This course will become read-only in the near future. Tell us at community.p2pu.org if that is a problem.
We will investigate the concept of 'The Networked Teacher' and find out more about 'Networked Literacy' in education. The course is based on 'Social Networking' and 'Open Education'. The participants will recieve 'Badges' as recognition for their achievements. Find out more on http://edutoolkit.wordpress.com
In this course we have been investigating the use of tools to perform our work in education, what capacities do we need to develop in 'Networked Learning' and finally some criteria for badges/certification as a ‘Networked Teacher’.
6.1 Evaluation:
Evaluate how your participation (ACTIVITY) created value (OUTCOME) for your professional development. Maybe you have achived something (ACTION) and can use these skills in a new situation (EVENT).
Facititators note: The goal with this 'EduToolkit - Teachers Open Online Learning' course was innovation in the area of 'Teachers Open Online Learning' and during my personal investigation in 'Educators Use of Web Tools to Navigate Distributed Learning Environments' I realized that 'Networked Learning' has strong links to RSS syndicated education - developing a 'Learning Space or Community'. The experience from our course will turn into a multi-leveled badges program awarded from peer to peer evaluation. First "Certified Networked Teacher - Use of Web-tools" and followed by "Advanced Networked Teacher - Syndicated Education". Finally in the future there will be possible to "Expert Networked Teacher - Central Node in Learning". Hopefully these courses will be a part of 'P2PU School of Ed' and become offically endorsed by Mozilla Open Badges.
6.2 Feedback:
Formulated some feedback on how the the EduToolkit course was experienced by you. What can be improved?
Facilitators note: We ended up with 'soft' community badges and maybe 'hard' skill badges will create more value. My idea is that in "Certified Networked Teacher - Use of Web-tools" you should formulate practical skills and capacities for 'Networked Learning'. Then "Advanced Networked Teacher - Syndicated Education" will be the application of these tool in what could be described as a “syndicated” model. The expertice is demonstrated in "Expert Networked Teacher - Central Node in Learning"... Please join me as co-facilitators or give feedback!
Hall of Fame “EduToolkit – Teachers Open Online Learning” at P2PU:
Scholar:
Contributer:
Supporter:
Congratulations! We are now at the end of this course, thank you for your participation (and let the new jorney begin)
I have created a 'Mission Statement':
EduToolkit is a ‘Grassroots Organization’ for ‘Teachers Open Online Learning’ for Professional Development. We investigate the concept of ‘The Networked Teacher’ and find out more about ‘Networked Literacy & Fluency’ in education.
Development of ‘community badges’ for EduToolkit:
Ongoing project with ‘Open Badges’:
We are looking for collaborators and help in designing and evaluating badge concepts and implementations.
This has been an incredibly exciting venture. It has had a visionary design, which has really focused on learning and sharing together. I have been challenged and rewarded for my participation in this innovative space.
Your comment about badges is right. I was slightly disappointed to find I was getting a community badge and not the open badge. Mind you this was when after I had done the reading about badges.At the start I didnt know anything about badges. I will be interested to see how the community badges will link to the skills and knowledge I have obtained. In reality this is not a major concern to me as I thrive on learning and challenge and this course has provided both.
One challenge I faced was trying to find the focus of the course, although it is mentioned in the sidebar, it did seem that the early tasks and activities didnt seem to link to the blurb. It just seemed to be much broader and I found it difficult to get a handle on what it was all about. Maybe some kind of mind map showing the different weeks focus so those learners that need a holistic focus can get an overview?
From my perspective as the creator of this work, you have a tremendous theoretical and practical knowledge of the digital learning world. It was challenging to try and get inside this world when I have worked in a quite traditional learning context. It was a massive conceptual jump.... I wonder if it was difficult for people outside the educational arena to find a way to engage with this course?
I will be reflecting and getting in another post....
Thank you for your participation and willingness to experiment with new skills & possibilities. As you mention it's easy to get challenged by 'conceptual jumps' and 'fluid knowledge' with no clear focus. As you mentioned 'learning & sharing' together create social networks among people, who share interests and/or activities (since our group was limited I like to see this as only the beginning). Shelly Terrell asked in a webinar:
How do you think education can change the world?
My idea is that 'Social Networks' can be used as low-cost grassroots organizing of people who share values and belief (i.e. the networked teacher). The term 'Open Education' refers to educational organizations that seek to eliminate barriers to entry or access and 'Open Learning' is supposed to allow participants self-determined, independent and interest-guided learning.
My final advice for this course is to develop you 'Life Long Learning' and become a 'Refective Practitioner':
As far as I can tell the technical requirements for Open Badges are still in development, but I heard on a DML webinar that instead of using ‘JSON blobs’ for the ‘OBI Backpack’ they will embedded metadata into PNG files. Don't worry if this sounds complicated, in the end this will make it possible to store them as either Verified Badges or Unverified Badges in the 'Badge Backpack' hosted by Mozilla.
At this point we are looking for adoption and endorsement of the badges from ‘School of Webcraft’ (http://p2pu.org/en/badges/). The badges in the course ‘EduToolkit’ will be only graphical, but there will be an official ‘open badge page' on the course blog where the graduates will be listed.
As I understand there are green adopter badges that “recognizes community members who have adopted a challenge” after completing all its tasks. This is maybe a way forward for an experiment with badges for 'Teachers Open Online Learning'?
The badge movement is inspirational and the way to go.. I think this future is just around the corner as in Australia badges are getting some interesting traction with early adopters.
Having worked in the area of access and equity I have seen many many people with a wealth of skills, gained through life experience, which are given no formal recognition or value in the job seeker market. A mechanism that could provide recognition for these life skills could really help to change peoples lives, employment and education options. At the moment the badge 'courses' focus on the more 'academic' areas but with a bit of creative thought I am sure courses with a more generic or employability focus could be created...
In summary, the Networked Teacher has provided a challenge, and in concluding I can now see where I have been. The pieces of the learning experience have coalesced into some sort of slightly cohesive yet incomplete perspective. Onward I go....................
Thanks for a really great experience...
