Lesson 6 Reflection - Marsollier

I am finished with my Network Learning Unit. It did not turn out what I expected it to be and I struggled with it. Hopefully it is enough to get me through. I can not believe the semester is almost over. Overall, this has been a great class and I learned more than I imagined that I would learn. There is a part of me that is wondering what have I missed. Part of me wishes I could take more classes with Chih.

Lesson 6 Reflection

The time span and learning of Lesson 6, Network Learning Development, coincided with the implementation of NL and collaboration technologies as part of my work. Specifically, I am working with 2 citywide teams and leading a 3rd team in which I am introducting online and network technologies to all 3. One team is a continuous improvement process team in which we are introducing an online continuous improvement process and technology, and online meeting and live online collaboration. We are actually using the continuous improvement process to 'improve' the digital collaboration and meeting tools. Very exciting.

Lesson 5: Presentation Preparation

We spent time this lesson preparing our training session, scheduled for November 5 . Significantly, we experienced a new level of synergy (connectivism) working in Google documents and Google presentations together, and exploring the robust functionality of Google Reader.
From a content perspective, Dennis focused on laying a foundation for technology integrated learning and the social networking/filtering capabilities inherent in Google Reader.
Betsy focused on the applicability and practicality of RSS feeds and Readers in the context of connectivist learning and professional development, as well as a stepped process to implement and integrate NLE in organizations.
Our presentation went very well. We are both pleasantly surprised and impressed just how effective, productive and fast we can be using network learning tools for collaboration; we experienced learning through connectivism. In delivering our presentation we experienced another aspect of connectivism in discussing RSS feeds, Google Reader and social networking with our participants and Dr. Tu. It was a great week as a team and as learneres.

Lesson 4 Refelction

Our group has had its work cut out for us. We both feel very good about our results even though our group load was far greater than the other groups and we are only two people in our group. Both of us feel we have collaborated well. Each time we met, we had good discussions and productive meetings where a lot was accomplished. We are both proud of our discussion questions and moderating, as well as our lesson content t development. On our group paper, each of us worked in the areas that were our strengths. Betsy, who had strong connections with the heads of her It department was able to do a lot of the leg work for our paper. Her time and research was immensely valuable. Dennis researched a portion of the topic as it relates to best practices on security. He also oversaw the discussion moderation which kept him pretty busy.

What was exceptionally challenging for us had to do with the convergence of major projects all at the same time. Good organization and planning were implemented and we believe we have succeeded.

Lesson Three

Dennis and I have had two excellent conversation about Lessons 3 and 4, our assignments. Our discussion of concepts of the necessity (or not) of authentic human interaction in order to truly collaborate in a network environment were though provoking, and have set us on a course of discovery. Indeed we have posted a question to the class in Lesson 4 asking our classmates their opinion

Assignement 14 Blog update

This has been a tough week. I was not able to complete my Digital literacy paper. To many things converged at once and I was overwhelmed. I did my best, but I know I fell short of the goal on this paper.

Our group has met couple of times this last week. We are now moderating. We shall see. It will be tough to keep track of everything this week. However, my group which is only two of us believe we can pull this off.

Thanks, Chih, for your comments to Lesson 1. I am beginning to get connectivism by allowing myself to experience it. My favored learning approach in most situations is to strive to see the big picture first. This approach has facilitated by experience of connectivism. The skills of striving to see the big picture are the same cognitive skills as the skills of seeing patterns in information. Also while I am a trained convergent thinker, I am an divergent or associative thinker by nature. This preference for associative thinking combined with the impetus to see the big picture has allowed me to experience the cognitive processes of connectivism.