Social Network Learning: Final Reflection

Course Reflection

I learned many aspects of social network learning that I am going to apply to my professional practice as a corporate trainer and instructional designer. The main idea that I learned in EDTECH 543 is that people can learn and retain so much more from each other, than they would if they only learned alone. Social media learning allows people to share knowledge with their peers in an efficient manner, even when they might face time or geographic barriers.

In this course, we learned about Personal Learning Networks. PLN's allow individuals to connect to sources of learning that suit their own personal learning goals. We formed our own personal learning networks within the course in order to research and collaborate on projects. It was a great experience to learn and work with other professionals. My team was outstanding and we worked very well together. That experience encouraged me to form a small network of my own in my professional life. I am now connected to a handful of open sources, such as the Association for Talent Development's discussion forum, for learning more about professional training and development.

We also learned about communities of practice. According to Etienne and Wenger, "Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly" (2015). I immediately related this to my job. I am responsible for the product training and knowledge of our sales reps in the field. I am developing a plan to facilitate a community of practice where the reps can share knowledge and learn from each other via a private LinkedIn group. Since the reps are spread across the country, this will allow them to "meet" wherever they are, ask questions and share ideas. I also learned that moderating a community of practice like this is not as simple as creating a private group and saying "have at it". It takes a lot of planning. Social network learning requires the instructor to set up guidelines for the community and also think about how to motivate learners to engage, since informal training is not always mandatory.

Overall, I enjoyed how we actually used the platforms that we were learning about throughout the semester.  I now use my scoop.it page to curate content for my job. Attending four webinars, and reflecting on what I learned from them, has helped me in my own practice as well. I had not given much about attending webinars for professional development much thought prior to completing that particular module.

Blog Self-Evaluation

I believe I've earned 70 out of 75 points for my blog. I did a lot of reflection about what we learned in each module and that is evident in my posts. I also wrote about the application of the ideas we learned as well as how each assignment impacted my own learning. I could have referenced resources more often in my reflections, thus the deduction of 5 points. 

References

E., & B. W. (2015). Introduction to communities of practice. Retrieved December 03, 2016, from http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/ 

Using Social Networking and Social Media as Teaching and Learning Strategies

While I was conducting my research, I learned a significant amount about using social media in my subject area of corporate learning and development. It was hard to find a lot of content about success stories about businesses that included social media and/or social networking in their employee development programs. This is most-likely because this trend has just taken off in the past few years. Although the quantity of articles was not abundant, the quantity of great ideas was. I learned how large companies, such as Adidas and Intel, used social media as a very large portion of their training programs. For example the Adidas Group Learning Campus replaced classroom-only training programs with social and interactive online-learning offerings, which are open to everybody and accessible 24/7. Another example of a successful social media learning platform is Blue Corona, an inbound marketing, analytics and optimization company. They use several social media tools to channel training, both formally and informally. Its Facebook Page is used to post interesting, informational articles that employees come across. Moreover, the company has a wall of short YouTube videos that provide great information for new employees. The learning platform ideas I learned about ranged from Facebook groups to Twitter hashtags and content curation websites. This all tied together with what we had learned in previous modules of EDTECH 543.

This applies directly to my job as a training specialist. I am responsible for the product training that our (mostly remote) sales representatives receive. This new way of training via social media not only convenient, but it's effective. It is also fun. It allows employees to learn with each other and also to learn from each other. As a first step toward applying what I learned, I have already begun to develop a LinkedIn group, a community of practice, for our training and sales teams at my company. Here, the team can ask questions, discuss ideas and share relevant info. I will moderate the page and to make sure the procedural answers are correct and share useful training resources. I am also thinking about creating a YouTube page with video tutorials that can be accessed and discussed.

All of these success stories and social media programs I learned about can be found on my Bundlr content curation page.

