Thank you

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This is it! Tonight is my last official post for EME6414, Summer 2023. What to write about? If you had asked me a few hours earlier, my honest answer would have been "no idea". It's not I don't have anything on my mind (I may have too much actually), but I was not sure how to approach this last post. So, I've decided I'll do just as usual and draw a few personal reflections. To help me tackle this last challenge, I went back to Canvas and get an overview of our Modules Main Page. Gosh, what a journey it has been! The first image that comes to my mind is the iceberg metaphor. You know, this impression that for years, you had been exploring the World Wide Web with confidence, as if you were in your own neighborhood, with your own habits, hanging out with the same people, getting what you were looking for, not less, not more. And one day, you realize that you were just scratching the surface and that a whole world was lying underneath, inviting you to a whole new...
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Bridging attempt (Friday's reflections)

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This week focused on seemingly two very different aspects of social media-based learning: (1) digital citizenship and (2) assessment & evaluation. Because I have an unfortunate tendency to draw connections between various parts of my everyday life, I tackled the two topics as if there were just one single list of readings.

As a result, I organized my thoughts as shown in the graphics below. Here are my current main reflections:

- Effective social media-based learning experiences (SMBLE) require interactions or at least learning from others. Hence, individuals willing to learn in Web 2.0 environments are encouraged to "engage actively, positively, and responsibly in online and offline communities" (see the resource from the Council of Europe). These conditions turn online learners into digital citizens whose open-mindedness allows them to engage in self-directed learning, peer interaction, and reflexivity.

- By guiding learners to being proficient digital citizens, instructors, designers, and facilitators can develop successful SMLE through the use of activities such as blogs or forums participation. 

- As a result, learners will engage in solitary or interactive activities that focus on curating and sharing resources while connecting to new people and developing professional networks.

- Assessing SMLE is necessary to evaluate the development of competencies in students and the overall efficiency of the instructional strategy. To do so, evaluation should target both the product and the process of learning. On one hand, learners can be evaluated by the quality of their productions (blog posts, group projects, portfolios); on the other hand, assessing students' reflexivity level as a process-based approach seems a relevant strategy and can be achieved through questionnaires, surveys and by assessing the level of reflexivity expressed in various posts over time.

In summary, I realize how teaching and guiding online users to being accomplished digital citizens is crucial to ensure the effectiveness of learning on Web 2.0. In addition, the 20 values, attitudes, skills, and knowledge pointed out by the Council of Europe to ensure a democratic culture could serve as useful indicators to assess the development of competencies like self-directed learning, critical thinking, or peer learning over time.




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