Bahahaha. I am not trying to be contrary, I totally think this is a great annual theme for educators. But my last few days have pointed out to me I may do better to limit myself to some quality connections versus stockpiling them like a cold war arms race.
This past weekend I signed up for Project24’s “Digital Learning Transitions” MOOC-Ed for first semester. Why yes, how sweet of you to remind me that I dropped out of Blended Schools Network’s MOOC last spring after 2 of the 5 modules. But this time will be different. I hope. Did I also mention I signed up for Kennesaw State University’s K-12 Blended & Online Learning MOOC for second semester? But I *know* I’ll finish that one, it is for PLUs. And *everyone* knows that is what truly motivates all teachers.
Yesterday morning I started by knowing I should set a good example (who knows for whom) and try to connect in a new way. I read Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach’s tweet on edConnectr which prompted me to register at another site where I connect with other educators , to gain/offer assistance/expertise. Because look a that tweet? Who doesn’t want to join that? P.S. I don’t read whole books lately, so I don’t know why the one about the book club spoke to me.
That got me thinking about the community I had joined last Spring, edWeb. I looked through the groups I had joined, but not really participated in with a bit of remorse. I paged through some educators in my state and found someone with a job which totally intrigued me. We have now connected via Google+ and Twitter.
Before dinner I took a call from a teacher friend looking for feedback on a class visitation today. He also asked me to look into a ed tech tool: yudu.com Sure, I can look at that sometime. So I wrote it down on a post-it note and stuck it my my work badge – where is still is the next day until I have to remove it to give a tour to “professionals” – which I assume don’t have to resorting to sticking things to themselves to accomplish tasks.
After dinner I was reading Twitter and saw an upcoming chat which sounded interesting – #makered. Encouraged by a colleague, I started following the hashtag. I introduced myself as a lurker, but then was immediately engaged by four of the participants. I think they maybe have felt they were the anti-#edchat group with their time slot. So now I have great supplemental reading from my new twitter friends on Maker-Stuff, a lot of resources, which I now have/want to make the time to consume. Within this chat window I found Airplay on the new iOS7 for my son (hiding in plain sight), changed an epic diaper blow-out for my other son and did the dishes.
Whew.
The next morning I went for a walk and the only thing I could get to work on my iPhone was the pedometer. Podcastomatic, my usual workout fix of edtech items wasn’t working. I could not raise the podcasts in iTunes either. Pandora couldn’t play either.
Geez, I felt a bit naked without some media telling me something.
It was quiet. I could hear my own breath, I could hear the rain sneak up behind me gently. I was quiet.
Aside from revealing to you my wandering mind, don’t you think this is just too much for any one person? I am already connected. I may be trying to sustain a pace which is only the induction phase of connectedness, and that is too steep to for me.
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