Live, Real-Time Professional Development

Webinar #1: Using Student Response Systems: Creative Applications, Advanced Features and Tips for Getting Started

Key Learnings: This was a webinar event held by my company and it was hosted by one of our distinguished educators, Dr. Christopher Willey of the University of Surrey in the UK. The main topics were creative applications such as peer instruction and game-based learning. I learned that educators are able to use clickers technology to conduct think-pair-share type of activities in their classrooms. I also learned that game-based learning with clickers added a value to classes by increasing student engagement. The host, Dr Wiley teaches music education at the University of Surrey in the UK and he showed us how the use of clicker technology in his classes increased student interest as well as performance.

Evidence:

Webinar #2: Scenarios & Simulations: Bring Meaning to e-Learning

Key Learnings: This professional development webinar was hosted by Training Magazine and feature the speaker Ethan Edwards. I learned quite a bit from this webinar about the effectiveness of scenarios, simulations and games in e-learning. Edwards explained how simply delivering content over the web does not maximize understanding for the learner. He explained how scenarios and simulations engage, provide context, challenge and provide feedback to the learner.

Evidence:

Webinar #3: Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation: Do you REALLY Know the Four Levels?.

Key Learnings: This was my favorite and most relevant webinar. The Kirkpatrick Model for evaluation is the standard for educators and trainers. I learned an exceptional amount about setting goals for learners, providing them actionable feedback, and giving them the opportunity to provide ME with feedback on my training sessions and methods. The best part about this webinar was the ability to communicate with other training professionals about how the webinar concepts apply to real life. The webinar was also interactive and engaging with polling offered to participants prior to each section. That is something that I can add to my own webinars to make them more effective.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #1: #digcit

Key Learnings: This Twitter chat was not a fruitful one. It was supposed to be live from 7-8pm on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month. I “joined” the chat last night and found minimal tweeting and sharing. In fact, my two contributions (evidenced below) made up most of the chat. This was disappointing and a waste of my time. It was supposed to be a discussion on digital citizenship for educators. It appeared to be a place to advertise websites and other live Twitter chats.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #2: #SatChat

Key Learnings: This was a great chat to join. The topic was college readiness. It was a great learning experience to hear ideas from educators from across the country, grade levels and content areas. Although I am not a teacher, I work in higher education with college faculty from colleges and universities all over the world. It was helpful for me to gain understanding from k-12 teachers on how they are preparing their students for the next level. This insight increased my knowledge of where students are, in terms of readiness, when they get to college. I think this will help me prepare faculty members to use our audience response technology with these students who are new to college.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #3: #SunChat

Key Learnings: This Twitter chat was much like #SatChat. It was a stream of educators Tweeting answers to a main theme question. The theme for this particular Sunday chat was “actionable feedback”. The really cool thing about that theme was that it tied in with the Kirkpatrick webinar on evaluation levels 3 and 4. I participated by sharing a great article on the topic and also by responding to the question. I learned so many new ideas about how to provide and collect actionable feedback.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #4 - #BFC530

Key Learnings: The question for this daily, 15-minute chat among teachers was how to keep students engaged in a world of distractions. This was a very brief “good morning session” to get educators ready for a new day in the classroom with some encouraging words and great ideas. I did not really learn much from this because there really was not time for much back and forth between participants. It was, however, a good way to kick off a new week.

Evidence:

Digital Footprints

My Plan for a Positive Online Presence from David Yargo

My thoughts on living in a world where digital footprints are unavoidable are that it's just a part of life in the 21st century. On one hand, I would love to live a completely anonymous life on the web. It would be nice to reap all the benefits of gathering information on any topic I wish, keeping up with friends and colleagues and networking without having to leave any mark of my own. However, having a digital footprint is simply the cost of doing business on the web. Joining social media outlets and using the internet as a means of gathering information and ideas is a huge benefit of the digital world, but you have to give back a little. I've just accepted that if I want to be "linked in", then I am going to have to accept the fact that certain pieces of me are going to be available to the public. This is not a problem for me or anyone else, if properly managed. Overall, I think that having a solid and respectable digital footprint can be a great benefit for many people.  If you keep a professional appearance in your photos, keep your posts free of harmful rants on any number of sensitive subjects, and share worthwhile information that people can use, then your digital footprint can be helpful in networking with the right people or possibly land you a great job.

