- Contribution to the skills: Please see map at:
https://join.groupmap.com/268-138-887
2. Blockages to doing the task: Blockages to completing this task included not knowing where to get group mapping software and being afraid to set it up. Luckily Lauren solved this for us, and so my new network came through for me! I see this course will be connectivist in nature, and as a result, also realise the expectations placed upon me i.e. that Lee, Eustace, Hay and Fellows (2005, as cited by McLoughlin and Lee, 2005) expects us as students to contribute more to our combined knowledge gain as my own skills develop.
Another blockage experienced was my own small skill set. What I know, I know well. However, I am awed at others’ skill sets and for a time I wondered how I’d ever find the time to further develop myself. Then I realised I only needed to spend about 30 mins each day trying to learn HTML and eventually the skills I need to target would improve. Anyway I intend to take this group mapping exercise as a mind broadening experience, and follow Socol’s (2008) TEST procedure:
- Task: To learn as much as I can from this course
- Environment: To understand that I now have a group of like-minded individuals who are all supportive of each other
- Skills: I have a willingness to contribute and assist others to develop their skills. I have an open mind and a reasonable amount of intelligence too.
- Tools: My toolbelt is myself, other students, a computer, the internet and course material. On the concept of we students as tools, Gross (2016, p. 6) implies, networked learning occurs if we see ourselves as nodes, that we recognise and access when and who we need to get information from in order to learn and accomplish tasks.
I also admit to struggling a bit to understand all the aspects of this course. On reflection, I believe I’m experiencing liminality. I’m find myself going back and forth between the assessment and week 2 pages (Kligyte, 2009) to understand what is expected of us. This is slowly changing as I read through this course’s expectations.
3. Our individual learning potential if we could harness this network would be impressive. In this era, there’s a huge emphasis on having HTML skills. Lauren certainly brings this to the course. If I have difficulties, with coding, perhaps I could approach her? Nikki has a lot of skill with copyright. I have gained her insight for my work many times, and have been both grumpy yet thankful for the insight she’s given me (Nikki knows I say this with love as it’s never fun being the middleman where copyright is involved :-)) . Chris, our lecturer will be the guide on the side, who I can approach for clarification on ideas and questions.
4a) My impact will be assistance with EndNote and researching if asked for. I also hope to positively impact you all by uploading my answers/insights on my and your blog sites so you can have material to work from in a timely manner.
4b) Regarding your impact on me: I’m so happy to have Lauren on board as her skills, especially her HTML 5 skills, are motivating me to improve mine. Nikki’s influence on me reminds me of the need to work within Australian copyright law. Her influence, along with her team members has motivated me to improve my knowledge of it, so that working within copyright law isn’t so annoying.
Answers to other questions found on the Week 2 page:
Future Plan As A Learner: As a learner, right now, the variety of tools I use are minimal yet personalised to me. However, due to Gross’ (2016, p. 6) belief in smart environments, and the requirement of being able to use technology to access and harness Personal Knowledge Networks, I should start increasing my online knowledge of apps, digital tools and networking sites available to adults who are interested in improving coding skills for children. With this in mind, I could:
- Add Feedly to my repertoire – it seems an interesting way to monitor websites that help children code.
- Use diigo for the above purpose as well.
- Monitor Powtoon, Articulate 360 and Code Academy and Lynda.com for sites that allow older children to code and create. I’m not very familiar with what these tools do, but I do know I have the skills to learn them.
- Monitor and eventually join sites that focus on parental groups devoted to coding for children.
Here is a YouTube video showing some of Feedly’s characteristics and how to use it:
I just created my own Feedly account a few minutes ago. Do check it out if you have time. It needs populating though.
References:
Gros, B. (2016). The design of smart educational environments. Smart Learning Environments, 3(1), 1-11. doi: 10.1186/s40561-016-0039-x.
Kligyte, G. (2009, January 10). Threshold concept: A lens for examining networked learning. Paper presented at the Poster ASCILITE Conference 2009, Auckland, New Zealand. Retrieved from http://www.ascilite.org/conferences/auckland09/procs/kligyte-poster.pdf
Socol, I. D. (July 20 2017). The toolbelt [Powerpoint presentation]. Michigan State University, Retrieved July 23, 2017 from https://www.slideshare.net/irasocol/toolbelt-theory
Teaching children how to code 