To my surprise, this class has helped me in many different aspects of life. I hadn’t realized that it had helped me in as many ways as it did until I had to start reflecting on it. I learned many things about digital literacy that tie into both children and adults. I also learned how to navigate different parts of technology better. The information that I have learned will be helpful for me as a teacher, and as a person that is living in the digital age.
There are a few different topics that I have touched in this class when it comes to posting on social media or my blog. To begin, I have related a lot of my posts back to the fact that I am going to be a teacher in the near future. I want to think about the topics of digital literacy in a way that will help me with teaching. I can think about the effects that technology will have on my students and myself. I will also understand what is appropriate for different age groups.
For my ILP a topic I touched was self-care. Once again, this topic can relate back to my career and every aspect of my life. It is about taking care of yourself. I have to say that this has been my favorite topic of the class. I have learned a lot about how self-care can affect your life. If you do not implement self-care into your life, I highly recommend!
Other than my ILP, I have made a lot of posts about what I have learned from this class. We have talked about digital activism, how technology affects people, and so much more. These topics touch on a lot of things that I would have never thought about without this class. A lot has been brought to my attention in terms of digital usage and how it affects us on a daily basis. I have also learned how it affects different age groups of people.
One theme that has been prominent in my writing throughout the 8 weeks is the fact that I think creativity and life without technology is important. Children are using technology at such a young age now-a-days. They do not know how to be creative and how to come up with games and activities to keep themselves busy. I have thought back to my childhood many times during this course. I remember using my creativity to stay busy all the time. I think that it is important that parents do not let their children get too dependent on technology at such a young age. We need to stress human-to-human interaction.
Another topic that I have stressed this semester is that self-care is important. I have done quite a bit of research on it for my ILP and I continue to find the importance of it. People need to have some self-care in order to go on with their life. Self-care can relieve many people of stress, anxiety, and all sorts of feelings that they have. I found a quote/analogy one day that I have really enjoyed throughout this course; We need to fill our cup before we can fill others cups.
After reviewing my posts, I would not say that the nature of my posts have really changed. I would say that this class has helped and reminded me to keep an open mind. We were all able to participate in this class with others that may or may not have the same opinions as us. I learned how to give constructive feedback, to not say anything at all, or to just ask them about why they feel the way they do.
Since I don’t really feel like the nature of my posts have changed, I would like to say that I learned many new things. I was glad to see many different insights. I was able to then think about how I really felt about the topic. I could alter my ideas based on others ideas to figure out what I really believed in. This will help me down the road when I am a teacher and I have to collaborate with others.
I am not all that surprised by my work because I think that it shows a pretty good representation of all that I believe in. I feel as if I was pretty consistent with my thoughts throughout all of the assignments. Something that I did notice is that you can tell what topics I am more passionate about than others. I feel like my ILP post were written better as a whole because I was super into the topic. When I am interested in something, it comes easier to me.
If I had to pick some of my posts that would be worth re-visiting, my ILP posts would be what I picked. There are many helpful tips on there that will help people of all different ages and kinds. My Independent Learning Project is helpful when it comes to trying to figure out ways to implement self-care. It also talks about how self-care can be helpful in your life. If others read my posts, they might want to think about self-care and how they can implement it into their life. They might also decide to persuade others into having more self-care in their life.
Along with my ILP, I enjoyed writing a lot of the blog posts that we had to write. I feel like blogging is a great way to reflect on what you are learning and it also allows others to look from the outside in to see what kinds of view-points there are out there. Aside from the learning, I liked having to blog each week because I was able to figure out blogging more. At this point, I can say that I have figured it out pretty well. I know how to attach links, pictures, and all of that good stuff. I feel like a pro now.
After reviewing the ‘Course Learning Outcomes’ I can say that I feel like I have reached all the outcomes expected. This class has taught me, not only things about technology, it has also taught me a lot about myself. I was able to be a part of a community of other learners like me that are aiming for the same goals. This allowed me to see different view-points and it helped me figure out what I truly believe in. Most importantly, I will be able to relate this to my career and I will have a better understanding of why my students interact with technology the way that they do.
Overall, this class has been very helpful. I have learned a lot of things that I am going to take with me down the road. I have started to master blogging, tweeting, and creating. I have also learned how to have self-care in my life. This will be helpful for me as a teacher. Most of all, I have learned how important digital literacy is and I know how it can affect the people around me. I look forward to implementing this information into my daily life as a teacher and a person.
Digital Literacy with Shayla D. 