What I discovered about my own digital footprint is that it is small and, from a professional standpoint, incomplete. For instance, a Google search of my name only reveals my Twitter handle (my Tweets are protected), my published learning blogs for the EdTech program at Boise State and a few stray Prezi's I created when I was a K-12 teacher. When I did a Google image search, the only photos that showed up were my Twitter profile pictures and my Google+ profile picture. I rarely post anything, including photos on Facebook and I do not allow others to tag me without my approval. That's the "good" part of my digital footprint. I didn't find anything negative about myself. However, my LinkedIn profile is incomplete, my Facebook page is void of any professional references other than my job and education and my blogs are not up to date and they lack information that could serve as a resume builder. My goal in the next few months is to clean up any irrelevant "stuff" on my Facebook and Twitter accounts, complete my LinkedIn profile, and up date my blogs. That will give me a solid digital footprint.

Twitter for Professional Development

Twitter is a social network where you can share your thoughts in 140 characters or less. As most people know, you can follow your favorite celebrity, athlete or political figure. You can also find articles from your favorite magazines, websites and bloggers. What many people do not realize, is that Twitter can also be a social learning network. I am now following five hashtags on my Tweetdeck that serve as a means for professional development. Each hashtag is relevant to me, an educator and trainer who works in the field of educational technology for higher education and corporate training. Below, I have listed the five hashtags, resources I have discovered and what I have learned from the process.

1.  #Edtech - This chat includes educators from around the world who engage in a weekly chat to discuss all things education and share ideas and resources.
2.  #ATD - The Association of Talent Development is a Community of Practice for professional trainers. The ATD hashtag allows to me to keep up on news from the field of professional training and talent development. For example, I am always informed of seminars and webinars that I can attend. 
3.  #HigherEducation - This hashtag is used by people in higher education to share news for students and instructors on the happenings in the world of higher ed. I found that this hashtag is more about the business of higher education than actual learning in higher education. 
4.  #studentengagment - The student engagement hashtag is used by people who value student engagement and student engagement tools and techniques. 
5.  #edchat -  #Edchat is the weekly Twitter conversation that any educator can join to discuss and learn about current teaching trends, how to integrate technology, transform their teaching, and connect with educators worldwide. Participants also discuss education policy and education reform.

Three things that I gained from following these hashtags, thus far, are resources which have served as professional development. This first resource is really awesome because it actually was part of two hashtags (#ATD and #edtech). The article, found here, crosses over both my professional and educational fields. Another cool resource that I discovered via Twitter was this article in the #studentengagement column. Coincidentally, it explains how social media such as Twitter, Instagram and Periscope can enhance student engagement. The third resource that I discovered via Twitter fell under the #edchat column. The blog post, was shared in the weekly #edchat and the author is a teacher. In his post, he shared an awesome matrix with his research-supported "The Rules for Learning".


What I learned most about this process is the value of Twitter as part of my Personal Learning Network and finding where I fit in within a community of practice. Twitter and the use of hashtags delivers a non-stop stream of resources, news and ideas in whichever field or topic I would like. I chose the five hashtags above because they are relevant to my own education and professional development. I found this is much easier than searching the web for articles about professional training or educational technology. The other benefit that I found from using Twitter hashtags, is that the content shared most often comes from people not only in my same career field of ed tech, but they are often in the same position as me. Therefore, the resources and ideas which they share are applicable to my daily life at work.

I learned that by Twitter is another tool or "place" where communities of practice can work together toward a common purpose. By using hashtags, you can easily find information shared by those within you CoP. You can also make it easier for people within your CoP to locate information that you share by using hashtags with relevant posts.

Overall, I think that Twitter is an excellent place for professionals to learn about their craft from other professionals. It is certainly an up-to-the-minute stream of knowledge and ideas that can be found and sorted using Tweetdeck and searching hashtags. It can be a bit overwhelming because the information streams in non-stop and one could never keep up. However, I think that Twitter is just one "tool", in the PLN, If you don't try to take in every single piece of information that comes across your timeline, it is convenient and relevant.