Category: Week 2 – Networked Learning

This week, we are tasked with writing about the benefits of networked learning, e.g. blogging, in higher education. Blogging is something that prior to last semester’s Preparing the Future Professoriate course I had never tried. It seemed like too much pressure for too little reward to post my writing online. What if I said something stupid? Anything you post online, even after you delete it, lives on in one form or another, never to be truly reclaimed. For me blogging has been helpful in helping me get over this. As Seth Godin says, it is more about the exercise of forcing yourself to write than the final product itself. It really forces you to think about what you’re saying and how to get it across concisely. Doug Belshaw suggests that working openly by default has virtues in and of itself. Much like the open data movement, sharing as much information as possible as broadly as possible can only help further discussions with colleagues and others in your field. It may even help those in similar fields dealing with similar challenges. The potential to create a more public dialogue using blogs is immense. Hopefully over time, we as academics will learn to use blogs and other media to converse more openly and effectively with one another. Technology changes all the time, but online discourse will continue in one form or another so there is no harm in getting in as much practice as possible!

Campbell, W. (2016, January 11). Networked Learning as Experiential Learning. Retrieved from http://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/1/networked-learning-as-experiential-learning.

Godin, S. (2009, April 18). Seth Godin & Tom Peters on blogging. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=livzJTIWlmY&feature=youtu.be

[Enterprise log: I am leaving what I consider social reality… What we call a ‘face to face communication’… Behind me is a cluster of the bodily performances, the mimics, the sighs, the smiles, the rolling eyes, angry looks, nodding ect. … The question is what is out there beyond the blinking black cursor? Until now, my mission was to understand and to communicate through my personal Facebook page or Twitter account in investigating the realm of social media. Now, I have a new task… Learning about how I start a blog to extend my teaching experience as a GEDI.

I believe learning about new technologies of communication is not only a need but a must. While this new realm has been shaped by our actions, it also shapes the way we think and act. Stepping into this realm, I am challenging myself in becoming a subject of a new practice, which has already started establishing its unique cultural codes. I feel that exploring this realm will also be beneficial in observing the way in which individuals are being organized in forming a new society and in understanding the way in which our social reality has been restructured through our social media experiences.

Therefore, I say “I am on board for our next mission!”

As an undergraduate engineering student, they constantly prided themselves on the amount of group work that we would engage in and how integrated technology was into the curriculum. It was for good reason because it was as advertised. The collaborative atmosphere was fostered from day one with at least 2 courses per semester requiring teamwork of some form and, starting with our freshman classes laptops were mandatory every day. By my senior year, tablet PCs were required and integrated into the classroom assignments as well; an unprecedented move in the years before iPads were ubiquitous.

“Commandment 11: thou shalt not Facebook during class!”

Years down the road, I find myself thankful for the forced interaction with both those who approached social interaction with ease and finesse as well as those who preferred solitude.  Adopting the latest technology, albeit by force, made us recognize both the importance of and the massive potential of being an early adopter of what would eventually become mainstream technologies. These have been important lessons that have helped me wear the many hats that I’ve worn in my life.

Fast forward 10 years to the high school and college students of now and what has changed? Companies and organizations still need people who can work on multiple teams simultaneously, deal with different (and sometimes difficult) personalities with ease, and can adopt new technologies and minimize costly learning curve times in the work place.

Ironically however, these two seemingly unrelated points of pride for universities have now converged as new technologies are being used to foster collaboration between students across a classroom table as well as across the globe. But the question we need to ask before hurriedly jumping on the speeding bullet train of progress is: Are we leaving anything behind on the platform?

Throughout the years I’ve had the now defunct Hotmail, AIM, and Myspace; and currently have Facebook, Skype, Vine, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, YikYak, Kik, Venmo, and so on. I think part of my education encouraging early adoption of technology has kept me from fearing the advent of new technology and seeing its potential, even in a classroom setting. For better or for worse, these technologies have created a place for people to express themselves, their opinions and views in an unprecedented manner.

