Well, isn't this the $64000. question? It is certainly the question we try to have our students answer in any of our classes. It has been a long time indeed, since I looked at the equation from this side. Perhaps, it would be easier to start from what I think my strengths and weaknesses are so that the learning gained becomes clearer through those two lenses.
This course challenged me to stretch my self to explore ideas that I had never given much thought to. I knew a bit about OER's, but was not really aware of the spectrum of licensing associated with the Open Movement and Creative Commons. A strength realized in this course was that, although I started out fairly slowly, I did come to have a reasonable grasp of what Open Access is about and how it may come to serve me and my staff and students down the road. A definite weakness was being able to allocate the time for this course to really do the learning justice. It is not that I didn't have some 'free' time to invest, I just didn't allocate enough of it to this course. I did choose to use as much of my non-working / non-sleeping time to spend with my family. I think you would concur after looking at the number of posts to our G+ community and my Blogs that i made that I was not totally present here. I do not want this to sound like whining, but in my professional career, I have had to miss many events with my wife and kids due to what I perceived as work committments. I can't get those missed moments back, but I did come to a decision a number of years ago to maintain a balance in my professional and personal life. Unfortunately, I think this followed me into the OLTD program to a degree. I knew that the commitment for my time would be significant, but never made the real mental shift to adjust what is down time and what is needed for commitments. So back to the strength and weakness issue. I have learned a lot about social media and have overcome a fair bit of negative inertia in respect of my use of it. I swore long ago that I would never have a Twitter account, yet now I do. I had never considered being a blogger, yet I have started down that road. I still don't have a Facebook page, and maybe I never will, but I know that it is not something to be avoided just because I have seen the negative spin-offs with students. Social media is a powerful tool, and, just like OER's, free to use, explore, and make into a reflection of who I am. Kind of cool.
So, I am not writing this summary as an appology, but as a way of recognizing that Life happens and the committments I have with the building of a new virtual school, have not been used idly, but rather that the learnings from this course and the previous 4 have contributed significantly to its design. that means you have contributed significantly. Thank you for that.
This course challenged me to stretch my self to explore ideas that I had never given much thought to. I knew a bit about OER's, but was not really aware of the spectrum of licensing associated with the Open Movement and Creative Commons. A strength realized in this course was that, although I started out fairly slowly, I did come to have a reasonable grasp of what Open Access is about and how it may come to serve me and my staff and students down the road. A definite weakness was being able to allocate the time for this course to really do the learning justice. It is not that I didn't have some 'free' time to invest, I just didn't allocate enough of it to this course. I did choose to use as much of my non-working / non-sleeping time to spend with my family. I think you would concur after looking at the number of posts to our G+ community and my Blogs that i made that I was not totally present here. I do not want this to sound like whining, but in my professional career, I have had to miss many events with my wife and kids due to what I perceived as work committments. I can't get those missed moments back, but I did come to a decision a number of years ago to maintain a balance in my professional and personal life. Unfortunately, I think this followed me into the OLTD program to a degree. I knew that the commitment for my time would be significant, but never made the real mental shift to adjust what is down time and what is needed for commitments. So back to the strength and weakness issue. I have learned a lot about social media and have overcome a fair bit of negative inertia in respect of my use of it. I swore long ago that I would never have a Twitter account, yet now I do. I had never considered being a blogger, yet I have started down that road. I still don't have a Facebook page, and maybe I never will, but I know that it is not something to be avoided just because I have seen the negative spin-offs with students. Social media is a powerful tool, and, just like OER's, free to use, explore, and make into a reflection of who I am. Kind of cool.
So, I am not writing this summary as an appology, but as a way of recognizing that Life happens and the committments I have with the building of a new virtual school, have not been used idly, but rather that the learnings from this course and the previous 4 have contributed significantly to its design. that means you have contributed significantly. Thank you for that.