The Process of Learning

I’m the webmaster at a technical college and our content management system is Microsoft SharePoint. I’m a SharePoint enthusiast so if you choose to read my posts be forewarned I will be talking about it a lot.

As I thought about the concepts of connectivism, personal learning networks, and communities of practice I realized I use all three whenever I’m faced with a tough challenge with technology – specifically with SharePoint because there is such a robust online community of users. I created a PREZI (first time creating one – go me!!) to illustrate how each concept connects to my learning, but I’ll summarize it below as well.

 

Connectivism – I often don’t have the SharePoint knowledge I need – but I know where to get it. A search engine is my first stop. I switch between Google and Bing and use different keywords to narrow my search.

Community of Practice – Twitter has a HUGE SharePoint community and I’ve used the hashtag #sphelp and people who I don’t know have tweeted back tips or pointed me to resources. So cool.

Personal Learning Network – I’m part of SharePoint user group that meets online and virtually where other SharePoint enthusiasts brainstorm, network, and share resources. Nerdiess at its best.


References
Theories for the digital age: Connectivism - Steven Wheeler
http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2012/10/theories-for-digital-age-connectivism.html
Is Twitter a Community of Practice? - Daniel Hooker
http://danielhooker.com/2011/03/twitter-cop/
How to Create a Robust and Meaningful Personal Learning Network - Brian Metcalfe
http://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/how-to-create-a-robust-and-meaningful-personal-learning-network-pln/

EdTech 543

What are you initial reactions about joining these social networks for use in this course?

I’m excited to embark on another course which integrates social media and learning. Last summer I took a special topics EdTech course – Blogging in the Classroom (the initial reason this blog was created) and it has been my favorite course of the program to date.

What is your experience in using social media for your own professional development?
I work as a webmaster for a technical college and we use Microsoft SharePoint for our web content management system. There is a huge Twitter community related to SharePoint and on several occasions I’ve used #sphelp and gotten responses from strangers – it’s wonderful and shows the power of social media!

What is your experience in using social media as an instructional strategy in your learning environment?
I’m not, nor have I ever been, an educator so I’ve never had the opportunity to teach with social media, but I’ve been on the receiving end in my aforementioned Blogging in the Classroom course. Before that course I was not very active on Twitter, but our instructor used it extensively and I found I really liked it.

What are your expectations for this course?
I’m looking forward to the exposure to social media that I’m not familiar with - our first assignment already introduced me to Diigo which I’d never used before so we’re off to a good start. I work in marketing and although I have no plans to be an educator – so while I won't be using the techniques learned in the classroom, I think the exposure I will gain to social media will help our college as we attempt to use the same tools to reach prospective students.

The Anatomy of a List Part Two: Creating a View Based on Custom Column

This entry will show you how to create another type of custom column in a SharePoint list and then create a view based on the data you enter. Make sure you've seen Part One of this series.

I just realized how many times I say "um...." gotta work on that. :)

Low Tech

In my last post I talked about what technologies I love and couldn't live without...in this post I'd like to look at the opposite end of the spectrum.

I'm been sick for the past week with a nasty head cold (which by the way should be outlawed in summer). I've been taking various forms of over the counter medicines but I just can't seem to shake it. The one thing that has helped: a netti pot. Low tech but genius.

What low tech item do you love?

I Heart Technology

As I've been pondering future post ideas and branching out from beyond SharePoint here and there, I realized I have quite a few technologies that are "near and dear" to me that I could write about.

In no particular order:

• laptop
• smartphone
• iPod Nano
• Kindle
• iPad
• Windows Media Center
• xbox360
• my KEURIG! (added the morning after I originally posted in a caffine withdrawn stupor)

While you probably wouldn't blog about them like me :), how many technologies do you consider "near and dear" to you?

The Anatomy Of a List, Part One: Creating a List and Adding Columns

The SharePoint List is one of the most basic and powerful features of SharePoint. This post kicks of a series designed to take the reader through the step by step process of harnessing this power using as many out of the box features as possible. We'll start by creating the list and then creating a custom column.

For this series I'm going to create a list used to gather housing information to be used on a college campus.

view larger size or watch below.

I Heart my iPod

I thought I’d take another break from SharePoint to talk about another piece of technology that is near and dear to my heart…my iPod Nano. Yes, you read that correctly, I am smitten with a non-Microsoft product. My Windows 7 phone is equipped with a Zune and I actually switched over to that for a while, but ended up going back to the Nano.

When I switched back, I upgrade to the iPod Nano 6th generation. It is a pretty big departure from previous generations. The two biggest differences are the size and the replacement of the iconic wheel with a touch interface. I was hesitant to make the switch as I really like the tactile feel the wheel provided – I use the Nano in the car and was able to pause and skip to a new song without having to pick the device to look at it. In the end, the size ended up being the biggest reason for my upgrade.

This summer I joined a running group called Moms on the Run. We are doing interval training as we work our way up to a 5k. My new iPod Nano is so small and lightweight (and comes with a built in clip) I hardly notice it while I run. It also features a built in Nike Sport Kit which tracks my time, pace, distance and calories burned.

Last night I ran my first race in almost ten years. It was a two mile race and I had two goals:

• Don’t walk
• Finish under 20 minutes

I’m happy to report I accomplished both! Music flowing through my Nano flowed throughout the run, but at the very end I used the Power Song feature. Your Power Song is a song you set up ahead of time that you can play at the tap of a button to help motivate you. Here’s mine:

listen to ‘Ain't Nothing Gonna Break My Stride’ on Audioboo