Hi there, Tech & Tool Crew–I hope you all had a restful weekend and were able to enjoy some of the beautiful weather we had on Sunday (I read this weekend that Saturday was the 12th in a row that we’ve had rain in NH. Oof.)
As we move into week two of this month of exploration, I encourage you to really take a look around at what other conversations and activity has been percolating up among your fellow module participants:
- Laura’s comment about the challenge of having students truly collaborate in environments like Google Docs has raised some interesting questions about what the real barriers to collaboration might be — and how we can move students from “parallel play” into a more meaningful way of working together.
- There’s been lots of great annotations added to Cathy Davidson’s piece, “Why We Need Digital Literacies” — one thing that strikes me is how often the comments are not about technology, but about more fundamental questions of teaching and learning. I’ve often found that when we start talking about digital pedagogy, we quickly realize that one of the most important things is that it provides us with such a useful (and sometimes unique) lens for simply talking about pedagogy!
- And we’re starting to see some great activity contributions from participants. Remember that you can always comment on people’s portfolios. Think of your portfolio as your own mini “Design Forward blog” — and as another place for us to converse.
If you’re feeling like you’re falling behind in the module, DON’T WORRY! We still have three weeks left in June, and this module isn’t going anywhere in July. Just try and dip in when you can, and focus on those things that feel most interesting and meaningful to you — if you find yourself still struggling, try just responding to comments, annotations, and portfolios from other participants.
Personally, I’m looking forward into diving into a few readings this week, specifically “‘All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace’: Care and the Cybernetic University” by Audrey Watters and “On Silence: Humanising Digital Pedagogy” by Sean Michael Morris (our SPIN keynote speaker). I hope to see some of you in the Hypothesis sidebar!
As always feel free to reach out on Teams and if you get stuck with anything on the website or are having trouble finding something.