4.3 Reflection: Social and Professional Networks

• When does the Internet help your learning?
• When does it distract from good learning for you?
• How might your answers to these questions be similar to or different from the answers your students might give?
• How might you support your students in using the Internet as their own personal learning space?

When does the Internet help your learning? What a great question! I remember the first time I had online access to information at home. It was in the early 1990s I had just purchased my first real desktop computer, not video game, and I realized I could access archives at Universities across the world. I was digging into Trinity College, MIT, Harvard ... I could access texts that I never would normally get to see. It wasn't great access in the early '90s but I was in and enjoying every minute of it. 

Today it is the same thing; if I want to know something right now I can access that information with a little search engine savvy. I can share it with my friends, family, students, and colleagues. I can share it right now if I want to. And with that comes responsibility. Just because I find the information amazing does not mean that everyone I know wants to be flooded with that information. So, if I'd rather be less intrusive with my shared excitement I can get on Facebook and post a little snippet. I can blog about my discovery. I can Tweet (once I learn how) if I need to and can say it in 140 characters or less. In short the Internet helps with my learning every day since that first day in 1990 when I logged on hesitantly but enthusiastically.

What I've found though is that because the Internet is so vast it is much too easy to go down a "rabbit hole." It's very easy to set out on a search for one thing and five hours later find yourself thoroughly entrenched in something else. Knowing that this can happen, I make sure to warn my students about the pitfalls of too much information easily at hand and the need to be an educated user of the Internet. I love the commercial that's been on the air this past year where the young girl insists that it must be true because she read it on the Internet. Ensuring that students understand how to evaluate sources and distinguish between online soap boxes that are not credible versus credible resources is one of the most important tasks I have when assigning research to my students.

During classroom discussions my students have admitted that staying focused is also a challenge for them especially when the "rabbit holes" are engaging and fun. I encourage my students to map out their investigations, keeping their topic and essential questions at hand so that they can evaluate whether or not the sites they are visiting are in pursuit of those answers or just interesting back story.

I've found the Internet to be supportive when having to collaborate with other teachers or staff members. Families have extremely busy schedules these days and finding a time when everyone can meet to work on projects can be daunting. Last spring I was in charge of a WCEA/WASC Chapter team for my school. My team could not agree on a date to meet and discuss the topics at hand. Fortunately, they were willing to meet virtually. Some of us met in person while others joined us on online. Edmodo and the threaded discussion tool helped us to stay in communication, collaborate, and work together to accomplish our goal. As you can see by the attached clip from that meeting, we were able to listen to everyone's ideas in a comfortable safe environment that met the needs of the team.