Thank you ETMOOC, I Need To Connect

Wow, I miss you already. I am so surprised, I have been so upset that I have had no time to blog and stay connected with a new job in social media. I am doing what I love doing for myself for others and well. It's OK. Fun, yes, but can you imagine blogging and following feeds and composing tweets on a topic you do not love?? It is not an easy task, and I don't think I thought about that. Lesson learned. Oddly, I got the job because of my activity on #etmooc so thank you, my social media skills have increased two folds. I have also recieved gift certificates and new online promotional and early releases and tools from google blogspot, twitter and bufferapps. Pretty neat stuff. Who knew?

Thank you ETMOOC, you brought me out of my online shell. I'm actually quite loud and extremely excited when discussing education and technology in person, yet I can honestly say, I have officially gone from lurker to contributor and producer, again, Many many thanks.I created a lenthy reflection of etmooc here for you reading pleasure.

For the many connections, well that just rocks, I feel like there are at least 8 - 10 people, I would not be afraid to ask for help or to maybe webcast with one of my classes. You know who you are, or do you? I wonder if the connections I feel, feel the same way?

Alec Couros, Thank you so so much for an amazing learning experience that was better than any course I have taken, sorry Jeff... It's just that I had and was allowed to learn at my own pace and while I put a lot of hours in, I had a blast commenting, creating, sharing.

Heck, I created or borrowed new content for three master's level courses. Please check out my new emerging technology class here. I would love suggestions, I think the flow could be fixed/changed. Content is mostly from #etmooc and the thousands of amazing links, resources and the general OER environment, My diigo to read list is full and may take the summer and I am grateful. In my time of not teaching in public school and feeling lost, I found #etmooc, or it found me. Thanks to all, Wish me luck as I continue my journey and attempt to move back into public education. I miss the middle schooler's, I miss the engagement and I miss the relationships. While higher ed rocks, the teacher in me, needs the crazy I guess.

Connected Technology Educator is Seeking Middle or High School Position in NH or MA. Huh, the first time I used my blog for self advertisement. I think.

More to come, I found that I get literally sad when I cannot be myself, connect, blog and tweet away .

Goodbye to Anonymous

Image from http://www.cpreview.org

In an attempt to be a more open contributor, I changed my settings in 2013 to allow for anonymous comments. My thoughts were that anyone should be able to contribute or share if they find value in what I write. I will tell you this was not without hesitation, I don’t think you should be anonymous in the 21st century. We are all about social media and many channels of communication and I believe each individual should represent themselves and get the credit they deserve besides self branding which is so important in this day and age.

Anonymous has always confused me. I am a part of great network of teachers, educators, media experts that I would continue to enjoy having contact with. Kind of hard to do if your anonymous.

Today, I have to say Good bye Anonymous, I will miss you. You have given me, 3 interesting reads and I wish I knew who you were. As for the rest, more than 20 comments from anonymous have invalid url’s or their website which is always in the comment is A search engine, an advertisement, a bunch of well, crap. There is no way I am going to allow myself or my readers to be subject to clicking on links that do not have anything to do with what I am discussing. These comments, I find have very litte merit and never really go into the topic I am discussing anyway.

In researching this thought futher, I found a great blog post today that is completely what I have been thinking lately. "Troll Reveal Thyself" by Farhard Manjo. If you are going to be online, anonymous no longer cuts it. If you look at youtube and other unmoderated sites you can see the bashing and the plain cruelness that anonymous posts allow.

I found this quote particularly relevant:

"Anonymity has long been hailed as one of the founding philosophies of the Internet, a critical bulwark protecting our privacy. But that view no longer holds. In all but the most extreme scenarios—everywhere outside of repressive governments—anonymity damages online communities. Letting people remain anonymous while engaging in fundamentally public behavior encourages them to behave badly. Indeed, we shouldn't stop at comments. Web sites should move toward requiring people to reveal their real names when engaging in all online behavior that's understood to be public—when you're posting a restaurant review or when you're voting up a story on Reddit, say. In almost all cases, the Web would be much better off if everyone told the world who they really are."