Contribution to Your Learning and the Learning Community

          During the summer semester of 2023, I was able to focus on providing my students in my STEAM club with a significant learning environment while also making changes and improvements to my ePortfolio to make it more user-friendly for those with whom I wish to share it. There were several things I did not realize were happening in my ePortfolio at the beginning. For instance, I didn't know I was supposed to give credit to photos that were free and being used for educational purposes. After Dr. H pointed this out to me, I started seeing it everywhere and have since begun the process of adding photo credits to each of the photos used on my ePortfolio. This is just another example I can use in demonstrating a learner's mindset to my students.

          I also found that I consistently received comments about my grammar and spelling. I struggle with asking others to proofread my work because I know they are just as busy, if not more so, than I am, and I don't want to burden them. After many conversations about the use of ChatGPT as a tool, I decided to give it a try. I found it became my best friend in proofreading. I would type my post in a Word document and then copy that over to ChatGPT, asking the program to do a grammar check. It would do just that. Sometimes it would change words that I didn't appreciate, so I learned to watch closely for that. Another challenge I faced when proofreading my own papers is that I tend to correct what I see in my head without realizing there is a correction that needs to happen. To combat that, I started using a text-to-speech tool so that I could hear what I wrote and catch sentences that didn't make sense. I realized this alone is a way I can show my students who struggle with proofreading how they can proofread their own work since text-to-speech is already a tool most of my students have they just don't know how to utilize it correctly. 

          This semester was also important to me because it was the first one in which I was able to really start building a learning community inside the program. Unlike the previous semester, when we had fewer students participating, this semester was completely different. In both of my groups, I was the only one who was in the second semester of the course. Many of my group mates would ask me for clarification on assignments for their other classes while we continued to build our ePortfolios alongside each other.

While I introduced the majority of the group members to one another by quickly creating a group chat, so we wouldn't forget names, it was Lance and Rebecca whom I felt were the strongest leaders. Both of them organized time outside of class to meet and give each other live feedback through Zoom calls and Google Meets. The group I became closest with was the one I met on day one of class. We clicked well together and all shared something in our careers in common. 

          One thing I hope to improve on in the coming semester is having a Learning Community for BOTH courses. In 5313, I struggled to find people to collaborate with, and it was also the class where I completely forgot about my very last discussion responses. I was mortified when I realized on a Tuesday that I had forgotten to write my responses on Sunday. While I did enjoy my time seeing family over the summer, it made it very difficult to manage my time. So, I'm looking forward to next semester when there is more structure in my life.

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My colleagues that contributed to my learning;

Angela Deschner

James Rawls

Holly D Landez

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Group 1:

Rebekah Ard

Katie Beauchene

Ashley Karr

Paul Schofield

 

Group 2:

Lance Moran

Laura Hopkins

Shirelle Barnes

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My Believed Score for 5303: 90 out of 100

My Believed Score for 5313 : 79 out of 100

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