Collaborations and Learning Community
“Individual commitment to a group effort that is what makes a teamwork, a company work, a society work, a civilisation work.”
–Vince Lombardi
I have a background in sports so I always believed that you could determine a person’s upside by their ability to gel with other great personnel. Going into this course I understood that everybody was pretty much professionals and assets to whatever school or entity they had the opportunity to work with. I knew pooling our minds and resources together was going to yield some great results, but our collaborations didn’t stop the struggles and uncertainties from happening, but it did provide a softer landing. As we put the finishing touches together for this class I can honestly say all the group zoom meetings, group messaging, and sharing of google docs paid off. There’s this quote that states “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far go together.” My teammates Allyson, Ana, Lina, Nitra and Jermecia have made this a pleasant learning experience. The Rapport that we’ve built over these two courses has signified to me that our collaborative efforts are far from over. In the meantime check out the catalysts behind my pleasant learning experience.
Contributions to my Learning and Learning Community
In 5303 I’m giving myself a 93 out a 100
In 5305 I’m giving myself 45/50
As I reflect on the past 8 weeks in my first two classes of the Applied Digital Learning Masters Program, I can honestly say that I’ve grown tremendously. There were times that I felt incompetent and inadequate, but I kept trudging forward. Overtime I began to surmount tasks that seemed to be too much for me to handle early on. I said that I was going to be radically transparent in this blog post, with that being said there were times I felt fatigued and overwhelmed. It didn’t help that I had to factor in work as well. A lot of priority management had to take place these past couple of months, but I had managed to corroborate with my counterparts to make the best of this experience.
I remember when I first got my job as an educator for the Memorial Healthcare System. I was terrified that I had to go into neighboring schools within my communal orbit and deliver a Love Notes Curriculum. Transitioning into that job was extremely rough for me. I had a huge phobia of speaking to large groups, but somehow I survived that phase and now I’m pretty good at what I do. That whole ordeal served as motivation to me throughout this fairly new endeavor. I would tell myself “I’ve mastered something that I never thought I would be able to do.” “This is no different, with reps I can become efficient in this too.”
I have always been someone who spoke life into others. I like to look at myself as a transformational leader. I believe that my passion for helping others has propelled me into the realm of education. A place where I could pour into the youth and help build leaders of tomorrow. I’m thankful that I’ve been given the opportunity to learn the intricacies of an innovation plan and this will not only help me as I seek provisions to pilot this one, but other programs, products, and platforms in the near future.
Prior to me entering the masters program, I knew It was going to be tough. Before classes had commenced, I made it my business to callous myself from the things that may have negatively impacted me. At least I tried to, but it didn’t work in my favour. I used to dread Monday and Tuesday night meetings, initially they confused me, but I was afraid to miss them because I didn’t want to fall too far behind. I was reluctant to speak out on my concerns in the group setting, for some reason I thought I was going to be judged.
In a precarious state I turned to a couple of classmates who acted as human crutches when I was crippled by ignorance. Allyson, Ana, Lina, Jermecia, and Nitra. These ladies were amazing. We spent countless hours participating in group text, google docs, and zoom meetings helping one another. Furthermore, ladies like Lera and Bethany also helped me via zoom to start the e-portfolio process. All in all, I made sure I gave out as much value as I received. The ladies knew I loved writing, so they would ask me to critique their papers. It felt good knowing that I was doing my part in the group by using my rhetorical skills. The highlight of this class was probably when Me, Nitra, and Jermecia worked tirelessly to complete our Literature Review. Collectively we must have looked through hundreds of journal articles to source evidence that backed our position on implementing e-portfolios.
Our Disruptive Innovation class (5305) probably challenged me the most, but it helped me develop a new profound perspective. Once I got past the unconventional module breakdown I saw that everything was on a tangent. The discussions were very thought provoking. I learned new concepts and phrases like “Nowist” and “Power of pull” just to name a couple. I always look forward to giving and receiving feedback, as my classmates either expounded on my points or introduced me to others. It was an influx of information and I learned a lot from this course. Me and my immediate group members pondered on those topics and I believe this may have helped us with retention.
Applying Education Tech: Portfolio 5303 A large portion of this class is the e-portfolio. Dr. H sensed that collectively we were in disarray, so he walked and talked us through a lot of our concerns. He also didn’t place so much emphasis on assignments, as long as we completed them in a timely fashion. Again I leaned on my group members, giving them the permission to give me their honest feedback. A part of walking in the growth mindset is silencing your ego and accepting any insight that could help propel you forward. Being able to learn and receive thorough feedback from Dr. H has been extremely beneficial. He has inspired me to impart my whole innovation plan to teachers whose classes I deliver the Love Notes Curriculum to. The biggest takeaway I got from Dr. H is giving your students complete ownership. I remember he advised me to make alterations to the innovation proposal because I came off extremely audacious and I mentioned a step by step process. He assured me that giving students complete control will maximize their learning experience.
The numerical number I gave myself when it comes to 5303 is a 93/100 simply because I was very hands-on with my group as well my other classmates throughout the duration of this course. I participated in all discussions and I kept open flexible lines of communication. There is always room for improvement, so it wouldn’t be plausible to give yourself a perfect grade. In fact it wouldn’t be credible.
Our collaborative efforts had gotten better the more we became comfortable with one another. At times our meetings were filled with laughter and entertainment, but we were working diligently. Collectively we were getting things done and never did we withhold any information that we thought would benefit everyone. 5305 is an instrumental course. It allowed us to pull information from various places, whether it was Dr. H’s blog, YouTube, Ted talks etc. 5305 and how it was put together has given me the blueprint I need to implement this in the schools within my communal orbit. Correlating the videos to the discussion posts has helped me to develop new perspectives. The numerical number I will give myself for my due diligence in the 5305 course is a 45/50 again there is always room for improvement, but that doesn’t mean you haven’t done an exceptional job. I truly believe that my group mates will agree to my numerical grades as they know the value that I brought to our group, as we all did.
The biggest takeaway from both courses is that volume diminishes emotion. The more you engage in something the better you will feel about doing it. I also learned that my fear and anxiety didn’t come from the courses themselves, but the feeling of not being prepared for them.