Last year I invited readers to share their thoughts for a January 1, 2008 post entitled “What Did You Learn in 2007?”
Many people responded, and I’m doing it again this year.
Feel free to write one-to-three things you feel you’ve learned this year in the comments section of this post. I’m not going to give a specific restriction on their length, but please try to keep them short. Please submit them by December 28th. I’ll leave them in moderation until I include them in a January 1st post.
Also, please include a short sentence you’d like me to use to describe you.
I learned more about Web 2.0 tools, how to put together a more interesting blog, and lastly I joined Twitter which has changed the way I view my computer entirely.
And replying to my own post, I’d like to let you know that I am a kindergarten teacher from Southampton, Massachusetts, USA. http://poulingail.edublogs.org
I created my first version of an edublogs site just over a year ago and all the new learning this year is making it really shape up. I am more motivated than ever about my job and love to present our learning using the new tools. You asked what I learned this year, well how about this week? Through twitter links and reader feeds like this one, I can now use http://emoticarolers.com/ Emoticarolers from you Larry, http://www.imeem.com/ which I got through another connection(?) and brought me some video clips for a family event I’m planning, and I even created a new google doc, something I’d been slow to grab onto. So often one link brings me to another, and then another, from one connection to a new one. Every turn brings new learning opportunities and ideas. There is so much more to learn and enjoy and I’m always spreading the word about it. You provide a prodigious amount of material to read but I’m getting better at selecting the ones I need to focus on. Have a wonderful holiday season Larry.
I learned:
Twitter is an invaluable networking tool, full of great resources and connections. I had thought it to be little more than a distraction, but it has proved me wrong.
I decided that I needed to pull back from my online explorations in order to keep my focus on my family, which has meant a bit less writing. The balance is what is important.
After a strike of inspiration this summer, I found that not only could I create my own webcomic, but I could get it published twice a week at the large regional newspaper as a way to use humor to talk about education and technology. (http://sites.google.com/site/booleansquared/)
Who I am: I teach sixth grade in Southampton, Massachusetts, and I am the technology liaison with the Western Massachusetts Writing Project. I’m interested in technology as a way to engage my students in publishing, collaboration and connecting with the world.
(Thanks, Larry!)
Kevin Hodgson