How my students see me when they notice me checking my snapchat before class

It also has connected the world and created a global community, including a community of learners. However great the potential of the internet, I am still cautious and I understand the importance a birthday phone call in lieu of a Facebook like,  stopping by someone’s office instead of sending and email and awaiting a reply, or a video chat discussion of a book as opposed to an email chain where  perhaps some nuances are lost in the inflections in our voices and body language.

I suppose the major challenge going forward for educators seeking to make a more well rounded in and out of class room experience by integrating technology will be just how much is too much, and at what point will the companies and organizations that we send our graduates to start sending the students back for ‘personality and interaction’ training, because although they may be able to make “friends” and generate “likes” online, we all still need to get along IRL.

My perspective of networked learning contains different aspects of learning and interaction with people, surroundings, internet, social media, information, knowledge resources, and so on. Added to Gardner Campbell’s opinion (2016) that networked learning includes “a real-world context that provides deeply integrative opportunities” and “digitally mediated networked learning”, I believe that networked learning should contain all the connection opportunities around us, especially digitally mediated kind. I think Dirckinck-Holmfeld, Jones, and Lindström (2009) offered a better definition of networked learning as “networked learning is a process of developing and maintaining connections with people and information, and communicating in such a way so as to support one another’s learning”. This emphasized that learning happens when you relate to others and learning resources. As we can see, in the picture, a networked student connects to different kinds of people, resources, social media and internet.

Picture source: http://natbaseratlarande.se

In a rapidly developing information society, internet and social media are a big part of people’s life, which makes them an important component of networked learning. In the picture, online communities, social networking services, chat, video conference, wikis, blogs, popular media, content development communities, social bookmarking and digital photo sharing are related to internet and social media. At the same time, internet and social media themselves are changing rapidly as more and more people pay attention to them and respond to them. They become a platform of people’s communication, which is the core of the traditional networked learning. So digitally mediated kind of networked learning become more and more important. We hear about the huge impact of internet and social media everyday, however, under a lot of circumstances, we focus on all the good impact, and ignore the dark side. Internet and social media provide us huge amount of information even more than we can process. As Stenhouse (1975) argued, “the nature of knowledge . . . as distinct from information”(p.82), among the piles of information offered, we need to distinguish different information. We need to think deeply when we receive information and when we try to call them knowledge, and when we try to absorb them and make them our knowledge.

We need to make wise selection of information we get from digitally mediated networked learning, and we also need to realize that we are responsible for information, ideas or thinking pieces we give out in the digitally mediated networked learning. Since we are working more openly, just like right now I am writing this blog to share my thoughts about networked learning on the open internet. We need to consider our audience, we need to pay attention to how they think about our work and our working process, and respond to that responsibly. Once we send out any information on internet or social media, we are building a bidirectional communication channel.

In the networked learning, we are giving and receiving information at the same time. Thinking deeply and keeping aware of that all the time will be necessary for achieving successful networked learning.

Reference

Dirckinck-Holmfeld, L., Jones, C., & Lindström, B. (2009). Analysing networked learning practices in higher education and continuing professional development (pp. 296-pages). Sense Publishers.

Gardner Campbell. (2016). “Networked Learning as Experiential Learning”. Educause review. Retrieved from http://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/1/networked-learning-as-experiential-learning.

Stenhouse, L. (1975). An introduction to curriculum research and development (Vol. 46). London: Heinemann.

The Evolution of Engineering and Science

Over the past two decades, the evolution of technology has been progressing at an exponential rate. Stronger networks and powerful computers have embraced the utilization of data in the way it’s been generated, stored and shared globally. The way the world is connected today revolutionized the transfer of information between two sources. The way people live today has changed as technology continues to advance. I remember towards the end of my school years, owning a phone that rarely did anything but call was a big deal. Now most kids as young as 5 years old have their own smart phones. Whether they are a form of communication or a form of entertainment, the huge gap between two generations are strong indicators that technology has a large influence on social lives. Technological advancements both can have positive or negative impacts on an individual’s life, but can sometimes be redeemed to contradict each other. For example, some people argue that they get too attached to technology that they become separated from their own reality whereas others believe that the internet and social media like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are worldwide platforms that can help connect people together.

