As EDTC 300 comes to a close, I would like to take this time to share the many ways in which i feel i have contributed to the learning of others throughout the semester! When this class began, I was very nervous about having this responsibility of contributing to my classmates learning. I personally had very little experience with technology prior to this class and didn’t know how to contribute to my own online learning, let alone others! Due to this lack of experience and understanding, I immediately felt that I was unqualified to contribute to others in meaningful ways and therefor would not meet this requirement for the class. Well, it turns out that I was dead wrong! Over the course of this semester, I have learnt so much from my classmates and I feel that I have done enough for them to say the same thing about me!
While I feel that my contributions have been substantial, it would be much too long of a post if I were to share every single one of my comments, posts, and interactions with you. In the interests of being both concise and thorough, I have divided my contributions into 3 different categories; Google Plus Community, Twitter, and Blog Comments! I will share a variety of my tweets, comments, and posts that I feel best outline the ways in which I have been an active contributor to my peers education!
Here I have created a screencast in which I showcase some examples of my contributions throughout the semester! Following the video, I will outline each area of contribution in more detail and provide more examples.
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Google + Community
I personally found our EDTC 300 Google + Community to be a great source for asking questions and finding information regarding the specifics of the class. If I ever had any confusion about an assignment or anything technology related, our Google + Community was my first stop to find the answer! I loved how quickly it allowed for our class members to connect and how we were able to access all the information regarding the course such as the syllabus, blog hub, weekly plans, and course guidelines. Within the community discussion page, I made numerous posts asking questions and sharing resources that I felt others were in need of or wanting to have access to. I received a lot of positive feedback from my classmates, which helped me to gage whether or not my posts were beneficial to the group! Here are just a few of my own posts and comments:
In addition to writing my own posts, I worked hard to ensure that I was able to answer any of my classmates questions that I could. I checked the Community daily and whenever a question came up that I felt I had the knowledge and resources to answer, i made sure I did! I also provided feedback when my classmates posted progress reports on their learning projects and shared resources! Here are a few of these interactions:
When looking back at the Google + Community, I feel that I have contributed to it in various ways throughout the course of this class. I relied heavily on the source to contact my peers and I gained a lot from being a part of it, and in being a part of it, I contributed to the learning of other!
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Throughout the semester, Twitter was definitely the most demanding platform for participation for me. I had never really used Twitter prior to this class so it was a huge adjustment to go from never tweeting, to tweet 2+ times per day. While it may have been a slow start, I soon got to the point in which I was posting on Twitter at least 3 times a day. That meant sharing resources I found on Feedly and other websites, replying to others tweets, and participating in twitter chats. Before I knew it, I had over 450 tweets and likes, as well as over 100 followers! I went from being twitter clueless to twitter machine in such a short period of time, and in that time, a large portion, if not all of my content contributed to my own personal learning and the learning of others.
1) Tweeting/Sharing/Retweeting Resources: I made sure to share at least 1 article, link, and/or video per day. If I found something that was interesting to me or that I felt would be of interest to my peers, I tweeted about it and encouraged everyone to read and share any thoughts/feedback they may have! Here are some of my tweets that I feel others greatly benefited from and helped to express who I am as a future educator:
2) Responding to Others Tweets: I also set a goal for myself to comment/respond to at least 2 of my classmates tweets every day. I loved reading all of the resources that were shared and I was quick to provide feedback, encouragement, ideas, and advice! I also made sure I responded to peoples tweets outside of my EDTC 300 class in order to expand my online community! Here are a handful of the many interactions I have had on twitter with my peers:
3) Participating In Twitter Chats: prior to this class, I really had no idea what twitter chats were or that they even existed. When we joined a #saskedchat at the beginning of the semester, I was a little overwhelmed! The tweets came and went so quickly that it was hard to follow the conversations, but I can attribute that to my lack of experience. After I started to get the hang out Twitter a little more, I began joining more chats on my own and absolutely loved them! Over the course of the semester, I joined over 10 different Twitter chats including #saskedchat, #edchat, #learnLAP, #bekindEDU, #masterychat, #newteachertribe, and #TLAP. All of these chats allowed for me to connect with other educators around the world, as well as my classmates! Here are a few of the conversations/interactions that I shared with others throughout my twitter chats:
While I have shared a lot of my Twitter activity with you above, this doesn’t even scratch the surface of my interactions and contributions to the Twitter community! I encourage you to check out my twitter page here and see what else I have done to contribute to the learning of others!
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Blog Comments
Another way in which I feel I have contributed greatly to the learning of other is by commenting on my classmates blog posts. I made sure that i commented on at least 1 persons blog per day and did my best to ensure that i commented on each one of my classmates blogs at least once throughout the semester. The comments I left on the posts ranged from asking questions, to giving advice, and most frequently, providing encouragement! I really benefited from others commenting on my blog posts because I felt they helped me grow as a blogger and I hope others feel the same way about my comments. I also made sure to respond to every comment that was made on my posts too! Here are some of the many comments I have made:
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As you can see from the evidence I have provided above, I was an extremely active contributor to the learning of others throughout my EDTC 300 course. I loved seeing and experiencing the many ways that people can support each other through the use of technology and this is something I had not realized before. Contributing to the learning of others not only benefits them, but also yourself! Through supporting each other, we have been able to create an online community that provides assistance and knowledge, as well as encouragement to grow!
This will be my final post for EDTC 300, which is hard to believe! This semester has flown by and I have enjoyed every second of it! The new relationships I have formed through online engagement will be ones that I continue to maintain as I work my way towards my education degree! I would like to thank everyone who contributed to my learning in ways both big and small! This EDTC 300 journey is coming to an end, but my edtech journey has just begun!
Catch ya later!
-Lauren
lsauser.wordpress.com 
What a thorough final post you have done here! You have went above and beyond helping our classmates through their #edtc300 journey!
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Thank you Sydney! It means a lot to me to know that I have helped others in their learning because you all have helped me in so many ways!
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Hi Lauren,
You’ve done such an amazing job in this class. You’ve seemed to be everywhere giving others support, compassion, and ideas. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed meeting you. There were many times we’ve had the same thoughts and ideas, it’s nice to know there’s someone else on the same page as me in class. I hope I get to work again with you in other classes. Excellent work!
Anthea
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I have gained so much from interacting with you as well! 🙂
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