What a whirlwind crazy summer this has been, and not just because we seemingly navigated through a million Web 2.0 tools, but this summer was emotionally and mentally draining for a lot of us. We struggled but we persisted, and thanks to a very flexible and human instructor we survived and came out on the other side much more knowledgable of Web 2.0 technologies, social media use in education, and a multitude of things concerning that such as IP rights, ethics, etc.
I already took the time to discuss and reflect on the different tools for the semester so I do not want to spend time on that again. I will say that I took a few days this week to get caught up on reading your blogs over the past two weeks and I am going to miss you all, and the class blog, more than I realized. I was happy to see that a lot of the blogs I followed regularly are planning to "stick around" and I will keep all of the blogs in my Feedly for a while to see who I can stay in touch with. I do not plan on continuing to blog, but I will definitely read and comment on yours!
I still cannot really wrap my head around, or believe, how much I have gained from this class this summer. I don't know how many times I said that I was taking a class on social media, and it was the worst time to be taking a class on social media. I felt like I couldn't go a whole day without being bombarded with BLM, COVID, chaos, upsetting news, over, and over, and over. But at the same exact time, this was the best time to be taking a class on social media and Web 2.0. I am entering a school year where I will likely be asked to teach in person, live on zoom, under-water, in a burning building, all while herding cats. Let me tell you, I am feeling a million times more confident about that scenario having a fully loaded Web 2.0 toolbelt.
I hope many of you will stay in touch and keep blogging. I enjoyed all of you and thank you for a wonderful summer, even in the craziest of times.
I am so concerned for you and other K-12 educators as y'all head back to the classroom. My boyfriend's sister teaches special education at an elementary school and they started back YESTERDAY. She wants to stay in her classroom all year but she doesn't know if that's going to be the case with the way things are going. I hope that you and your students stay safe and healthy!
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