My Teaching Experience 

When I first started my teaching journey around 4 years ago, I was planning to deliver my classes the traditional way: PowerPoint, handouts, and white boards. The minute I entered class, students had no pens, no notebooks, and were only holding their phones and iPads. I immediately thought to myself that these students are not prepared to use books, knowing that I’m going to have a hard time teaching.

Smart Boards

I was later provided with a smart board pen which I had no idea how to use it. I was offered a condensed course along with my colleagues to understand how it works, but it was not enough. When I started using it with my undergraduate students they got very excited, and payed more attention than I expected (given the fact that I was still a beginner using it). I felt that students it only takes a small show to give them some form of motivation.

I still faced difficulties in using it, until eventually I stopped and went back to the good old traditional teaching methods. So I thought to myself how can I get my students more involved in learning particularly when the subject being taught like civil engineering requires more hands on. As a young teacher (relative to my colleagues), I had a sense of responsibility to make some changes, knowing that only a few years ago I was in their shoes, listening to my instructors giving us long and sometime meaningless lectures about Fluid and Structure. The initiative I took started off by taking my students out on field trips to companies and construction projects, giving them a sense of what real-life problems look like. In Kuh’s teaching framework he mentions other ways of experiential learning such as: “study abroad, internships, service learning, undergraduate research, and community engagement” (W. Campbell, 2016). So there are many ways of engaging students through different ways of teaching. It is important for them to enjoy the learning process particularly for the younger generations who are easily influenced.

Blogging

I always thought that blogging required a high level of expertise and is mainly used for marketing purposes. Only until I joined the Contemporary Pedagogies course is when I realized that blogging is a powerful tool of delivering a message across. Starting up a blog was incredibly easy, and here it is, my first ever blog post! After reading several blogs and watching TED videos, blogging seems to be one of the most successful and modern ways of teaching and learning. Starting up a blog allows your voices to be heard, your opinions to be considered, hence broadening your community and allowing you to learn from others, and improve your writing skills (Hitchcock. T), xxxx. It is important to ensure that universities are equipped to support the new generation of students that possess high technology skills and preferred learning practices (Bennet, Maton and Kervin, 2008).

Finale

Technology is enabling new ways of learning by removing the barriers inherent in traditional engineering education and enabling real-world problem solving in the engineering classroom. From the normal ‘black board & chalk’, to classrooms with smart boards, microphones, speakers, large projector screens, video conferencing gadgets and more. New technology has opened new ways of learning. Since students are spending most of their non-study time online, it becomes essential that engineering education should incorporate technology to transform the learning itself for the better. To sum up, teaching methods should be in sync with the demands of the engineering industry to meet the new generations’, hence accelerating research and development in engineering. I am excited to try out this blogging experience and eventually passing it on to my students.

Bibliography

Doug Belshaw “Working Openly On the Web” (2014)

Gardner Campbell, “Networked Learning as Experiential Learning” (2016)

Hitchcock, T. (2014) http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/07/28/twitter-and-blogs-academic-public-sphere/

Seth Godin and Tom Peters on Blogging (2009)

CHEER Chapter 31. Use of Information Technology in Engineering Education

TEDxKC – Michael Wesch – From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-able (2010)

Tim Hitchcock “Twitter and Blogs are Not Just Add-ons To Academic Research” (2014)

I finished my undergraduate studies (unbelievably) ten years ago this spring. As I reflect on that experience, it is entirely possible I didn’t know what a blog was when I was an undergraduate student. Twitter existed though I wouldn’t learn of it until about 2008 and iPhones didn’t exist until several months after I graduated. Suffice to say, I did very little digital networked learning as an undergraduate. Since then, I have kept travel blogs, blogs on politics and current events, I’ve blogged for organizations, and I’ve blogged for academic purposes.

