The question of where to start this blog is a good one. It would probably help if I knew the end goal but I’m not entirely sure what that is. I guess a better place to start would be my goals for this blog as of today – February 19th, 2017 while also mentioning that I don’t expect these goals to remain the same for the entirety of this blog. That might sound counterintuitive to the intention of goals but I do expect this process to be organic and as I grow and change I expect this blog to grow and change as well. While I do expect that the overall goals may change with time I think I can say comfortably that the four goals below won’t change for the foreseeable future. So let’s go ahead and set some shortish term goals for this blog:
Goals (at least for now):
- To document my professional learning
- To reflect on that learning
- To share with others – hopefully so that some of you can learn from and with me
- To make my boss happy
To document my professional learning
As you know (or at least as you would know if you had looked at my about us page) I’m an international educator. I started out teaching grade 4 and my principal (at the time) identified my interest in technology and I shifted to teaching technology to all grade levels – Kindergarten to Grade 12. I knew that I needed a better education to be an effective tech teacher and so I completed my Master’s in Educational Technology from Boise State University. It was a good learning opportunity and I’m now the Director of Technology and eLearning at my school. While I did enjoy the program there were aspects of the online courses that I didn’t like. The strict deadlines, the forced collaboration, the rigid program, etc. I completed my Master’s in 2015 and so now it’s time to start a new journey and hopefully one that is a little less rigid, focused on topics I’m interested in and with the kind of collaboration that is natural and not forced. Since this will look different for me I do need a way to document all the learning I’m doing and I want this blog to fill that hole.
To reflect on that learning
I believe that reflection is an essential step in learning. It often allows you to look at what you have learned from a different perspective. I also believe that by reflecting in a public forum it will invite others to comment on what I have learned and further deepen my learning.
To share with others
Here is the collaboration piece for me. There was forced collaboration in my previous Master’s program for grades. I willingly admit that I posted each week dutifully as asked but my contributions were made purely to fulfill the requirement and I/my peers learned very little from my contributions. I hope that as I delve into my new journey that others will join and that our shared interest in the topic will create opportunities for collaboration for the right reasons.
To make my boss happy
Do I really need to explain.
Ok so here we go. Time to get on with it and start my new professional learning journey (well actually I started a few months ago) on a path I am navigating on my own. And so what we will be learning about together; Data Science!
Bryan Wiedeman 