plns and ples, please

On the whole, I see my personal learning environment as a way to organize and strengthen my work assignments, learning objectives and social needs. Using a structured system can help me to take control of the process - by helping me to manage the content, set goals, and communicate with my peers and experts in the fields that interest me most. And I’ve learned quite a bit about the areas in my work and education that are lacking (maybe too much?), especially regarding my concept of social media.

A few months ago I was fairly dismissive of sites like Facebook and Twitter – but lately I’ve had to reassess my prejudice. Obviously, the sheer volume of information coming in doesn’t equate to value, nor is the sentiment often revealed on social networks necessarily shallow. When I look thoughtfully, or purposefully, I can see that these new tools can enhance my education as a student, and my career as a graphic artist.

I was struck by this quote recently, while searching about professional learning networks, regarding in the social nature of learning: “Learning becomes as much social as cognitive, as much concrete as abstract, and becomes intertwined with judgment and exploration.” I need to retrace my steps and find the source of that quote! By itself, technology isn’t going to dictate our success – but maybe it’s through our engagement of the social context (needs? aspirations?) into these technologies that does.

My head argues that all this information can only help; that using these new connections of information will impact my work, and my education, in a positive way. But I’m starting to feel like I’m losing my sense of self? Ironically, the more I use the aggregator tools to read and learn, the less connected I’m starting to feel. I get so excited about learning something new, but it fades quickly as I’m rushing off to the next task. Maybe it’s the frustration of trying to learn something new so quickly, without allowing myself the time to absorb it. Maybe I just need more chocolate.

A non-teacher trying to think like one...

Since most of my classmates (which is an odd term, as all our classes are online; classdigimates, maybe?) are educators, I often am stymied by my place in this setting. It's difficult to move past the theory of education, or my understanding of teaching - which are based largely on my experiences as a student in neolithic times. I was a child of the 70s, and survived typing term papers on an IBM Selectric. (Oh, the horror - life before digital cutting and pasting...oh the lost hours spent with typewriter ribbon and whiteout...)

But the goal of being literate in this present - and future - era of technology must clearly involve skills like reading, writing and arithmetic. The concept of 21st century literacy may be far more comprehensive, and potentially more richer, than those learned back in the day. But some questions occur to me, such as what do students need to know, when knowledge is just a mouse click or two away? And how we really discern between good and bad knowledge, when so much content is user-generated? What does this mean for the value of the information?

Motivated by Ken Robinson's concerns about creativity, and its absence in the classroom, I've been doing more reading on the subject. I highly recommend reading "Out of Our Minds." Just started "The Element" last night. I'm very very grateful that I went to school at a time when funding for the arts was encouraged. I came across this video the other day, an interview of Howard Gardner, a little intro into his theory of multiple intelligences, which complements Robinson's creativity premise of learning.

wireless future of medicine

This is a fascinating TED talk. As a diabetic, I'd like to know how accurate these technologies are (will be?). Also didn't know that the stethoscope was invented in 1816. I'd say we're do for an upgrade.