I enjoy the ability to easily, and without the gate-keeping of traditional publishing, put ideas out into the world. However, I think we should be clear-eyed about the revolutionary character of digital communications. Tom Peters, for example, wildly oversells blogging as something new and unique when he says: “No single thing in the last 15 years professionally has been more important to my life than blogging. It has changed my life, it has changed my perspective, it has changed my intellectual outlook, it has changed my emotional outlook…” Maybe I’m not doing it right, but my experience with blogging has been positive but not life-changing. Self and alternative publishing of heterodox views in the forms of handbills, newspapers, and “zines” has existed likely since at least the invention of the printing press.

Furthermore, platforms such as blogging offer potential for greater publicity but do not guarantee it. So while I agree with the notion one should “Work openly by default,” I have to quibble with the assertion that “An email reaches a much smaller number of people than a blog post. Unless it contains sensitive information, publish your work to a public URL that can be referenced by others.” A blog post has the potential to reach more people than an email but it does not necessarily do so in reality. Again, having blogged a fair amount, I know that it takes a lot of work to build even a small readership. I can email everyone in SPIA on a listserv, for example, reaching hundreds while many of my blog posts (sadly) have only been seen by 5-10 people.

Despite this tempering, digital platforms like blogging do seem to offer interesting new approaches to network learning.  The idea of having students keep blogs and/or complete their writing assignments in a more public way is quite compelling. As Tim Hitchcock argues: “By forcing students to write ‘publicly’, their writing rapidly improves.” I know that working with editors on my writing has greatly improved it. The reflexive, back and forth process can clarify thoughts and create deeper argumentation. I have also found that answering questions on blog posts I have written can have a similar clarifying effect. I would certainly be open to incorporating strategies of public, “networked” assignments in courses I teach.

While blogging seems a strong platform for such an approach, alas, I am much more skeptical that “micro-blogging” such as Twitter would be a suitable venue. Twitter is great for sharing links to lengthier information (such as blog posts) but the times I’ve attempted to interact with people about ideas or events I’ve found the 140 character format much too limiting for complex thought and argumentation. Brevity, on Twitter, does not seem to be the soul of wit.

Before I came to America, I might never systematically think about what is the essence of higher education, how to establish it, and to what approach to realize it. Although, ironically, I’ve been studied in schools for eighteen years. This is a rather common phenomenon, to some extent, in the system of China’s high (and higher) education.Despite that there are several educators who care about the essence of higher education, and try every hard to make a difference in the distorted system of education. Massive educators and learners are still in an old-fashioned way of cramming teaching, especially those who are remote from cities and metropolitans. Web-sources are said to be complicated (generally harmful) and should be prohibited for the sake of protection. Textbooks are prepared for learning the uniformed answers for tests and exams. It seems that the students are just receivers of knowledge, or more crudely speaking, receivers of words that may make little sense to them. I don’t mean to demean the educators and learners of my country. With the increasing openness and development, more and more attentions are paid to promote the structural reform of China’s education system. However, problems are still existed, and we still need to face them and overcome them.

From China to America, I find myself really change a lot. Learning is no longer one-way process and words that make up for knowledge are making sense. As I learn from primary school to graduate school, from domestic class to international lecture, from paper contents to online resources, I realize what is the essence of higher education and how the higher education should work. Just like the saying in the video “From knowledgeable to knowledge-able” (Michael Wesch), it is not about meaning-SEEKING, it is ultimately about meaning-MAKING. Given the cheaply easy way of searching knowledge nowadays, higher educators and learners should take the responsibility of, not only spreading pieces of knowledge, but inspiring ways of creation, through connecting, organizing, sharing, collecting, collaborating, and publishing.

