Welcome to Make Cycle Five in the Making Learning Connected collaboration! Thanks to Terry Elliott and Kevin Hodgson for last week’s exploration of Connected Learning Values. From Jennifer Denslow’s “reverse engineering” to Sheri Edward’s reflective make remixing, and from Chris Lawrence’s Credo Jam to Allie Bishop Pasquier’s 6-second Vine Credo, we were inspired by the many credos, conversations and makes that took the values of equity, full participation and social embeddedness to task this week.
For this next Make Cycle, we focus our energies to reflect on our learning, making, and connecting. As you create and compose this week, we invite you to look back on your experience in the Making Learning Connected #clmooc. Here are two of many ways to reflect on your experiences:
Consider your Learning Pathway
As you found your way through the #clmooc, what shape did those pathways take? Let’s consider what we’ve learned about ourselves as learners and makers, and what that has taught us about learning, making and connecting in general.
- What has your #clmooc learning pathway looked like?
- Where has your pathway connected or branched off from others’ pathways?
- What intersections have surprised, delighted, or taught you?
- Where do you envision your learning pathway going from here?
- How can you help others undertake their own learning pathways?
- What have you learned about making, learning and connecting?
(Want to think more about Learning Pathways? Join the National Writing Project and Connected Learning TV for a special webinar on Learning Pathways this Tuesday at 1:00 PM Eastern and a follow-up #literacies chat on Thursday at the same time.)
Reframe to Reflect
This week, let’s play with the ways we’ve framed our making, learning and connecting. Were your makes bounded by digital tools? How were your goals for your MOOC participation focused? Were your makes composed to speak to a particular community or another? Have your communities converged or worlds collided? How has your learning followed you in and out of the MOOC? Finally, how might we remake in order to transgress, negotiate between, break or play with these frames?
(Want to read more on frames and framing? Participant Bart Miller introduced us to Steve Collis’ post on Organization, Sequence, Narrative and Explanatory frames and participant Fred Mindlin remade the theory into a graphic. Richard Andrews highlighted the importance of framing in literacy in a post on facilitator Anna Smith’s site. Facilitator Terry Elliott has pointed us to consider George Lakoff’s ideas about how metaphors work as frames.)
Reflect With Me
This week we’re hacking our weekly “Make with Me” and instituting a series of Reflect with Me opportunities. We invite you to harness the social tools we use for #clmooc to group, collaborate, and make your own Reflect with Me opportunities.
Reflect with Me G+ Hangouts
Each weekday this week, a different #clmooc participant will host an on-air G+ Hangout, live streamed with a synchronous chat here at CLMOOC. (FYI Joe Dillon has updated the description about how Hangouts work.) The first eight of you in the Hangout get to join on air, while the rest can still participate in the comment bar. The times, topics and hosts of these scheduled Hangouts are listed below.
Can’t find a time that works? Not the topic you want to discuss? Great! Create your own Hangout event, invite your new #clmooc connections (maybe your five finds from last Friday?), promote it on G+ and Twitter. As you Hangout, make together!
- Make the Hangout “On Air” and post it for others to watch later.
- Use the GoogleDrive option in the Hangout and crowdsource a resource bank.
- Use Vialogues or Popcorn WebMaker to annotate the recorded Hangout.
New to Google Hangouts? Your #clmooc facilitators are ready to help! Check out Joe Dillon’s Getting Started with Google Hangouts on our #clmooc website. New to Vialogues or Popcorn Maker? Here are a few introductory videos to learn about the platforms: Vialogues and Popcorn Maker.
Reflect with Me Twitter Chats
Occupy the #clmooc hashtag! Is there a connected learning principle or value that you want to talk about? Want to know what the best resources for augmented reality or podcasting or stop-motion video are? What better way than to pose the question or set up a time to chat with others on Twitter? You can then Storify the chat with tweets, quotes, links and resources discussed. Can’t find a good time, scroll through the last two weeks of tweets and see what we have been collectively making!
