Connectivism Through Social Network

In the video “AlanLevine-New Media Consortium”, Mr. Alan Levine addressed the importance of establishing networks through colleagues, experimenting and trying new things with technology in teaching. It is really important and beneficial for a teacher to participate and learn through social networking and build connection with other teachers and students.

I joined a social network called Classroom 2.0, which is a useful social networking platform to provide information sources and technologies for teaching and learning in classrooms. Classroom 2.0 allows teachers and students to participate in the discussion forums, receive event notifications, find and connect with other colleagues. Classroom 2.0 have more than 80,000 members from about 200 countries. Anyone can register at the social network, once a membership application is approved, one can use search box or topic list to find some related topics. You can go to the introductory forum to introduce yourself, then other users can see your profile and may make connection with you. You can also see profiles of other users and connect with them if you are interested. Classroom 2.0 provides BlackboardCollaborate, weekly Saturday “Classroom 2.0 LIVE”, and monthly “Featured Teacher”. In the weekly sessions, a specific classroom teaching topic will be discussed with a special guest presenter. In the monthly sessions, a special guest will share ways of using technology to support learning in classrooms. I like the social network with the weekly and monthly live events, as this is a good opportunity to connect with other members of the community in real time events with audio, chat, sharing, and video. If you miss a live event, you can click on the “Archives and Resources” to find a saved recording. I like this social networking platform as it emphasizes the future of education series, and it has been a pioneer in the use by educators and students of open source, software, social networking and massive online peer-to-peer conference and teacher conference. From Classroom 2.0, I found that many successful educators use various technologies to connect and collaborate with their colleagues and create lessons and enhance student learning. I am going to continue using Classroom 2.0 to improve my teaching and learning.