Connected education is both simple and complicated. I know that sounds strange but it is true. Using tools like Twitter, Facebook, Google Hangouts, and Skype can make our lives much simpler. We do not have to travel to have meetings with colleagues, who live far away, because we can simply connect with them through social media. We are no longer tied to using a phone where we don’t see the person but only hear them. There are video tools that help us see their faces and body language as we talk. By using these tools, it helps bring us closer together and opens up the possibilities.
However, connected education can also be complicated. There are so many tools out there that it is easy to get lost with the proper ones to use. Sometimes, as connected educators, we talk so much about new tools that we lose people because they are afraid they do not know as much as we do, and feel they will never catch up. With the vast examples of connected tools to use, we need to make sure that we are breaking them down into their finer parts, and not talking about them all at once. We have a duty to explain what those tools are, why people should use them, and do a little handholding in the process.
*PETER DEWITT, “Connected Education: Big Ideas in Small Packages”, AUGUST 1, 2014, https://corwin-connect.com/2014/08/connected-education-big-ideas-small-packages/
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