Chapter 4: The Connected Educator

        In Chapter 4 of The Connected Educator, authors Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Lani Ritter Hall explore how building a collaborative culture and a mindset supports connected learning. They start off by acknowledging that collaboration is sometimes a difficult concept in traditional environments. However, in creating connected learning, Nussbaum-Beach and Hall say that the focus is on culture and the importance of shared ideals. Culture is based on values, norms, and beliefs. They argue that changing these may be necessary in order to support connected learning. Shared values, shared vision, shared belief for learning, and a collaborative environment encourage a culture for collaboration, where learning can thrive. Personally, any time I've had to collaborate with a group on a project or assignment, I tend to grasp more of un understanding and perform better in class. The same goes in the workforce. In my future profession as an accountant, I will most likely collaborate with colleagues and my firm to ultimately thrive. 

        The chapter emphasizes the importance of putting relationships first. Collaboration grows from relationships where group development flourishes. Relationships are so important for exploring shared ideas. Nussbaum-Beach and Hall state that fostering, nurturing, and maintaining positive, collegial relationships is the first step toward building collaborative cultures. What does it mean to be in a collegial relationship? Collegiality is a shared belief that none of us is as good or smart as all of us. This can be applied to simple everyday life. In school, it is usually easier to solve problems with everybody thinking about it. All accountants who work at a firm work as a team. Without teamwork and thinking together sometimes, the firm may not be as efficient. Establishing trust is another key component of putting relationships first. Trust is a necessity and a precursor to the need of knowledge sharing to solve problems and achieve shared goals. It has the power to bond members of a community together. Accountants needs to have trust in each other to be conducting/ using accurate data. Being transparent is a key for building trust, and that's pretty obvious. Trust online can be based on how much a person shares, as well as the information that they share. Accountants need to have credibility because clients and their firm rely on them to produce accurate data. 

        Next, chapter 4 emphasizes the importance of putting people's needs at the forefront. We need to put people and their feelings first, which will show compassion and build relationships. This is important for any community, wether it's in a school or in the workforce. 

        Finally, the chapter ends by suggesting that to thrive in today's world, we need to help others feel comfortable collaborating with people from different cultures and negotiating cultural differences. However, before we can do this for others, we have to be able to do it ourselves.