Professional Networking and Learning

My participation in this course was sufficient to meet the ATSIL graduate standards 6.2 and
7.4, and demonstrates my knowledge of collaborative working environments, professional
learning and professional online communities.
Collaboration is essential to these professional online communities. As Gargiulo and
Metcalf (2015) identify, willing participation is an essential component of collaboration. I
showed evidence of this through checking other students blogs, Weeblys and Scoop.it
accounts and making content available on my accounts for other students to view and learn
from.
As Friend and Cook (2010) identify, common goals are also critical to effective
collaboration for teachers. In this course, our common goal was to improve our practice and
knowledge of teaching through sharing information on high quality pedagogical practices.
Indeed, this is the hallmark of professional networking groups. In doing this, I clearly
demonstrated my understanding of the role of appropriate professional learning sources to
improve my practice (Standard 6.2). The use of these external community networks, such as
Scoop.it, also highlights my understanding of the role they play in broadening my
professional knowledge and practice (Standard 7.4).
I also formed professional networking study groups with other GDLT distance
education learners (such as Emma Girle) through online email/direct messages and video
phone calls. These study groups have been an immense help in deconstructing
activities/assessment tasks and have attributed to my personal growth as an ICT learner.
Of course, there is always room for improvement when it comes to my engagement
with professional networking groups. It is an important part of reflective practice to
understand, identify and plan ways to improve ones teaching practice. With regards to my
use of Scoop.it there are a few areas I have identified. Initially, I was confused with how to
use Scoop.it and I thought I was scooping content, when it fact I was only clicking on them
to read. This caused me to not share information that may have assisted others. I therefore
need to be more aware of active engagement in these communities.
Another area for improvement is to ensure I engage with as many students as possible
and not just those in my online study group. The more people taking part in the collaboration
process, the richer the engagement and ideas produced will be (Friend & Cook, 2010;
Carjuzaa & Kellough, 2014). The very purpose of these professional networking groups is to
draw together as much professional knowledge as possible to share and learn from each
others experiences and ideas.
Reference List
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2016a). General
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Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2016b). Dance
Curriculum. Retrieved May 31, 2017, from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/the-
arts/dance/curriculum/f-10?layout=1
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2016c). Information
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communication-technology-capability/introduction/in-the-learning-areas
Carjuzaa, J., & Kellough, D. (2014). Teaching in the Middle and Secondary Schools. Harlow,
England: Pearson.
Friend, M., & Cook, L. (2010). Interactions: Collaboration Skills for School Professionals
(6th ed.). US: Pearson Education.
Gargiulo, R., & Metcalf, D. (2015). Teaching in Today's Inclusive Classrooms: A Universal
Design for Learning (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.