"I have never been this connected and disconnected at the same time!"
I have many reasons for saying this but let's start with the positives:By emerging myself in the world of web 2.0 tools and free Internet Social Media Networks, I have met people from all over the world with interests that are all over the map. After one year I have now created my own personal learning network with people that belong in different groups depending upon my interests. These groups are: Physical Education professionals, Education Technology experts, and fitness fanatics. I even now have people who belong in all 3 groups. How did I do this?
One word: twitter! Really, I believe that I learned the most from building this network and reading posts (or tweets) from the people I follow.
I think that it all started with me looking for the right people to connect with and once I did that, a new door opened. One of the first professionals I followed must have been @courosa, a professor of educational technology & media at the Faculty of Education, University of Regina. As I started following Alec's posts, I followed up on a lot of links and no sooner I started I began to learn the inside of the web 2.0 world. After that I started following a lot of people in educational technology, which followed @courosa and learned even more. Twitter is really my classroom and it has proven its value. I have used twitter as my news reader (even though I still use google reader as well). I also notice that twitter, or rather, the people I follow are my motivators throughout my journey in grad school and as a person. I have several people on twitter who use the same fitness programs or are fanatic runners and reading their posts on being active motivates me when I am down and vica versa (at least I hope so).
Now about the disconnect portion of the quote! Perhaps it is me, my behavior, my attitude or the choices I made this past year but I do not feel I am at all connected with the people I work with and for. Being new is always challenging, that I know from experience but it usually is not this challenging. I connect easily with people, at least I thought so. Throughout my first year I have attempted to find a mentor, advisor, friend, guide, whatever you want to call the person who you confide in when you have questions about school, research, teaching and life. Joannie was there for my at the University of Manitoba. I don't have a Joannie here and I feel that not having a mentor has greatly affected the way that I learned this year. Not having an advisor has forced me to explore my research on my own and has created many obstacles.
So, thank God for twitter! As my learning network grows, I grow and I am grateful for all the wonderful people I have met in my virtual learning space.
Thank you to all my twitter friends!
oh and if you are reading this and you are not on twitter, get on it and follow me @helenabaert!
Have a look at all the people who follow me.
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