Moving mountains

I've used this title as the hook to my conference proposal for the Creative Commons Global Summit.

It's also been trickling through my mind in connection to podcasting and teaching the media class. Last night I had set up a google hangout with a teacher candidate, Sarah L. in Ottawa, to talk to my class about podcasting. Since it connected to the topic of participatory culture and new media, it was timely. She spoke for about ten minutes and then the questions started - as posted in a backchannel in Todays Meet, which everyone could see from their laptops. This talk went longer than anticipated, but it was student centered and focused on their participation in new media spaces.

A few students had also created a short sound file, or radio bumper, for VoiceEd.ca which I took, imported and worked with a music track to enhance the clip, and returned to them, as well as sending off to Stephen Hurley to use with his radio shows. Participation in action.

A few students have created a blog post for their making media assignment that they are tweeting out to other Ontario educators through the #OneWordONT project. One has also added their blog post to the Google Plus community set up for this activity. Again, participation in media spaces where other professionals and educators are engaging in conversations together.

It's not a push or pull action for the students or myself, more of an invitation to play. I set up the 'sandbox' and invite others to join WITH me as we try these media making opportunities together. The benefits is that they (the students) will leave at the end of this term with a connected network in participatory spaces where they can continue to chose to engage - in the open!

Finding it in my stream

"Every metaphor does four things: 

It creates something new; it obsoletes something old; 

it rekindles something from the past, and it sets the stage for its own reversal."

Marshall McLuhan

This morning I received an email. This led to a twitter search for one of the people included in the email chain, someone new to my networks who has similar interests (@sam_bruzzese). This lead to looking at the twitter stream from this other individual to examine interests and activities. Which led me to an insightful tweet with a link. This link was to a document written by Marshall McLuhan in 1957 titled Classrooms Without Walls.

After reading this, I immediately returned to twitter and re-tweeted to send it out to others, tagging some individuals who may find it interesting, along with hashtags to extend the conversation. In the world of open, connected learning, this is how ideas and knowledge is built and disseminated. Over time, one share or one conversation at a time. The importance is to tag people in your network who may be interested in seeing the document or information. AND THAT is the challenge! Knowing your 'audience' in media terms. Knowing your network in connected learning terms. Responsive PLNing in digital circles.

With this one event, it heightens my awareness of the responsibility I have to share to people, not just circles or networks, but to individuals in my particular spheres of influence. This takes time, but it also requires me to dig a little deeper to find the connections when algorithms fail to find them. I rechecked twitter handles and hashtags, revisited email links, and even back checked the original site where the document was found in order to verify it's source. This led me to the Thornburg Center and a collection of other handouts from David Thornburg's collection of notes and presentations.

The 'feedback' from sharing the tweet continued, with some people sharing a quote that was meaningful (making meaning).