The Internet and Learning
(This is step four in the free Teacher 2.0 course/"experience" at Mightybell - participate at https://mightybell.com/experiences/3ff5259e1c4d9948-Teacher-2-0.)
How has the Internet has impacted your own personal learning?
- What sites do you go to regularly to learn new things?
- Are there authors or sites that you "follow?"
- When does the Internet or the Web help your learning, and when does it distract from good learning for you?
- How do you feel about technology and learning?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Christina Luciak on -
As mentioned in my last post, I am currently working on my Masters in Educational Technology. This program is offered online through the University of British Columbia so all my learning is online and on the web. This has had a tremendous impact on my learning as I have had to learn new strategies for navigating on the world wide web in order to find research and resources in a timely manner. I have all so had to learn what makes a site/internet article worthy of looking at and using.
I have also become a big fan of twitter for 24/7 professional development. This social networking was brand new to me but has opened up a world of opportunities and information that I would not have accessed otherwise.
I have also been a part of a pilot project at my elementary school and been fortunate enough to have team taught in a tech infused classroom for the last three years. The experience has been a major learning curve for me, a tech illiterate before this experience. In my classroom our students are using Kidblog,, Pixton, Comic Life, Kidspirations, iMovie, iPhoto, SMART Notebook to name a few of the sites that we have discovered together and are now part of our daily work.
I have recently created my own blog as well. I was inspired by other education blogs that I learned about through work and through twitter. This has added a whole new dimension to my learning.
Technology and learning goes hand in hand and is something that you need to embrace or be left behind in the 21st century classroom.
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Permalink Reply by smilin7 on
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MightyBell's daily reminders continue and continue, such a gentle nudge.
I am going to post, even if it is not as complete a post as I would like it to be. I'm determined to move on and through the rest of the challenges!
How has the internet impacted my own learning? It's revolutionized it!
I completed my masters online. I have been a participant and co-moderator in TESOL's EVOs (Electronic Village Online, free 5-week annual workshops on various topics).
Twitter has informed me of so many valuable, useful (and implemented, used) sites, tools, peers, services.
Bloggers, Tweeters, a few sites are my primary sources of learning today.
The last few conferences I've attended, the powerfully energizing meeting of online friends in person has been the highlight of my attendance.
Probably the strongest way that the internet has impacted my learning is in the stronger sense of community and collaboration I feel able to establish and nurture. In online learning that I've experienced, the networking, the "I am a real and noticed person" feeling is stronger when I wish it to be, and the "I just want to hide/lurk and absorb" option is there when I wish it to be, too. The ease of documenting my work and progress is a benefit, too.
I follow many sites! Some are for personal enjoyment (especially funny bloggers; and artists, photographers, writers, poets whose work I admire), most as professional resources. [I teach full-time online, http://englishworldwide.ning.com, and so many sites are referred to time and again.
EnglishCentral.com / eslabout.com / OWL at Purdue / Larry Ferlazzo, so many others!
When does the internet distract from effective learning? THAT is a question I reflect upon frequently.
Time management skills used to be an easy to acknowledge strength of mine. That's just not true anymore. I'm online too many hours a week, not getting sufficient physical exercise, and not finding effective ways to discipline myself to find a better balance.
There are very very few messages on Twitter or in my email that I do not wish to receive. I'm enthusiastically interested in scanning them. I do delete many that I know I don't have time for. I use Nudgemail.com and Diigo often -- to reschedule and/or simply bookmark and tag in a way I know I'll be able to rediscover them...and I do often use my diigo library when planning a post or lesson or email to a colleague.
But with the monitoring of the Ning site I facilitate, there are simply not enough hours in the day! IF I am able to develop the site to a stage where it's actually earning sufficient income, then I could and would hire folks to help.
Marketing is a skill I need to develop further if I hope to be financially stable. Luckily for me, earning money is not my top priority, and I love the work that I do.
I am impulsive, and my impulsivity makes for an interesting but overwhelmed life!
I started this post several hours ago, am going to stop for the day and HOPE that I return soon to continue the journey.
I've enjoyed (and will continue to enjoy) reading the posts of other lifelong learners sharing their reactions and experiences,
Holly
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Permalink Reply by Tracy Hanson on -
Technology has finally allowed for me to personalized not just the learning for students on an IEP but for all students that I work with. Now I can build lessons that will incorporate a variety of learning styles as well as learning levels. I can add interactive materials for the concede learner and other for the conceptual.
What I love about technology is also what is so distracting. I find a great site and investigate it and it leads to another which often leads to two more and I find something that isn't related to what I was searching for but it is really a good source for something else. I guess and this point because of all the OER I use that the site I am visiting the most right now is Pinterest because I can organized all the OER that I find.
I can't say I have a favorite book, or author or music or website. It all depends on whether the content is fits where I am at the time. I could come across an absolutely wonderful site that hasn't anything to do with what I am looking for. Now I don't want to lose it for future use - so I pin it. I find an article that is excellent in content and I pocket it - many times not looking at who wrote it.
Technology for me is like being dropped in a candy story - or in a Barnes and Noble. I don't ever seem to get enough.
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I like your analogy, and agree, it's like a virtual candy store, with fewer calories!
Smiles,
Holly
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