I loved learning about Connectivism this week. Like Communities of Practice, this is one of my favorite learning theories discusses this semester. Perhaps it's because it's newer and applies to our very modern age of all things technology and connectedness, but regardless, it's a pretty awesome concept.
So far I have checked out a number of different sites to help me engage more with the topic. I really like Stephen Downes blogs. He has a professional blog geared towards his work: http://www.downes.ca/index.html, and a personal blog called Half an Hour: http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/ where he expounds on all sorts of topics, but many are also related to his work and education. Stephen has a strong presence on YouTube, too. His videos can be a little dry, but they are jam packed with good information. Plus he reminds me of my Uncle Jim, so I sort of enjoy watching him talking on and on.
MOOC List is a great collection of MOOCs for all! https://www.mooc-list.com/. It's a captures all the MOOCs out in the Internet ether and lists them in one place by date, which is super convenient! Of course you can search the site any way you like.
I don't know if you are an anglophile like me, but I was VERY excited to learn that Oxford is launching its first MOOC. Here's an article about it from the BBC:
http://www.bbc.com/news/education-37975359 - of course it's an Econ course they're running through edX with Harvard and MIT...boring! but it's still great they are doing it. I hope they will do more, because I would LOVE to "take" a course with Oxford. (notice I said "with" and not "at")
More on my love of all things British - I was able to find Bodleian Libraries on Twitter, which just rocked my little world! And led me to find all sorts of other British biblio-profiles. So, my PLN on Brits and books and lit, has just expanded 20-fold!
That's all I have for the moment...more later!
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Friday, November 18, 2016
Communities of Practice
I thoroughly enjoyed researching, writing about, and presenting on Communities of Practice (CoP). It is my favorite theory that we've reviewed so far in the course. I like that CoP's can be completely organic. They can just evolve out of a small group of like-minded people interested in a specific area of practice. I think the group only truly becomes a CoP when they cross the line from just talking about individual experience to actively collecting, sharing, and mapping their collective knowledge.
I keep going back to my quilting bee, but it just fits in perfectly to so many aspects of what we're learning. The group is a CoP, because it's all about sharing information and experience with each other so that everyone learns and develops personally, but also develops the collective knowledge of the group. People start out on the periphery - like me! When I first joined up, I sat quietly and observed and listened and did as I was told, soaking in as much as I could from our guru instructor and all the women around me with varying degrees of experience. Slowly, I am moving closer to the center of the group. I am by no means a pro, like the women at the very center and our guru instructor, but I am learning and my experience is deepening, so that I have something to share now rather than just being and observer. It's exciting!
Another thing that excites me about learning this theory, is that I can now see CoP's everywhere and I can see where they would be useful, too! I think I just didn't have a name for them before, but they are truly all around us. I'm coordinating a women in technology and engineering group for my company and without even realizing it until now, I've been coordinating an CoP this whole time. Now that I know and have more tools to make it better, I'm really excited to push us into new territory.
YEAH!
I keep going back to my quilting bee, but it just fits in perfectly to so many aspects of what we're learning. The group is a CoP, because it's all about sharing information and experience with each other so that everyone learns and develops personally, but also develops the collective knowledge of the group. People start out on the periphery - like me! When I first joined up, I sat quietly and observed and listened and did as I was told, soaking in as much as I could from our guru instructor and all the women around me with varying degrees of experience. Slowly, I am moving closer to the center of the group. I am by no means a pro, like the women at the very center and our guru instructor, but I am learning and my experience is deepening, so that I have something to share now rather than just being and observer. It's exciting!
Another thing that excites me about learning this theory, is that I can now see CoP's everywhere and I can see where they would be useful, too! I think I just didn't have a name for them before, but they are truly all around us. I'm coordinating a women in technology and engineering group for my company and without even realizing it until now, I've been coordinating an CoP this whole time. Now that I know and have more tools to make it better, I'm really excited to push us into new territory.
YEAH!
