Follow the Yellow Brick Road! Course Reflection #PLEK12

Hi everyone,

I am in the process of wrapping up a massively open online course. It has been a very interesting experience. I find now that I wish I could go back to the first week of class, because it would go soooo much more smoothly!  With my Wizard of Oz metaphor "follow the yellow brick road" - it seems so fitting to me because in the Wizard of Oz film - Dorothy is to follow the yellow brick road to Oz - only to find that the smoke and mirrors she was experiencing masked the fact that she always had the power within herself to find her way home.  I am graphically challenged, and I am not an early adopter of technology, but with some investigating of new tools and experiencing new things "following the yellow brick road", I have come to the ephiphany that I have it within myself to create a personal learning environment with the various tools and technologies out there. I need to learn to be less afraid of trying new things. The key is in experiencing it. You have to just try new things to experience them and figure out how they will fit in with your overall big picture.

If I could give anyone advice, it would be try something new...

As far as the personal learning environment, the course taught me that there are various aspects to a personal learning environment, including practiving digital responsibility, increasing (on an on going basis) personal digital literacy, organizing content, and synthesizing and creating content. I will look for ways to include all aspects of this in my own personal learning environment.

I created concept map trying to use a graphical device. But I ended up with symbaloo, which is an organized and graphical way to keep track of the bookmarks I use regularly.

Check back soon!! Though I'm wrapping up this course, I will continue to blog about my experiences.