A reflection about relecting

This week was Thanksgiving, a time to sit and reflect about the good things in our lives. With our busy schedules it can be hard to take a moment to sit and reflect, but the holidays let us have time to focus on the important things, like family, friends, health, etc. We shouldn't just reflect during the holidays, its important to remind ourselves of how fortunate we are, especially during the rough patches that crop up from time to time. I'm a big fan of apple's watch, with the recent update it started giving me reminders about taking a moment to breathe and meditate. Usually I would just dismiss this notification, but if we can't take a minute out of our day to breathe then maybe we need to change something in our lives. Here lately every time I receive the notification I've been taking the time to breathe, during these sessions I like to focus on my goals and the positive things in my life. I'd like to encourage all my readers to try to find time each day to close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing and the positive things you have going for you. 

Learning from Experience

My fiancé and I had our baby shower last weekend, all of our closest family and friends attended and it only made us more excited about our little peanut. We're first time parents and it was an eye opening experience unwrapping all the gifts, we got stuff we never would of thought we needed! We got a stroller and a travel system (they do the same thing but I guess they're different), a wipe warmer to keep the babies butt happy, a bottle steamer to keep everything sanitary. It was a little overwhelming to say the least but I think we got everything we need. 

At the entry way to the hall we had a advice box where our guest could provide us with parenting tips. One that particularly stood out to me said " don't worry about making mistakes, you'll learn from your experiences, we were all first time parents at one point." I don't know who provided this advice but it helped put me at ease. I've been stressing out lately with the due date inching closer and closer, I've even developed a twitch in my left eye that won't seem to go away from all the stress. It's not that I'm worried about being a bad parent, it's just that I don't want to mess up, I want make sure everything is done right. Reading John Dewey this week reinforced that I need to breathe and stop thinking to much into things, I'm going to make mistakes but those mistakes will lead to knowledge because all knowledge is gained through experience. I'm going to learn as I go through doing, I might change a diaper wrong or struggle with getting the car seat perfectly leveled but its not the end of the world and I will only make that mistake once. 

I also have the benefit of a great support system of experienced parents and teachers, if any of my readers would like to provides me some advice please comment below :-)

Communities of Practice

This weeks in my Foundations of Learning Theory Class we focused on Communities of Practice or CoP's. You may find yourself asking, as I did, what in the world are CoP's? Etienne Wenger defines CoP's as a congregation of people who come together to partake in collective learning in a shared domain or human endeavor. Communities of Practice differ from clubs or other groups because they aren't just a gathering of people with a common interest but a group of people who come together to hone their skills and learn from one another.

Members of CoP's are all practitioners of a craft or domain of knowledge, while its perfectly fine for members to differ in expertise, they should all have a grasp on the area of focus. The benefit of this collective learning is that members can share knowledge with one another which can lead to greater competency for all.

An example of a CoP is a group of local wood workers who come together twice a month to share their latest projects, the members always document their work with pictures so during their meetings they can show their process. During these meetings the wood workers share best practices and tips with one another. Since the members share their process so that others can learn from and provide feedback this makes this group a CoP rather than just a wood working club.

What CoP's are you a member of? Share below in the comments. 

Is the future classroom strictly digital?

Seymour Papert in his book Mindstorms talks about the strong emotions that are provoked when the subject of a future without schools is brought up. Papert says that many people envision a dystopian world where kids are running wild in a Lord of the Flies scenario. Papert says that people who imagine this model are envisioning a world where we get rid of brick and mortar schools completely. What those who decry the idea of a schoolless future can't seem to grasp is that we're not getting rid of schools, just digitizing them, so we can reap the benefits of what computers and the Internet bring. Computers are tools that provide teachers and students a new way to teach and learn, we shouldn’t fear this change just because it’s different then how we learned when we were in school. What is becoming increasingly evident though is we’re moving towards a future where the entirety of lessons and course work is going to be done through digital mediums. In this model teachers move into a role of facilitator and learning becomes more student centered. This is a natural evolution of the traditional classroom, in this model students have the reigns and teachers act as a guide to their educational pursuits. I believe Students will still attend class and have a face to face with an instructor, but all course work and a lot of instruction will be conduced through LMS's. What do you guys think, will we ever come to a point where all course work and instruction is strictly digital?