea that Twitter might actually be a good thing. Well I'm not trying to bash my professors...I suppose I'm just sad that I stumbled across the ownership of my learning before I was finished having someone else own it via "read this, write this, by this time, in this way." My addiction to education has impeded my schooling. Alluring and frustrating...

    - Jamen

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