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Internships and Experientail Learning
I ran an intern program for my company for the past 3.5 years. It is a pretty amazing opportunity for students in engineering, computer science, economics, and business. Students get to work full-time at our company for 11 weeks during the summer. They work on projects that are the equivalent of what we give entry level employees, so it's real work. They're surrounded by mentors and coaches from their department, so they get tons of support. They get to learn about the power industry through training, field trips to industry sites, and presentations by our senior staff. We also put them through job preparation workshops to teach them about how to get a job when they get done with school. What's more, they get paid a ridiculous amount of money!
I would have LOVED to have an opportunity like this when I was in college. Unfortunately, these types of opportunities were not available to me as a liberal arts major. My summer internships was at an arts foundation in Chicago. They couldn't pay, but luckily my college gave me a small stipend so I could at least afford rent for a couple months, but I was on my own for everything else. The work I did for the foundation was all over the place. I filled in at the welcome desk when the receptionist was out. I made copies and stuffed envelopes for mailings. I called donors and asked for money. I rearranged and cataloged the library. I developed brochures for one of their programs, and then I printed and folded about 400 copies of those brochures. I hung art work in the gallery. I participated in critiques of student work. I swept out the sculpture classroom to remove dust from plaster molds. I took notes at meetings. I provided college advising for high schoolers. I co-taught a workshop on making tin retablos for Chicago public school teachers. I co-taught a class on mural making with a group of high schoolers who were training to work with elementary and middle school students on a city-wide mural project. I served wine at a donor party. I walked the Executive Director's dog.
I learned many things that summer. Some of which were sort of applicable to the working world and my future adult life, but most of which were about myself and life in a big city. It was not a waste of time, but it was a very different experience from the students who intern at my company. They are actually learning how to be engineers, what it's like to work in a professional environment, what's going on in the industry that they may choose to work in, and what it's like to make money. These are very important skills to learn at an early age in order to get a leg up in life.
I would have LOVED to have an opportunity like this when I was in college. Unfortunately, these types of opportunities were not available to me as a liberal arts major. My summer internships was at an arts foundation in Chicago. They couldn't pay, but luckily my college gave me a small stipend so I could at least afford rent for a couple months, but I was on my own for everything else. The work I did for the foundation was all over the place. I filled in at the welcome desk when the receptionist was out. I made copies and stuffed envelopes for mailings. I called donors and asked for money. I rearranged and cataloged the library. I developed brochures for one of their programs, and then I printed and folded about 400 copies of those brochures. I hung art work in the gallery. I participated in critiques of student work. I swept out the sculpture classroom to remove dust from plaster molds. I took notes at meetings. I provided college advising for high schoolers. I co-taught a workshop on making tin retablos for Chicago public school teachers. I co-taught a class on mural making with a group of high schoolers who were training to work with elementary and middle school students on a city-wide mural project. I served wine at a donor party. I walked the Executive Director's dog.
I learned many things that summer. Some of which were sort of applicable to the working world and my future adult life, but most of which were about myself and life in a big city. It was not a waste of time, but it was a very different experience from the students who intern at my company. They are actually learning how to be engineers, what it's like to work in a professional environment, what's going on in the industry that they may choose to work in, and what it's like to make money. These are very important skills to learn at an early age in order to get a leg up in life.
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Constructivism - Speed Limits Question 1
Topic 1: Do you think the speed limits in your state/area make sense? (e.g. MA and UT have different speed limits for the same types of roads; why? Does it make sense? Should it be changed? Etc.)
I am a speeder. I am constantly annoyed by the speed limits on Massachusetts roads. Reviewing the information and resources provided by the Constructivism group on this subject, helped solidify some of my views. The information about raising speed limits to meet the preference of 85% of drivers makes complete logical sense to me. Through observation and over 20 years of experience driving in Massachusetts, many other states in the US, and some foreign countries, I believe that it's the differential in speeds that cause the most accidents. Speeding certainly plays it's part in this, but it's the combination of people going too fast, going moderate speeds, and going too slow that create the potential for more accidents, beyond those caused solely by speeding.
