In reading Simon U Ford’s blog titled “Social Media – an online mindset shift”, I couldn’t help but think that this could easily be applied to teaching online.
Ford says “When it comes to social media, you have to have a complete mindset shift or else you’d end up wasting time and energy with little or no rewards.” I say when it comes to Technology Mediated Learning (TML), aka online or distributed learning, you have to have a complete mindset shift or else you’d end up wasting time and energy with little or no rewards.
He goes on to make some suggestion which I have adapted below:
1- Know what’s going on in the edtech world. Subscribe to different blogs related to learning and technology. Do some research. Subscribe to Google alerts for updates or subscribe to have relevant bloggers new posts sent directly to you inbox (I prefer the push over the pull). Follow edtech guru’s on Twitter to keep current.
2- Learn from others. There are tons of free webinars and even courses available that focus on TML and related issues. Share what you know. Start you own blog or try Twitter as an entry into micro-blogging.
3- Keep a look out for new tools and spend time playing with them. If you don’t like a tool, you don’t have to use it - but at least give them a try. There are so many cool free online applications that can benefit you and your learners. Don’t forget to get familiar with the old standby applications like Moodle, Jing and various wiki’s.
4- If you think you are still not the tech type - Get tech friendly people on your team and empower them to get creative with TML.
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