Week 12 in Review: Produsage, PLNs, Reflections, and Extensions

My semesters seem to be one-upping each other in terms of craziness this year. This one has been the wildest yet by far. Not only have we had to cram in a lot of information in only 12 weeks, it also kind of feels like the world has been convulsing around us while we've been trying to complete our coursework. For me personally, my workload at my job has also tripled since mid-March when the stay-at-home orders began. I can't say that I wish this summer had been different because it was a learning experience, I just wish it hadn't been as stressful!

This past week we had to complete not one, but two projects. If there's one thing I hate about finals weeks, it's that it feels like everything piles up all at once. It makes it hard to manage your time wisely, especially when you work full-time like I do. The first project was the produsage assignment, which was challenging because I do not have a teaching background so I was not sure how to put together an engaging yet informative school assignment. I'm excited with what I came up with though; I really enjoy the lessons where we get to design deliverables because I work exclusively within learning management systems at my full-time job, so I do not get the chance to actually develop instruction at all. The second project was the personal learning network paper, which I wrote like a maniac from Monday to Tuesday. I had a clear idea of which of my PLNs I wanted to talk about, but I wasn't sure if I was explaining my thoughts well enough so I kept re-writing certain sections of the paper over and over. Have you ever done that before? It's so frustrating!

As we wrap up this class, I think it would be a good idea to reflect upon what I want to take out of this moving forward. As someone who is pretty introverted, I have seen the benefits of reaching out to others and creating community around learning about a common interest, passion, etc. even if we can only gather virtually at the moment. I would like to continue on with the personal learning networks that I have developed specifically on LinkedIn, Twitter, Reddit, and this blog. Now that I am more aware of them and how they benefit me, I do not want to let them go. Although studying social media within educational contexts is very popular right now, I think I would only do research about it if it was on a very niche topic that interested me such as how other countries use social media to enhance education or if they don't, why they have chosen not to. 

Thank you to all of my classmates and to Dr. Dennen, Bruce, and Omer for a wonderful class! I have learned so much knowledge that I will continue to reap benefits from for years to come. I hope you all stay safe and healthy and hopefully I will have class with you in the fall!

"fin" by Sean MacEntee is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Comments

  1. Jaesung HurJuly 31, 2020 at 12:40 AM

    Erin, I exactly felt the same way! When I was writing my PLN assignment, I definitely felt something when I reflected on my PLN, came up with terms we've learned in this class, and wanted to highlight particular aspects. However, it wasn't easy to clearly explain all those thoughts! I guess it was because my PLN was sort of loose and broad. For example, I learn a lot from a Facebook group, but I don't have more intimate relationships with specific members yet. So, I couldn't easily pick some examples and ideas from my experience.
    I agree that it was a great class with amazing people! I look forward to seeing you on social media :)

    ReplyDelete

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