Professional Networking and Learning

Reflection

Within the course this website was made for, EDSE20016, two integral aspects were 'personal learning networks' and 'digital pedagogy'. These aspects are reflected strongly by this website; the learning sequence presented here was backwards planned from general capabilities for Media Arts, and digital pedagogy was considered in every stage of development. Though personally, the aspect of this course which has had the most impact on my practice has been the consideration of SAMR (Puentedura, 2010) in planning and improving digital learning experiences. Considering SAMR was a mandatory aspect of my blogging, but quickly became a model I would refer to whenever reflecting on digital practices.

I always thought digital media and technologies would play a considerable role in my practice, but after learning about SAMR I realised that my integration of technology was mostly and a substitution level. Despite having an undergraduate qualification in digital media, and being a tech nerd in general, I initially found it quite hard to upscale my digital pedagogy to a transformative level. Thankfully, the value placed on communication and collaboration in this course opened my mind to the ideas of my peers which helped to advance my knowledge. Whether lurking and commenting on Blogger posts, or sifting through articles on Scoop.it, I highly valued the input of my peers. I also found that actively participating, rather than merely responding to others, improved the experience for myself and for peers in my learning network.

One example of actively participating was when I shared the article in E.g.1 below; the tool in this article isn't very applicable to my discipline area, yet I found it very insightful and I knew that any maths teachers in my network may be able to use it. Evidently, one of those teachers did rescoop the article, and this led to some of the professionals in her circle to start following my blog - by sharing that scoop I developed my personal learning network. In E.g.3 it is clear that I was following many of many peers and other professionals, this led me to find Luke's blog which focused on Media Arts, as this is one of my discipline areas I was happy to find articles relevant to me and rescoop one as seen in E.g.2. This interaction led to Luke following me and rescooping an article from my blog, as seen in E.g.5. I was able to recognise the pattern occurring here: consistent, active participation led to development of my professional learning network and thus an increase in professional connections and pedagogical practices to consider via shared articles.

The continued participation in professional learning networks directly links to the Australian Professional Standards for Teaching (APST) outlined by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (2018). Focus area 7.4 outlines the key role that learning networks have in broadening teacher knowledge and practice, then APST 6.2 and 6.3 address need to apply the knowledge gained from learning, peers and networks to improve practice. The APST not only highlight the importance of these, and other, areas of teaching for pre-service teachers, they also outline the next steps for teachers to develop their practice from 'graduate' to 'proficient' and so on. Thus, I acknowledge that my time spent in networking circles,such as those established in Scoop.it and Blogger, is just beginning and that continuing to be a contributing member is beneficial and necessary.

References

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2018). Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, Retrieved from: https://www.aitsl.edu.au/docs/default-source/teach-documents/australian-professional-standards-for-teachers.pdf

Puentedura, R. (2010). SAMR and TPCK: Intro to Advanced Practice. Retrieved from http://hippasus.com/resources/sweden2010/SAMR_TPCK_IntroToAdvancedPractice.pdf