Reflections on My CLMOOC experience

Being a part of the Connected Learning Massive Open Online Collaborative, CLMOOC, has been refreshing this hot, steamy summer. Most of the National Writing Collaborative has found me travelling into the Southern region of Ameica and in and out of family homes and summertime festivities.  Thus, my mooc writing and sharing time has been limited, but I have tried my best to connect and share! I am extremely grateful to the administrators of this project. You made my first mooc most enjoyable! Thanks for making every participant feel so welcome.

My learning curve went  way off the top in only my first two weeks of the project  as I explored and enjoyed vizify, vine, google maps, mapmyfitness, google plus, about.me, twitter, and began to learn what is a MOOC and how it works.

My CLMOOC pathway lead me to  mixing and remixing  fitness, literacy, and making connection with others voicing a similar interest. I learned from one of the Administrators of the project, Terry Elliot, about a good book, Spark, discussing the value of exercise on brain growth.  Reading the book has challenged  me to push harder in my own personal workouts.

Blogging about my #clfit goals of fitness allowed me to cross paths with a  fitness expert on my Tumblr microblog. What a delight as she keeps me inspired to keep working at getting fit.. 

As I move beyond the completion of this project,  my credo sums it up, I will continue to combine: learning, exercising , and sharing. (vizify) There is power in getting fit with the encouragement and help of others. Everyone benefits as we get fit together. 

Framed learning activities of making and remaking, inventing and building upon the work of others, and sharing equally in this process is a positive, forward approach to learning. These activities open wondeful opportunities for teaching organizational skills and sequencing.

What's your story? How can you tell your story? How can you connect with others and outreach? Share your adventures.  Brevity sells...6 word stories, 6 sequence pics, and 6 second videos. It is fun to share stories that leave people hanging and figuring the conclusions on their own.

 I will continue to pursue better approaches to fitness and learn to annotate better and faster  with google maps, my next step in learning -- perhaps another Mooc!

A Credo to Live By

 My Credo

Love to learn; learn to live; and live to love.

Questions:

How can we be lifelong learners?

How can we live healthier lives?

How can we care about others,

encourage other to be learners

and to live healthier?

Got my gear; gettin' ready; go!

Get proper equipment; get ready; go!
Originally uploaded by vanhookc

CLMOOC Week Cycle Three

Learning Principles 

Isn't that what any type of learning involves? Get the tools -- get prepared -- go learn! Today, we have the ability with the Internet to learn and do, share, connect and inspire others!

That's my hopes with this Creative Learning project. I have learned so much about biking! I have pushed my limits to build endurance and strength. I am finding others with a similar interest locally and I am having a great time sharing and connecting with others around the world about this project.

Along a bike path, running trail, walking area, just wonder what type of natural and historical landmarks, museums, ecosystems, educational opportunities, and points of interest exist? During this project, I hope to explore this question and keep doing so after the CLMOOC is completed. There are many ways to find answers and share with others. An answer to one question opens opportunities to further activity and learning! As I began mini-blogging my hopes for better fitness in Tumblr, a fitness expert favorited my blog. Now, I look forward to reading and learning daily from this resource, regarding diet, exercise, and life style. You see,  learning is always on a curve uphill!

For sure I will keep pushing the limits of fitness on the bike and hope to see some progress in strength and endurance. Maybe even, the pounds will drop. In my neighborhood and local area, as I bike, I look for aspects of the area to learn about. Talking with others, libraries, museums, etc. offer those opportunities to learn. Photography, blogging, marking Google Maps, and conversations with others allows the opportunity to connect and share fun learning. This is, likewise, a great thing to do on vacations!

This collaboration, Making Learning Connected (#clmooc),  is based on learning principles that believe learning activities should be interest-powered, peer-supported, and academically oriented. Join me in this fitness effort in your area or on your next vacation! Do you find getting fit interest-powered? I hope so! Seek encouragement from others! Getting outdoors for some refreshing exercise will open up a world of opportunity to learn even more. What's the history of this area?What can you learn about the ecosystems of this area? How can you share your learning with others? How might you be able to connect with others in your area or globally to improve community living. You will see learning is an uphill journey!

See you along the way!

Google Map - a Route I Hope to Master (on the bike!) -Wk 1 of #clmooc Intro

View Larger Map This past week, I joined a MOOC to keep me learning this summer! I am combining fitness, online learning, and connection! #clmooc #clfit

And so, I managed to build an introductory page at Vizify. On my intro, I have added a Vizcard with my #clfit plan of action! I had planned to use Animoto for my Connected Learning "make" introduction; however, I learned that this free site adds less than it once did. I have an inactive subscription there, and so I decided to explore Vizify as many others in this collaborative were bragging about it!

I used Flickr to give an introductory set of pictures to the fitness trail that intrigues me most, at the moment. Enjoy the look!

I am using Google Blogspot and Tumblr to journal my summer story and MOOC learning! I learned the importance of tagging and naming the RSS feed. I am thankful for this project showing me the importance of tagging within blogs!

I am using Twitter (@vanhookc) and Google Plus to connect and share with others in this learning community!

I, also, learned how to set up a column in TweetDeck to keep up with #clmooc posting!

I have learned a lot this week! And so, now, I need to think about hitting the real-time trail!