To the end:

I remember in my old days, I was scared of pronouncing my opinions. I always phrased my standpoints in mind but didn’t try to say it loud. And as time went by, I was more scared of saying and even less involved in thinking. I realized that this is a vicious circle that I need  to get rid of. Now, I am trying to be more active, think critically and talk properly. This is my first time blogging and expressing my thinking and opinions, I’m so excited that I start my blogging life. Let’s go, Xin!

In his article “Networked Learning as Experiential Learning” Gardner Campbell refers to the power of institutionalized “high impact, student-built, instructor-facilitated, digitally networked learning” to transform higher education at two levels: the institutional and the individual. This message resonates with me. As an institutional practice, digitally networked learning (DNL) can help institutions fulfill their mission to create alumni who are contributing members of society. Campbell argues that such learning should go beyond the mere use of apps and online learning systems. When our students lack deep digital literacy, the impact that they can make in the online world is bounded. Without some understanding of what underlies apps, creators of digital media are limited by the pre-scripted possibilities presented to them. Greater digital knowledge realizes greater digital creativity. For these reasons, we should embrace deep DNL in higher education. At the same time, the practice can help individual students to become creators and disseminators of knowledge—valuable 21^st-century skills and tools for a satisfying existence. I agree that participation in a DLN can be powerful. Because of the potential power digital creators may wield, it is especially important that they understand the responsibilities that come with it. Power without a sense of responsibility is a danger to all of us. We, the teachers, must be conscious of the responsibility we carry as the creators of creators of digital media. If we facilitate learning in which students create knowledge through digital networks, we should ensure that they discuss the ethical implications of their creations.

I had an experience this afternoon that serves as an example of the potential power and pitfalls of digital media creation. Just before I sat down to write this blog post, I checked my inbox and found an email about AAC&U’s 2017 Institute on High-Impact Practices and Student Success. I had looked up the article High-Impact Practices: Applying the Learning Outcomes Literature to the Development of Successful Campus Programs earlier in the day. At first, I thought that the email’s presence in my inbox was the work of a digital demon—some piece of embedded code that monitors my web searches and sends me offers that match my interests and whose workings I do not understand. I quickly remembered, however, that I receive regular emails from AAC&U. No digital demon was needed. This incident provides a wonderful analogy for what I want to address in this post. Although AAC&U was not sending me emails based on my web searches, it probably could. Companies such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook do this all of the time. (Watch the video What Makes You Click if you are interested in learning more.) If I honed my own digital creation skills, I might be able to create the demon I imagined. This would give me the power to capture and track information on visitors to my website and to send them information of my choosing. Would it be ethical for me to do this? If so, would any type of information I sent be ethical? Would it be ethical for me to send “alternative facts” to my audience? If we teach students to create digital media, we must also teach them to reflect on their creations.

For deep DNL to become institutionalized, it would need to be part of the institute’s mission. Many schools reference some type of digital literacy in their mission statements. For instance, Virginia Tech’s mission statement states that students and faculty will be part of an “academically energized, technologically creative and culturally inclusive learning community.” However, the definition of a “technologically creative” community most likely occurs at the level of student learning outcomes. It is at the school/department/program level that the term may be defined as deep DNL. Finally, it is at the classroom level that deep DNL occurs. Most high impact experiential learning practices are co-curricular. Because of this, most students do not have access to these practices.¹ DNL is one of the few high impact practices that is naturally part of the curriculum. In order for this classroom practice to be realized, however, teachers must believe in the value of and be able to create and manipulate digital media themselves. One way that teachers master these skills is through courses such as this one. Another way is through peer-to-peer mentoring. This forms part one of our mission. When we emerge as GEDI “masters” will we seek disciples of our own? Will we promote the ideal of deep DLN with our colleagues through our own practice? Will we use our power productively?

