As Sheri Edwards points out, CLMOOC *sparkles* and it is because of YOU. It’s been so lovely to spend the summer making, sharing and connecting together. Thank you to all.
But Connected Learning is not a shiny new thing for us to be momentarily attracted to only to abandon. Quite the contrary, connected learning offers a lasting effect. Our interest-driven work, our peer-connected open networks, and our connections around shared purposes are an ongoing and participatory conversation.
The principles of Connected Learning are our shared framework. These principles are the language and tools to support our teacher and learner agency. In this way, the ideas that have emerged from the CLMOOC summer experience can help us all move forward with critical and collective conversations. In turn, we can bring these ideas “home” in our own contexts and communities throughout the year. In this sense, the CLMOOC and Connected Learning experience is also a movement. We are a community of like-minded educators and learners seeking to create rich, relevant and connected learning ecosystems.
Continue the Conversation.
Gathered quotes from CLMOOC and #clmooc Twitter Chats remind us where we’ve been and where we are going …
#Connectedlearning has changed how I view group work and how I seek input for support of my changing curriculum. – Michelle Stein
I believe information should be available in multi-modal ways because different people have different preferences and needs. – Maha Bali
And maybe that is what I find appealing–the opportunity to play and explore without the stress of having to be perfect. – Janet Chow
I’ll be explicitly teaching about connected learning principles and try to embody them with activities in teacher trainings. – Chris Butts
It’s important to get students to stop and observe and listen. – Simon Ensor
Power is an idea. Ideas have power. What’s the fuel? – Kristine Konruff
#connectedlearning goes back to Dewey, Vygotsky, Piaget, Papert—not new, just neglected. – Sheri Edwards
A maker is, first and foremost, a mistaker. – Molly Shields
Having a real, personal connection is so valuable and so important. It’s at the heart of learning and teaching. – Chris Campbell
Do you speak in images? – Kim Douillard
… as blog posts are being turned into images and images are turned into posts …
How Connected Learning
Brought My Family Closer Together
by Kira Baker-Doyle
… meaning is being made and shared by those reflecting on their connections …
… and makes are being banked as resources for continued re-imagination.
Join the Movement.
Just as all of us spent the summer in the CLMOOC as part of a larger community, so too is the Making Learning Connected 2014 part of something larger. While our formal Make Cycles are now coming to a calendar-close, the spirit of the Make will remain live and vibrant in places like Educator Innovator.
Educator Innovator, powered by the National Writing Project, as many of you know, sponsored CLMOOC. What you might not know is that Educator Innovator is both a network of networks—EI has lots of great partners, like Maker Education, Edutopia, Institute of Play, Mozilla’s Webmaker, and many more—and an online community of educators like yourselves who are interested in the intersection of play, learning and creativity. Educator Innovator has great resources, like blog posts and webinars, that help you stay abreast of the latest opportunities from partners who are interested in engaging educators, both formal and informal, in the kinds of production-centered, interest-driven, Connected Learning work represented through events like CLMOOC.
Build Connected Ecosystems.
- Connect learning in your own context.
- Stay connected over social media and use the hashtags #connectedlearning and #clmooc.
- Share what you’ve learned publicly by presenting to others and publishing/cross-posting your work to communities such as NWP Digital Is.
- Use, remix, create, share and document Makes others can use in the Make Bank.
- Apply for the Educator Innovator Maker Badge and Join the Movement.
- Continue to build/grow/play!
Apply for the Educator Innovator Maker Badge
This badge is awarded to educators who’ve produced connected learning-based resources, events, curriculum and/or created artifacts that demonstrate Connected Learning principles in action or in theory.
To receive this badge, simply go to Educator Innovator’s Maker badge page and submit your criteria by clicking on the “get this badge” button. Use the partner code CLMOOC2014 upon submitting. (For more information about badges in general, visit Mozilla’s Open Badges website.)
Thank you.
We leave you with a tweet from Terry Elliott that expresses our shared discovery this summer: that we need every one of you.
From all of us at Educator Innovator and the CLMOOC team, thank you.