SOCIAL LEARNING

Hello CCTI course-mates!

Ideas that influence learning in a traditional work place are frustrating to the present-day student:

·        Performance problems cannot be solved by training solutions alone.

·  “Qualified trainers” do not hold a monopoly to knowledge. Simple people with specific experiences may also offer valid solutions to problems.

·     Trainers’ ban on access to social media comes out of fear of losing influence. In the words of Geeta Bose “Adult or traditional learners are becoming frustrated at how they are being treated as idiots in how they are expected to use of online courses.”

·      Just as an icon is a window into a program, a shortcut may be an opening into a comprehensive solution to a problem. Therefore, courses are not the only way out.

No matter how experienced in one’s area of specialization, one will always need help. In the traditional workplace, this help does not always come that easily. With social learning, there are a lot of people who have had difficulties and are willing to share experiences and to offer help. We can use social media to follow such people, read their ideas, engage in discussions with them, ask their help and collaborate continuously to improve personal performance.

I therefore consider social media networks to be important in:  

·      Widening learners’ exposure.

·      Offering users opportunities for continuous learning.

·      Developing and expanding personal professional learning network.

·      Sharing a lot of resources (through social groups and communities) that are useful in professional development

·      Offering learners opportunities to keep up-to-date with the most recent developments – both professional and social.

I feel I am making great strides into my personal goal for professional growth and also getting closer to the level of a smart worker. This is because: 

• I have subscribed to social networks – Face-book and Google plus. 
• These social networks are giving me an opportunity to share information, offering me collaborative learning, getting resources to improve my professional development and getting updated on what is happening in the teaching profession. 
• I am constantly learning as I work and striving to improve my performance and productivity. 

However, I need to take the following steps to achieve my professional learning goal:

·      Consolidate and expand my personal professional learning network on both Face-book and Google plus.

·      Explore more social networks to see what they've got to offer me towards my personal goal for professional growth.

·      Read and internalize the ideas and resources I have encountered and put them into practice.

·      Sharing resources I find on the social networks with my students and colleagues. 

Thanks and God bless! 

PERSONAL GOAL FOR PROFESSIONAL GROWTH

MY FIRST REFLECTION (What I have learned about my status of professional growth) 

It is possible for one to spend a good part of one's life working but never once enjoying what one does for a living. One may be in it only for money but lose out on other benefits. There are many reasons for this. Some of them could be: 

• One doesn't take time to collaborate or share one's experience with someone else. 
• One doesn't use his or her time at work to help someone  else improve his or her skills. 
• One chooses to compete and appear better trained and a better performer to one's superiors in order to gain cheap popularity and favor. 
• One decides to take the social aspect out of one's work. 
• One doesn't reflect on what one does, how he or she does it or doesn't do it, and the legacy one lives behind. 

But why would one live and work like that? Because, he/she most probably doesn't know any better. That best describes my professional development journey. 

In this course, I have learnt that, when we come together, many things happen - we learn a lot, we work more, we work better and appreciate ourselves and others much more because we never really see our weaknesses but each one's strength. We can enjoy what we do when we do it with and for others. Indeed the rewards of learning together as we work and working together as we learn are better than pay cheques we receive at the end of a miserable 30 days in a hostile professional cage.

I have also learnt that tools only increase the collaboration and fun, but they are not an end in themselves. My approach to and competence in teaching was within the "technology literacy" level of human capacity development. I am determined to increase it to the "knowledge creation" level of human capacity development. 

THE PERSONAL GOAL FOR MY PROFESSIONAL GROWTH - Is to be a role model in using technology to enhance teaching and manage learning by developing teaching-learning platforms and sites for accumulating and sharing academic and professional development resources and ideas with my students and fellow teachers. 

Thank You. Be blessed. 

James.google.com/+JamesMuhwezi-jet