Finding their own voices ...

Our first-year learning circle has explored all manner of things digital during our discussions and presentations this term, including interactive media, censorship and the Net, being a digital citizen, community and identity in a digital world, and video games and narrative.

I think each of us has a better sense of who we all are, certainly my colleagues in this learning community have more insight into who I am as a teacher, as a learner, as a thinker, as a digital immigrant in the midst of digital natives, and as a human being.

But the greatest accomplishment of this course, in my view, will not be found as a targeted learning outcome on the course outline. Rather, this achievement comes from within every member of our learning circle.

Each student has found his or her own unique voice in the Academy and has begun to exercise that voice.

For some, this has been a relatively easy step. They have made themselves heard since the first class. For others, it has been a more complex process, taking weeks of quiet observation and interior reflection before summoning the nerve to speak. But each and every member of our circle (or rectangle, as we were corrected recently) has found a piece of his or her unique voice that has contributed at least once to our discussions.

In our last meeting, I told them that I spar with them verbally before each class as a way of telling them, "I see you, as an individual and as a person. You and your ideas are important to me. I hear and welcome your voice."

I am very proud of this little community.

Facing the last class is going to be tough.