Today I begin my journey as a master of education student. After a few years away from formal learning and much informal learning, I am starting another phase in my educational career. I have officially joined a cohort of learners from across Canada, with varying jobs and unique experiences. I hold the master of education distinction in high regard and as a masters student, I have high expectations for myself. My goals are to participate in some co-creation of new knowledge. I would love to create something publishable or presentable and I aim to adopt some new techniques and tools to help me be a leader in my current position at Holland College.
To prepare for this course, I studied and explored a learning theory that I had been introduced to last summer, during a CAE course. Communities of practice is a recent rethinking of social learning theory that allows me to consider a learning theory in close connection to the world I live in. I appreciate technology and I value the IT tools and techniques that help me do my job and live my life more efficiently and effectively. The communities of practice theory advocates co-creation of knowledge, sharing of resources and opportunities to connect and support learners with similar passions; technology makes all this possible. Throughout my research I heard about the synergy produced by the communities of practice. Interestingly enough, synergogy was mentioned during our databases search session. It was interesting to see how things were starting to become connected already. My aspiration is to participate in synergogy during my course experiences and gather some more synergogic tools for my conceptual toolbox.
As a former librarian, and really, a researcher for life, I appreciated the session about creating a conceptual framework for research. I am a visual learner and tend to create concept maps, symbolizations and visual cues as I participate in learning. After thinking about conceptual frameworks for research, I am going to continue to frame my research, but will do so in some new and different ways. However effective it may be, the “center bubble and surrounding bubbles” diagram may not always be the best design. I will begin to incorporate some hierarchy, arrows, flow and creativity into my conceptual models.
So my journey towards my master of education is off to a great start. I have outlined my expectations for myself and I think I have set some attainable goals. I am excited, not necessarily about the content of the program, but at the potential to create some new knowledge with a great group of peers and facilitators.
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