Over my 25 plus year career in education, I have learned a great deal from colleagues and teachers. Most of this has occurred over conversations or through workshops. Consequently, at this point in my career, I consider myself at stage 5 of the Utescht scale in many areas of my professional life. (Definitely not stage five with electronic resources) I have more than enough ideas about teaching my content area. I don't have a great desire to learn too much about some content areas because even if I learned them, I couldn't put them into place with my county pacing guide. When I taught at an independent, I had much greater freedom about what I taught, and during this time I pursued new ideas because I knew I could try them out. With my classes, the greatest area in which I am interested is in student feedback on their learning. When I need something, I usually get adequate information from the NSTA list serves.
I seek out information when I have something new to do, such as when I switched to teaching high school chemistry two years. I sought out respected sources of information that came from personal experience or reliable services, such as NSTA. I probably got the most out of attending a workshop and talking with teachers about what they did.
I like the PLN that take place during a course. Here there is a small group of people doing the same thing at the same time. I've enjoyed much of the discussion that has taken place in my MSU courses. I have to admit though, that I didn't feel compelled to keep in touch with many of my classmates. What brought us together was the class at hand.
While I haven't started my on-line PLN, I have my doubts as to how valuable it will be for me. I find that I remember very little of what I read about on-line. Even when I organize ideas and make notes on them, what I use in my classes are things I have seen. I seldom find it helpful to read someone else's lab write up on-line.
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Tom, you say that you get most out of attending workshops and talking to teachers about what they're doing. There is no debating that physically attending workshops is very valuable. But imagine how great it would be to be able to attend workshops from the comfort of your own house in your own time, on topics that are interesting to you and for FREE, and being able to talk to teachers about what they're doing, every single day, whenever you want, and getting answers to something you need say for the next lesson.
ReplyDeleteThat's what an online PLN offers.
It's a lot more than "reading someone else's lab write up on-line", and you can also "see things" online, like chemistry demos you might have not come accross before. NSTA is a great resource, but there are so many other awesome ones out there to explore and exploit! I wonder if any of the other Chem teachers have found a good social network for your subject specifically? I'm Bio...
You bring up a good point with the PLN's taking place within this course. We come from different places, with different experiences, yet at this point and time we share a common objective. I find it somewhat enlightening to read everyone else's points of view.
ReplyDeleteMarta, You seem to enjoy many aspects of what enhanced technology brings. I respect this about you and appreciate how much you offer in "how to" advice in this course. I however, generally do not value my computer time as much. Maybe its because I am over 50 that interacting with a computer screen is not that engaging for me. First and foremost for me is how little I often remember from doing something online. There is too much information that I don't need to know right now, nor do I have time to process it in a way that makes it a part of me.
ReplyDeleteI've taken several on line professional development courses. I found them interesting, but I don't remember many of the details. Nor can I access the information again because I am not registered. However, for courses I have taken in person, I have my notes right along side the course handouts. I can go to the notebook and pull out what I need much faster than I could look for it through my online files or conduct an online search.
I find my profession takes up enough time, just watching over 140 students a day and keeping up with county guidelines that the grade for every assignment needs to be available to parents in the online grade book no later than one week after it was given. This alone discourages me from using assignments where I could challenge students more. When I taught at an independent school, I was often looking for new ways of teaching and engaging students. Yet, after two decades of this, I found that being on the cutting edge isn't always that valuable. I had difficulty with administrators who couldn't get beyond "science equals the textbook" that you use.
Sure, knowing how to obtain help or resources from home, but given the time commitments of teaching and the systemic limits of a school, I would rather not be professional learning on a daily basis. I am a much more interesting, compassionate, patient person when there is balance to my life. I get much more pleasure out of doing something than in spending more time on a computer.