Let me start by saying that I can not believe it is the end of this course already! I have really enjoyed edtc300, and am a little bit sad that it has already come to an end.

Part of the reason that I have enjoyed the course so much, is that we have developed a strong community of learners within our class. Because of our online tools, we were able to collaborate with one another throughout each week and enhance each others’ learning.

I did my very best to contribute to this course, and have been successful in my role as a classmate who encourages others, shares resources, and enhances learning for others.

Here is a link to a google doc that includes all of my class contributions for the term. It is extremely long, so I will summarize it in this post for those of you who are not marking me and do not need to see all of my examples.

1. I will start with WordPress. I tried to inspire others through my own blog posts, and made sure to engage in every conversation that resulted on my blog. Near the beginning of the term, I downloaded the WordPress app on my phone, which made it really easy to see when new posts were made on the blogs that I follow (which is every blog from our class list and some of the EDTC400 ones). Because of this, I commented on many posts every week and was able to contribute to most of my classmates’ learning in this way.

The only setback that I found was that some of the blogs, that did not use WordPress, did not always show up on my notifications and I was not able to engage in those posts as often. However, I went above and beyond every week in commenting on posts and I am very thankful that I did, because I learned a lot from my classmates’ experiences in this course. In fact, I ended up creating an extra category on my blog specifically for responding to others’ posts.

2. Twitter was also a great place for me to contribute to the course. I created my twitter account at the beginning of the term, and ended up enjoying it a lot throughout the course. I shared many resources, retweeted many classmates’ tweets, reached out to others for support (both for my own learning and many of my classmates’ learning), and participated in three Twitter chats throughout the term. Here is a link to my Twitter account, where you will see evidence of all of these contributions throughout the entire term.

3. Our weekly Zoom meetings were another place that I contributed to the learning of others. Evidence can be found in the #edtc300recordings channel in our Slack community, but I have regularly participated in the class Zoom chats since the beginning of the term. I often contribute to group discussions, breakout rooms, chat conversations, and class activities. I have attended every Zoom chat this term and have participated each week.

4. Last, but certainly not least, I should mention the Slack community. I used this resource to encourage others, share resources, ask questions, and contribute to others’ learning frequently throughout the term. Here are a few examples of my contributions on this platform:

January 6th: I shared this resource, on the #resourcesharing channel, that outlines some professional development websites for teachers: https://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/07/the-13-must-know-professional.html

February 15th: I shared this guide in the #resourcesharing channel on Slack, to help others create their teaching philosophy: https://owlcitation.com/academia/Philosophy-of-Teaching-Statement-Template-and-Samples

April 8th: Screencast (shared on Slack in the #resourcesharing channel) that I made explaining how to find previous comments on WordPress (to help others’ with their contribution to learning post): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuCwGLtrumQ

Overall, I gained a lot of insight from my EDTC300 classmates, and I hope that I was able to provide the same type of learning support for them. I tried my best to contribute in every way that I could and enjoyed all aspects of this course.

Thanks for reading!