Online educators are in a great position these days to take advantage of so many opportunities for networking. Not too long ago, the way I would network with fellow educators was by attending conferences that were far away and a hassle to get to. In the present, however, support and ideas for improving my teaching are literally a click away.
In the video “Sharing: A Moral Imperative”, the narrator states that we are on the verge of a “sharing” revolution. The stats provided in Alex Couros’ video make this more than clear! I believe there are times when sharing is valuable and appropriate, and there are times when it is simply sharing overkill. The most relevant and useful sharing occurs when educators offer their experiences with teaching techniques, technologies, classroom management, pedagogy, etc. However, I must ask how the busy instructor can expect to keep up with all of the “sharing” that is out there? I like the idea of the personal learning network (PLN) proposed by Helen Crump. Putting a filtering system in place that limits the people, articles and books and professional activities I engage with and in would certainly make “sharing” more manageable. I discovered this easy-peasy link on how to build your own PLN along with a video explaining more about what a PLN is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hLLpWqp-owo
There is a lot of opportunity to learn from what others share, but what about me “sharing” with other educators? I have seen from this class the benefits of sharing blogs, and I plan to continue blogging after this class. The “Virtues of Blogging” article prompted questions for me because though I find blogging valuable, up to this point I haven’t considered blogs as recognized professional publications. In Weller’s article, he states “..it would be difficult to argue that the blog does not constitute widely accepted definitions of scholarly research.” But I would argue that blogs do not fit the definition of scholarly research because many blogs are written from a particular political perspective, they are not usually peer-reviewed prior to publication, and they often do not reference where the factual information presented came from. But if the academic community recognizes blogs as scholarly research, and educators are expected to publish them, then I would much rather post a blog than go through all of the red tape and waiting that comes with publishing a journal article!
Is sharing a moral imperative? I rather agree more with the statement that it’s an “ethical responsibility”. I was touched by the anecdotes in the “Sharing” video as folks described the positive experiences people had with sharing photos and stories. And I agree that people generally enjoy sharing themselves – just look at all of the minutiae people post on Facebook! I also agree with the importance Ko and Rossen place on networking with others and continually seeking to update/improve our online teaching skills. Though I recoil at the suggestion that the online learning “marketplace” dictates the pace of change instructors are expected to keep up with, my experience is that this is true. We must help each other if we’re to keep up with the rapidly evolving landscape of online education.
On another note, in all honesty I have no idea what I will do my final presentation on. It will largely depend on which Web 2.0 tool I am most comfortable using at this point. The changes I want to make in the short term in my classes are adding a welcome video, providing an online class tour, developing a presentation via Prezi, and creating a group project where students present their final product as either a wiki or a blog. I’d love to hear everyone’s input on these ideas and get some clarity.