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I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy to be awake early on a Saturday morning since I was 6 years old and watching Barney. The first cohort 21 face to face meeting has been a great experience. The tools I have been experimenting with today will allow me collaborate and share resources with educators around my city and around the world on an unbelievable scale.
What was good about today? What was challenging about today? My answer to both of those questions is the volume of resources and connections. Over the next week I will observe how others are using these tools and experiment with the different ways to optimally manage the avalanche of ideas. I am most excited about twitter. It will be great to have an insight into the thoughts of a group of the most forward thinking educational professionals in the world.
My biggest take away from today is that success comes when you experiment with all of the tools and choose the ones that work for you. This is what the next few weeks will be for me. Immersing myself in social media by participating in twitter conversions, convincing my team to join me on Diigo, and contributing to Google Communities.
Andrew,
You’ve framed it so well! There are so many tools, ideas and connections that it can be too much. I find the best analogy is the one that I use for Twitter: “Twitter is like a waterfall – when you need water take a drink. When you want to enjoy your surroundings take a look. When you want to go deeper, dive right in!”
Good luck experimenting with the tools. I am slowly trying to build a community on Diigo adopting that same attitude. I look forward to hearing about your challenges, strategies and successes, no matter how big/small.
Thanks for a great first post!
garth.
I would add one thing that was good about Saturday, and that was the professionalism and polish of the presentations and the day as a whole. The transitions were smooth as glass, I felt engaged but never overwhelmed, and the day flew by.
A big take-away for me was that this is how you sell your audience on what you’re selling. The preparation, the enthusiasm, and the knowledge to back it up. Teaching by example.
Gotta go, I got some catching up to do!
“Experiment” and “Play” are key words – so many people see EdTech as a chore to learn, while others see it as a giant sandbox.
Andrew…are you sure you a Math teacher and not secretly an undercover English teacher? In other words, nice first blog post!
Have you seen Ruth’s blog? She started one with Cohort21 and then branched off and created her own on Blogger. It’s worth adding to your RSS feed: http://mathematicallyteaching.blogspot.ca/ There might be some gems in there that can support your thinking and action research moving forward!
Andrew, it’s fantastic that you’re so open to play and experiment and I think that something that Celeste is getting at is the collaborative nature of those who participate in Cohort 21 – past and present. There is an incredible opportunity as we move forward with action-plans to delve deeply into one aspect of your teaching, and doing so with others in your Cohort and exploring the learning of others from previous Cohorts makes it much more streamlined.
What rings most true for me in your post is managing the flood of ideas and making them all work. We’re all in this together, so don’t be afraid to lean on others! Looking forward to sharing and learning with you.