With power, comes responsibility. This is the second part of our mission. As teachers, we need to model responsible use of our digital powers and engage our own students to consider the impacts of their digital creations. In a world where the importance, and even the existence of facts, is questioned by people in power, and in which the term “alternative facts” is used, it is obvious that we should help our students learn to distinguish fact from fiction. When we teach our students to create networked digital media, however, they must also decide how they will represent their own products. They must understand the impacts and ethics of representing facts as fiction and fiction as facts. It is up to us to teach them. Your mission (if you choose to accept it) as a future faculty member:

• Teach students skills needed to create and manipulate DLNs.
• Engage students in discussing and recognizing their responsibilities as creators.

Let’s facilitate a generation of smart, meaningful learning together.

1. Jayne E. Brownell & Lynn E. Swanner, High-Impact Practices: Applying the Learning Outcomes Literature to the Development of Successful Campus Programs

Although I find much of what Wesch describes touching and inspiring, I am also struck by the seemingly blind faith and optimism he has in regards to technology and the future in general. I think it is important to keep in mind the notion of ideology when it comes to people who put a lump in our collective throat when they speak. By ideology I intend to make reference to a person’s beliefs, their opinions, and what those beliefs obscure from a person’s perception. I would not argue that what Wesch describes in his examples of networked projects is worthless or out of touch, but I do intend to point out some things I think Wesch takes for granted and images he uses that are not accurate representations of reality.

The first image Wesch presents us is one of a crowded, stadium-seated classroom—drab and claustrophobic. This is a powerful image, and one that immediately naturalizes itself as an object of generic quality, which gives it at least a universal flavor I find suspect. I immediately find my imagination wandering into my past art school experience, for one example, or to my current graduate school experience for another, to find alternative and positive images of classroom atmospheres with old fashioned books, free speech, and creative work. To be fair, I do not think Wesch would say my examples are fringe or inconsequential, but my point is that his particular image under the auspices of his position on stage as a voice of some expertise in the subject matter he’s presenting is misleading. As is his juxtaposition of the former image with one at American Idol auditions for the same reason. As is his statistical experiment where students hold up signs presenting facts produced by a particular method in a specific classroom setting that has vast differences from my alternatives mentioned above.

Following an image of a cityscape of corporate social media emblems, we are then led into a concatenation of characteristics, according to Wesch, that describe the future of our “new media” landscape in the present. In passing, I will note that every single “new media” corporate sign he uses in his transition-image was about five years old at the time of publication (some more, Google was founded in 1998). The next image is this time sourced from his list instead of a visual aid, and presents viewers with a very positive outlook on the future, and I would like to briefly problematize it.

What does he mean by ubiquitous computing? We practically have that now. I know people in India who make less than a dollar a day who have access to every slice of tech he mentions (OK he doesn’t explicitly mention a lot of tech, but it is implied). Ubiquitous computing is not the harbinger of equality, a notion implied by the term itself, and it might even fan inequality’s flames. SBS Dateline did a report on the electronic waste pile-up in 2011 in Ghana that is having serious ramifications. Keep in mind that’s SIX years ago, and one of many similar examples in Asia and Africa. I am reminded here of what Georges Bataille wrote in The Notion Of Expenditure: “Cults require a bloody wasting of men and animals in sacrifice. In the etymological sense of the word, sacrifice is nothing other than the production of sacred things.” Perhaps I stretch, but are not Ghana and places like it the sacrifices we make for the cult of universal technological optimism? I don’t know how to care about them, all I want is the new complugator from Apple. I’m serious, I’m not exactly joking.

The rest of the list completes his image for the future in a similarly narrow vision. Ubiquitous communication? Like where we’ll all be able to finally understand each other? Perhaps he just means the potential for anyone to talk to anyone is becoming easier at a fast pace. Like telephones? My second favorite item following computing is ubiquitous information. Even if we exclude the vast proliferation of classified knowledge, the reality of copyright law is more rooted in access than it is in intellectual theft. Hulu used to be free, YouTubeRed could replace YouTube, Netflix, Amazon, J-Store, linda.com, and the list goes on of rental agencies guarding the keys to knowledge access, and this is not to mention patents on DNA or the rental agencies holding those keys of access. The rest is pure propaganda universals: unlimited speed, everything, everywhere, from anywhere, on all kinds of devices.

