Midterm Reflections On Digital Literacy

WOW! I cant believe that we are already at the midterm of our sixteen week semester! It is just amazing to me how quickly time has flown since we started this course back in
August. I am so grateful for this time of reflection to review what we have discussed and learn over these first eight weeks of class.

To start off, I have learned so much these past few weeks I am not sure where to begin! For starters, I am now a blogger and a tweeter! Before this class, these social media outlets would have never crossed my mind of joining and participating in. At first, I had many reserves of using them, but with time and practice, I am learning. I look forward to reading my peers comments on their blogs and enjoy reading the interaction with Twitter on our #diglitclass feed. It’s a fun way to share what we re learning through Twitter and our blog posts.

I have also really enjoyed our Independent Learning Projects. This was another area that at the beginning of the semester I had worries of how am I going to fit all of this into my schedule. As of now, I look forward to my project time. I am working and sewing on a quilt. I am so excited about the progress that I have made with my quilt. During this time, it has allowed for me to relax and enjoy my sewing time. What other class can I say that I have to sit down and sew? Before,I would not take the time to do something for myself, in fact, I would feel guilty. Now, I realized just how important it is to take some me time. It is my hope to continue this in the coming semesters.

The modules have been jammed pack full of amazing and useful information! I have really enjoyed the Ted Talks and reading  the various articles. My favorite Ted Talk has been Logan LaPlante’s talk on, “Hack Schooling Makes me Happy.”  Logan’s approach to schooling is  refreshing and how his parents makes sure that along with his educational goals he his doing things he loves to do and trying new experiences.  My favorite article so far has been the one from this week’s module, “Slowing Down to Learn: Mindful Pauses That Can Help Students Engagement” by Patricia A Jennings. This article stated that normally teachers only pause one second to allow students to think before they give them an opportunity to answer. I was stunned and thought I have been in situations myself where the teacher only allowed a second before she asked a student to answer. In the article, it was stated that teachers should aim for three to five seconds to allow students to process the questions before they answer. I am going to make this my goal to remember to allow time for my students to think before I call on a student.

As we start the next second eights week of this semester I am looking forward to many things. Currently, I am working on my ds106 daily challenge. I am eager to continue working on these projects and learn more about technology and how I could incorporate some of these activities into my future classroom. Finally, I am also excited to add and fine tune my list of Personal Learning Network connections. I have found some really inspiring connections, and I look forward to learning and collaborating with these connections.