New to Twitter and Twitter Chats? Your #clmooc facilitators are ready to help! Check out Joe Dillon’s Getting Started with Twitter and Twitter Chats on our #clmooc website. New to Storify? Here is an introductory video about how to use Storify.
Reflect with Me Make Hacks
Hack our past Make Cycles, and make your own Makes! New to the Make Bank? Explore it on the #clmooc website! How about a…
- #credomap: Where do you beliefs come from in the literal sense?
- #F5FVine: Make a 6-second video of your top 5 take-aways from each completed Make Cycle of #clmooc.
- #6wordtoymeme: Hack a toy into looking like a meme, caption it according to the meme’s convention, and share it with the community!
- #F2FHangout: Forget the digital and brunch with your buddies. Discuss connected learning. And whatever you do, do not make a digital representation of it.
- #clmooclearningmap: Chad Sansing has created a re-mixable Thimble version of Sara Green’s Tube Map. She also provided the raw images in a PowerPoint slide so you could create your own system of connections. Take a stab at remixing the map to make your own #clmooclearningmap.
Daily Reflect with Me Events
Monday #clmooc participant Kim Douillard will host our inaugural Reflect with Me Hangout on the #clmooc’s impact and implications for our future work from 8-9 PM Eastern (5-6 PM Pacific/6-7 PM Mountain/7-8 PM Central). This will be an on-air G+ Hangout, live streamed with a synchronous chat here at CLMOOC.
Tuesday from 1-2 PM Eastern (10-11 AM Pacific/11-12 AM Mountain/12-1 PM Central), you can join us for the National Writing Project and Connected Learning TV’s Webinar series: Writers at Work. This Tuesday’s discussion will center on Learning Pathways. This is an opportunity to reflect on the shape of our learning pathways this summer, as well as how we can be responsive to the pathways of young people as they explore their interests across learning contexts in school, at home, in libraries, community centers and online.
Wednesday #clmooc participant Jeannie Bennett will host a Reflect with Me Hangout on identities, roles, and relationships we’ve cultivated in the MOOC from 6-7 PM Eastern (3-4 PM Pacific/4-5 PM Mountain/5-6 PM Central). This will be an on-air G+ Hangout, live streamed with a synchronous chat here at CLMOOC.
On Thursday our #clmooc Twitter chat will join with #literacies chat where we can reflect on the ways our learning pathways took shape across the #clmooc. Join in from 1-2 PM Eastern (10-11 AM Pacific/11-12 AM Mountain/12-1 PM Central) by searching for the #literacies hashtag on Twitter or using a Twitter chat app like tchat.io or Twubs.
Friday #clmooc participant Melissa Techman will host a Reflect with Me Hangout on breaking down community boundaries from 10-11 AM Eastern (7-8AM Pacific/8-9AM Mountain/9-10AM Central). This will be an on-air G+ Hangout, live streamed with a synchronous chat here at CLMOOC.
Places to share
As always, please share your “makes” this week in our Google Plus community, on Twitter with the hashtag #clmooc, and in the Make Bank.
Here are some handy links that might help you with your sharing and connecting:
- In Google +, you should join our Making Learning Connected Community;
- On Twitter, we encourage you to follow and use the #clmooc hashtag this summer;
- Submit your blog to the Making Learning Connected Blog Hub, which will collect and showcase blog posts from participants.
Need More Information?
- Check out our Frequently Asked Questions page.
- Learn more about the Making Learning Connected Massive Open Online Collaboration.
- Explore the National Writing Project’s Digital Is site for ways to connect digital media with writing and learning.
- Reach out to us with questions or suggestions in the G+ Community.
Finally
Remember to take advantage of this opportunity to learn in community. Share your work in progress and consider inviting collaborators to help with your make. Or, check out the invitations to collaborate in #clmooc’s Make Bank, where some opportunities to map and collaborate already live.
Whether you try one of the ideas above or continue to make meaning in #clmooc in some other way that works best for you, we hope you’ll see the participants in #clmooc as resources for your learning. Please pose questions, take tangents and keep connecting.
Sincerely,
Anna Smith, Joe Dillon, and the rest of the Making Learning Connected MOOC facilitators