Wesch says that “knowledge ability changes over time based on the communication environment they’re [the students] in … media shape what can be said, who can say it, who can hear it, how it can be said, and in that way [media] also in a sense mediate relationships.” I have to say that I have only some vague idea of what he means by “knowledge ability,” (intelligence?) but Jaques Ranciere might have an answer for Wesch’s techno-savvy plea. Ranciere’s theory on education in The Ignorant School Master is a beautiful image of a father giving a son a book, and telling his son to memorize the book, inside and out, as a model for universal equal education. It hinges on the “knowledge ability” of children to learn how to talk, and extends this logic to everyone, anytime, everywhere. Much more sustainable an operation than learning through technology, and equipping classrooms with devices that become outdated faster and faster.

My final diatribe is against his examples of social media and networking being used to solve problems. I hold no debate with him that his examples are positive, and have had some material effects. But the problem with say, Twitter for example, is that the scale of influence is a two-way street. This is partially how Trump stole the election, through the very same operations, at least in terms of viral scale, as Wesch’s positive examples. His 200-student survey seems severely flawed, and I base this in part on my own experience of graduating from an undergrad program and, hopefully, from two graduate programs. It does not accurately reflect the real problems of higher education, such as the simultaneous proliferation of adjunct positions and administrative positions. It seems as though he is confusing the symptoms of a larger problem with signs that traditional education is out-dated. I simply cannot buy his general program, although I do find his examples of positive social media collaboration hopeful.

For someone who is new to teaching, the entire experience can be pretty intimidating. After taking a week long training session, preparing my Powerpoints, and reviewing my rosters, the time had come for me to step into my classroom. I took a deep breath and kept repeating my own little mantra, “fake it till you make it.” I put on 90’s alternative music in hopes of alleviating some of the first day awkwardness. As students trickled in I pretended to be busy, shuffling around papers, refreshing my email every few seconds, and
occasionally looking up and smiling. Once the door had shut, everything appeared to fall into place.

Words flowed fluidly out of my mouth and a few students even laughed at my jokes, something I now realize is rare on the first of the semester. I wrapped up a few moments early and the students quickly made their way out of the small classroom.

As the semester progressed, I got better and better at getting my students to get more involved. They began talking more within their small groups, answering questions without hesitation when I posed them, and even began initiating small talk with me before the class began. My goal before the semester had begun was to make my class as enjoyable for the students as possible. I wanted it to be a class that they didn’t dread and didn’t feel like they were stuck doing busy work for. From my SPOT evals, I think I achieved that.

While going through the assigned readings for Contemporary Pedagogy, the question “what kind of educational experiences change lives?” kept popping back into my mind. I started to think about the classes that I enjoyed during my undergrad and what they all had in common. To my own surprise, a majority of them were writing intensive (something I don’t typically enjoy) and as most writing intensive classes are, they were relatively small in size. But that wasn’t what I liked most about the courses. What I remembered specifically was how much I enjoyed those classes because of my professors. Their teaching styles first and foremost were founded on mutual respective, they were almost always available to meet on and off campus, and they taught us about life and not just the material. I enjoyed going to those classes because it was a safe place to share ideas and opinions, openly discussing different views and perspectives without fear of judgment. My favorite professors were humans with flaws, senses of humor, and kindness within their hearts. That’s the type of teacher and leader I want to be. I want to make an impact.

But how does one go about making an impact? According to Tim Hitchcock, the best way to go about making an impact is by expanding your audience via social media platforms like Twitter and blogging. My immediate reaction to this is “oh no, I’m not really into Twitter and blogging is a hobby I just never seem to be able to commit to.” I don’t know if this is due to a lack of confidence in my writing ability or if I just never seem to be able to think of something interesting enough to really put out there. Most likely a combination of both. Though I am a little reluctant to this mandatory blogging, I’m hoping this course will help to alleviate some of that disinclination. I guess we’ll see.