The Final Verdict

I can't believe how quickly the last three months have passed! In this post, I am going to share some of the ways I feel that I have grown during this course.

Blogging

Prior to taking this class, I did not have substantial blogging experience. I followed a couple of blogs that I enjoyed reading. Also, I experimented with using a blog as a platform for a student lesson. I had never had a regular reflective blogging experience. At the beginning, it was challenging to blog my thoughts and feelings, as they were made very public! I also had a bit of difficulty coming up with ideas for blog posts. However, once I began my photography project, I made the effort to blog about it every week. It was at this point that blogging felt more natural. Toward the end of the class, I found that I looked forward to blogging and often had many ideas for blogs swimming around in my mind. I feel that I was able to incorporate many suggestions for the presentation of the blog into my site. I added labels to organize my content, learned how to post photos (and provide attribution to them), figured out how to add my Twitter feed, learned how to “pingback”, added others’ blogs links to mine, and how to participate in ongoing conversations about my blogs and others’. 

The one thing I feel that I could have done a better job with is drawing more readers to my blog and inviting more comments. I could have posted my blogs to Twitter or Google Plus more often. I also could have asked more questions or done more pingbacks. I ended up blogging 1-2 times per week, which I am happy with. I read about 5-8 blog posts a week and kept a goal of commenting on 1-2 other blogs per week. I thoroughly enjoyed reading my classmates’ blogs as we often don’t get to read each other’s writing in graduate classes. It was a great learning experience to put value to the thoughts and ideas of each others’ writing instead of focusing on published academic writing. During the blogging process, there were moments of frustration, but in the end, I am very satisfied with my growth. I hope to keep this practice going in the future, as I now understand the benefits of it! Also, one of my professional learning goals as a teacher is to incorporate blogging into my classroom. This will be a new and exciting adventure! 

Twitter

Similarly to blogging, I had not used Twitter before this class. I didn’t understand what a hashtag or a feed was. So it was a challenge for me to dive in and use it on a regular basis. In the end, I Tweeted approximately once per week, including retweets. I also found myself following Twitter more regularly, especially on my iPhone, as it is a quick way to keep in touch with the class. I am honestly not the biggest fan of Twitter. I can see its potential, however, I found that I forced myself to use it, rather than it being a natural part of my digital life. I found that I was using it more on a personal, or less-serious note than professionally. 

Google +

Out of all of the Social Media we used in this class, I would have to say that I liked Google + the most. I had never used this before, but as I had previous experience with Facebook, Google + was a seamless transition for me. I found this program exceptionally user friendly and fun to use! It was a visually pleasing and quick way to check up on what people were doing in the class. I used this as a base for connecting with others, and posted my own ideas or commented on others’ approximately 3 times per week. I would like to expand my use of Google + to other professionals as well as my friends and family.

 

Devices

While this was not necessarily a focus of this class, I want to comment on my use of different devices in this class, as I feel this is a part of my growth and risk-taking. For the Blackboard Collaborate synchronous sessions, I used my laptop most often. I did install the App on my Android tablet, however I found the program lagged quite a bit. I used Twitter on my laptop, PC, and iPhone. I enjoyed using it on my iPhone the most as it was quick to keep up with the feed. For Google +, I used it on my laptop, PC, and installed the app on my iPhone.

Summary

In summary, I feel that I learned a tremendous amount. I also really loved what this class became. It started off feeling slightly rigid; going through the motions of blogging. However, it became a place for like-minded educators to share our ideas and journeys through Social Media. At times, our posts were quite personal, which led us to develop more meaningful connections with one another. In the end, it was all about building a supportive community where we could grow together.