However, if you ask me if the speed limits in Massachusetts as compared to Utah make sense, then I say yes, they do make sense...as much as I wish we could drive 80 on Mass interstates. All interstates and roads are not created equal. Utah's rural and urban freeways are very different than Massachusetts' rural and urban freeways. A rural freeway in Utah could be a two lane divided highway that stretches the length of the state, like Interstate 15. You will pass through a few "urban" areas that are densely populated and several rural areas with very small populations, but most of the road is straight and surrounded by the great wide open where there are no people and very few other cars on the road. An 80 mile per hour speed limit on this road makes sense.
Compare this to Interstate 90 in Massachusetts where you've got a road that crosses the entire state east and west, passes through many urban areas and where even the rural areas are populated for the most part. There are far more cars on I-90 at any given time and in any given location, whereas on I-15 in UT, you might see a good number of cars at rush hour going through Salt Lake City, but that's the exception to the rule and only for a short distance relative to the rest of the road. So, slower speed limits on an interstate in Massachusetts makes sense (begrudgingly).
Another consideration is that alcohol consumption and drunk driving rates in the two states are radically different. The number of incidents of drunk driving in Massachusetts is more than double what it is in Utah. Driving drunk on roads with more cars and higher population density is a recipe for disaster, so of course there are more deaths in Massachusetts from drunk driving than there are in Utah. This is another reason why speed limits should be kept lower in Massachusetts. Although I'm not sure if there is any correlation between lower speed limits minimizing accidents caused by drunk drivers - I hate to imagine a drunk driver giving themselves permission to follow an 80 mile per hour speed limit on any given road in Massachusetts. Very scary.
I am a speeder. I am constantly annoyed by the speed limits on Massachusetts roads. Reviewing the information and resources provided by the Constructivism group on this subject, helped solidify some of my views. The information about raising speed limits to meet the preference of 85% of drivers makes complete logical sense to me. Through observation and over 20 years of experience driving in Massachusetts, many other states in the US, and some foreign countries, I believe that it's the differential in speeds that cause the most accidents. Speeding certainly plays it's part in this, but it's the combination of people going too fast, going moderate speeds, and going too slow that create the potential for more accidents, beyond those caused solely by speeding.
However, if you ask me if the speed limits in Massachusetts as compared to Utah make sense, then I say yes, they do make sense...as much as I wish we could drive 80 on Mass interstates. All interstates and roads are not created equal. Utah's rural and urban freeways are very different than Massachusetts' rural and urban freeways. A rural freeway in Utah could be a two lane divided highway that stretches the length of the state, like Interstate 15. You will pass through a few "urban" areas that are densely populated and several rural areas with very small populations, but most of the road is straight and surrounded by the great wide open where there are no people and very few other cars on the road. An 80 mile per hour speed limit on this road makes sense.
Compare this to Interstate 90 in Massachusetts where you've got a road that crosses the entire state east and west, passes through many urban areas and where even the rural areas are populated for the most part. There are far more cars on I-90 at any given time and in any given location, whereas on I-15 in UT, you might see a good number of cars at rush hour going through Salt Lake City, but that's the exception to the rule and only for a short distance relative to the rest of the road. So, slower speed limits on an interstate in Massachusetts makes sense (begrudgingly).
Another consideration is that alcohol consumption and drunk driving rates in the two states are radically different. The number of incidents of drunk driving in Massachusetts is more than double what it is in Utah. Driving drunk on roads with more cars and higher population density is a recipe for disaster, so of course there are more deaths in Massachusetts from drunk driving than there are in Utah. This is another reason why speed limits should be kept lower in Massachusetts. Although I'm not sure if there is any correlation between lower speed limits minimizing accidents caused by drunk drivers - I hate to imagine a drunk driver giving themselves permission to follow an 80 mile per hour speed limit on any given road in Massachusetts. Very scary.
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