Web 2.0: Continuing the Journey

I've always considered learning to be a lifelong journey. If I'm not learning, exploring, expanding my skillset, pushing my boundaries and trying new things, I'm not living my best life. In this vein, I will certainly be continuing my exploration of Web 2.0 (and 3.0) technology and beyond well past the completion of this course. 

Conferences and Conventions:

I love the education and networking that happens when energetic, knowledgeable, motivated people get together and idea-swap! When choosing conferences and conventions to attend, I look for ones in areas of interest or potential future interests and prioritize ones with hands-on, workshop-style events -- I feel like a learn the most from these and I get to see the teaching methods modeled more realistically than in a lecture-style conference. 

My Network:

One of the great things about loving my job is that I talk about it a lot. Weddings, class reunions, kids birthday parties, random people I run into in line a the coffee shop, friends-of-friends, etc, have all heard me launch into my pitch on why I think middle school is the prime age to instill confidence in science literacy in students, especially girls, who might feel overshadowed later in their science journeys. In starting these conversations (literally all of the above in the past 2 months), I have made so many new connects, been exposed to new ideas, found people with expertise in game design, higher education, remote and hybrid education, AI chat bots, making industry-level mathematical modeling tools (i.e. Matlab) accessible to middle and elementary students, and more. 

I've also queried so many colleagues about what they are doing. At lunch or in the faculty break room or in the hallway after class, I've found that sharing and exchanging ideas, finding out what new technologies colleagues have tried and what has and hasn't worked for them is a great way to gain new insights. It helps that I work with some amazingly brilliant teachers who are so collaborative -- I love this environment. I ran into our technology specialist in the hallway a few weeks ago and invited her to come check out my new 3D game design club. She came that day, was able to offer some wonderful insights and advice, and I'm now benefitting from her expertise!

In summary, I plan to keep building my network, bouncing ideas off of them, and gleaning them for new ideas and advice to continuously improve my understanding and use of Web 2.0 and beyond technologies.

The World Wide Web:

In the ever changing landscape of Web 2.0 technology, I will continue to curate my web resources to build an effective and efficient online learning network. While "just google it" is a staple of my web searches, this content curation could also take the form of choosing which content creators to follow on YouTube, choosing which hashtags to follow on Twitter, connecting with valuable resources on LinkedIn, and more. I will constantly be searching for the next great tech or best uses I tech I already have access to in order to improve my implementation of Web 2.0 resources in the classroom.

Just in the past week, I've come across a new opportunity for my students to participate in a game jam. When they asked me how I found it, I was able to say that my grad school class had encouraged me to reactivate my Twitter account, and I found Games for Change through Twitter! 

Overall, the journey will not stop here. Hopefully, some of my classmates will continue to be a part of my online cohort of Web 2.0 collaborators. Looking forward to continuing to grow with all of you in the future!