#clmooc – week 2 reflections

This was a great week for me in #clmooc. I tried several new things: a pop-up book, Vines, and a stop motion video. (I’m compiling a personal #clmooc portfolio here.)

I’m loving the collaborative spirit of the #clmooc group. When we brainstormed a possible stop motion make during our Twitter chat on Tuesday and then I saw it appear in the Make Bank just a few minutes later submitted by “Collaborative! From #clmooc chat,” I felt a surge of joy!

stopmotion

As I’m reflecting on what I’ve done and learned so far, I am also thinking about what I’d like to do in the rest of #clmooc. Here are a few things:

  • A Scratch “make” for the make bank
  • More writing and reflecting (Notes to self: post on “academically oriented” part of connected learning; post on public narrative; post on f2f in moocs)
  • Some real world makes
  • Some thinking about community and how to sustain the energy and learning of this and other events throughout the future

This week Stephanie asked us to consider this quote from James Paul Gee’s The Anti-Education Era:

So where in our society is there a genuine forum for discussing big questions?  Where is there a forum for answering them over the long haul?  Where is there a forum for freely sharing what is discovered and people around the world test it?…Where is there a forum that can allow the “worthless” and the “not relevant” and the “not immediate” to germinate like a mutation that may go nowhere or may yet in the end save us?  Where is the DNA of human innovation stored, recombined, mutated, and set loose to give rise to new birth, new ideas, new worlds, and new sorts of human beings?

For me, our own personal writings are the forum that Gee asks about. And these kinds of writings and sharings should be done in a space that we own and control. No institution-provided forum can provide the freedom to explore big questions like these as they deserve to be explored.

It’s all well and good to post on forums like Twitter, FB, and even Digital Is for these kinds of discussions, but to have them on our own spaces is to guarantee ownership, openness, and legacy. (But connections with others is crucial, and because most of our own domains don’t foster the volume of connections that other sites may, I think cross-posting links is a good idea.)

For me, this means blogging.

I love writing in general and find a great sense of fulfillment in blogging. For me, my blogging is primarily for myself — a way to think through the big questions, a place to wonder and muse out loud, a tool for trying out ideas, a forum for planning exciting new things. Of course, it’s all public and open, so others are free to draw from it if it’s useful. And when I get responses and can converse and collaborate with others, all the better.

In the past, my writing, thinking, and playing around various topics was mostly a solitary pursuit. But lately through communities like Twitter, G+, P2PU, NWP, and now #clmooc, I am becoming more connected, and my thinking has benefited.

I hope that we can continue these connections and collaborations far into the future.

My #clmooc portfolio

I’m going to update this post throughout #clmooc and include some of the things I’ve made as a part of this online collaboration.

The Make Bank
(with credit to #ds106 for the idea and all the many folks who have contributed to make this a success)

My first vine (followed my many more :)

A pop-up book

My first stop-motion movie

Lots of food (but I’m always making that)

What is this #clmooc?

big banner

I’m going to go back two weeks and write the post I should have back then. (It’s never too late, right?)

I am happy to be participating in the “Making Learning Connected” MOOC (#clmooc) this summer. I am a part (perhaps the weak link) in a brilliant team of facilitators from the highly-esteemed National Writing Project.

#clmooc is a massive open online collaboration. We think it is important to think of it as a collaboration rather than a “course,” and the flood of great collaborative work on our G+ community has proven this out.

#clmooc is about two main things: making and connected learning. Connected learning is learning designed for the current world. It is about more than just socially connected learning (ala Connected Educators). Connected learning is based on the principles of learning that is:

  • interest-powered
  • peer-supported
  • academically oriented
  • production-centered
  • openly networked
  • with a shared purpose

And it espouses core values of equity, social connection, and full participation.

In #clmooc, we’ll be learning more about connected learning and experiencing it firsthand in the context of making things. We’ll make, hack, and remix all kinds of things — digital stories, movies, food, gardens, photos, web sites, games, toys, and much more. (In fact, we have a “make bank” where you can explore others’ suggested makes or submit your own.)

The most important featuer of #clmooc to me is its flexibility. You can participate in #clmooc however you like. Lurk. Actively participate. Do some suggested makes. Make your own makes. Follow on the #clmooc site, the G+ community, or Twitter. Watch “makes with me,” do twitter chats, meet with others f2f, or do your own thing. Whatever works for you is the right path. I like that.

#clmooc is planned to run for 7 weeks (through August 4), but I suspect that some of us will go on with it beyond that. And it’s never too late to jump in. You can join us anytime. Hope to learn and make with you this summer in #clmooc!

Failure

We talked about the role of failure in trying new things on our #clmooc Twitter chat last night.

[This is my first post about #clmooc. This weekend I’ll go back and talk more about it, but for now I’m jumping in right into the middle.]

I am a pretty good cook and make lots of lovely looking dishes. This morning though I produced a real failure. Just to put myself out there and prove it, here’s a picture.

bread_failure

Long story as to how this happened, but I started with one sourdough bread recipe and then switched to another. I don’t usually cook by recipes and sometimes forget that they’re critical in baking. Suffice it to say that combining a high amount of sourdough (which was the fast rise recipe) with a long rise time (which was for the long rise recipe) produces pancake bread. (Good for bread crumbs though. Another good story is the failed prickly pear jelly which turned out to be the best pancake syrup we ever had.)

This made me think about two things related to other kinds of making. First, if you only see people’s successes, you may think they are always successful. But no one is always successful. The secret is trying lots of things lots of times so that there are a good number of “successes” to celebrate.

The other thing I remembered is that I couldn’t always cook. In fact, for almost 30 years, I was a disaster as a cook. I made gloppy cheese sauces (some will remember that awful Thanksgiving broccoli dish), flat cakes, and gluey pasta. I really love food though, so I kept trying. And kept failing.

Then one day, after I can back from Africa, I found I could suddenly cook. Often artfully, usually without recipes. Now, I can eat a dish in a restaurant and often replicate it at home, sometimes better than the original.

What accounted for this transformation? I have no idea.

This makes me hopeful, though, that if I keep trying, I’ll find other skills I didn’t previously have. “If at first you don’t succeed…”

Using OER to Empower Collaborative Learning Communities

I think that one of OER’s greatest benefits is to empower teacher inquiry and collaboration.

We’ll be talking about that, as well as giving an overview of OER and how they can be used in elementary learning at this FREE webinar sponsored by the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP):