501 Introductory Blog Post

501 Introductory Blog Post

Hi folks! My name’s Rob, and I am CNRG (Synergy) radio. Since our course began I’ve been adding posts to my blog to share my interests with some of you who stumble here, those who follow my blog, and those of you who wonder, “what in the world could Rob be up to now?” Whether it’s hikes from Moscow to Kazahkstan/Prague/or Ulan Batur; extended weekends in Berlin or Hamburg; living in a tent in the park beside the North Atlantic for two years to avoid paying rent at the uni so he could fund trips to Russian and Italy; writing numerous books that presently lie in storage in a closet Kiev; reading poetry on the street to get loose change from passersby; screaming on his motorcycle from Detroit to Tallahassee for Saturday afternoon dinners; surf and scuba in Tofino; or just relaxing with his dog, as of 2010 Rob still lives, and this blog will be another way to know where he’s going next! I know I haven’t been totally consistent with keeping in contact with friends and family since beginning my master’s degree, and I hope to use this blog as a way of bringing as many of you together as possible, because you all mean very much to me. And, if I can get an interactive map to link here, I will import colorful lines with dates and places to highlight where we met, to let others know that Rob still has a pulse, and he is just waiting to convocate, and then his walking shoes come out of their two year hiatus in the garage. (*smile*) And, for the new friends I make ‘in-class’, I’m sure you will enjoy the journey we make together.

Reflections on the process of learning about the tool

Never having blog’d before, this past week has me pretty much hooked on sharing ideas related to the places I’ve been, the people I’ve met, and the things I’ve done.

After only a week this blog is quickly transforming into a puzzle that will be assembled by you and me, to represent how our interests connect to make our personalities shine together. This blog will always include materials for all three systems of thinking: visual, auditory and kinesthetic (*I will do my best for Kin learners—and GIFs are my first attempt at such*). I hope to update this parking lot each day with stories about my life and interests. So, if your senses aren’t stimulated today, drop by tomorrow and I’ll probably have something that brings a smile to your face. If you want to figure out which type of learner you are, check out this link: http://www.pesdirect.com/learning-styles.html (*all three tests are different, so try each one*) Viegas, Boyd, Nguyen, Potter and Donath (2004) found that “Some of the ways in which our users interacted with the visualizations are reminiscent of how people relate to photographs. People return to their photos to reflect on past experiences as well as to share aspects of their lives with others. Photographs themselves convey limited slices of the events they represent, but their presence allows the owner to convey as much or as little as they want in sharing the event represented. Although our stories are as deeply embedded in our email [sic, blogs] as they are in our photos, we rarely have access to any sort of “snapshot” of our email so as to have these deep reflections and storytelling opportunities. The higher-level view of our digital experiences is buried deep within the actual data. When users in our case studies began storytelling around the visualizations, we realized that these provided a missing link; they created a legible and accessible view for sharing and reflecting upon our digital experiences, without revealing too much.” (p. 258)

The most difficult tasks I found in creating my blog were in creating a name/title for my blog that would present a theme to catch the interest of followers/readers, and CNRG radio, as a music site, was a best first choice for me because I enjoy the beauty of sound. Next, finding time to update the blog daily has been a challenge, and I missed January 14, 2010, for Orthodox New Year because I was ushering in the year 7518, eating beshbarmak, manty, chebureki, and plov with tasty sides of adzhika and kabachok. After one week I can see that much like my classroom organization, I will arrange days of the week to follow themes from week-to-week, so I can present readers with consistent blogs that they will know attend to certain topics or modalities of presentation. Cousins (2007) talks about ““harnessing the collective intelligence” (p. 2) of everyone who uses a product, in the form of feedback, user reviews, and user-crafted social networks.” I think blogs can really work as tools to bring the expertise of several bloggers together to create a sphere of knowledge that provides an identity and support network for members of that community. As this semester progresses, I’m sure that each of the students in our class will identify with the blogs of certain students and form friendships based on similar interests and user profiles. Since I haven’t had any followers ask questions yet, I still haven’t been able to get discussion going through my blog, but I trust that will develop as we progress through our course. Just as Laura K. Brooks mentions in her article, "Old School" Meet School Library 2.0: Bump Your Media Program into an Innovative Model for Teaching and Learning, “A blog is very creator-centric; readers share comments, but the author controls and directs content.” (p. 15)

As I mentioned earlier, this blog gives us a chance to connect with our social networks, and I know mine has been neglected because of my full-time work/full-time study life during the past two years. As I think of ideas and topics of interest that others will enjoy related to travel, storytelling, socializing, and ‘just getting out there’, I want to use my voice to inspire others to enjoy the stories we’ve lived together, or apart—but still connected to one another. Chaney, 2005 noted, “…as more and more like minded individuals in a particular subculture or community maintain blogs and comment on and reference each other’s blogs, “virtual meeting spaces” are formed.” (p.236) Tagging my posts with keywords that summarize how the post is related to the nature of the blog is a challenge, and I will try not to repeat the same tags week after week.

Discussion of the tool in terms of my own personal learning

Setting up my blog has been a challenge, but like I said, I’m hooked, and in those hours when I SHOULD be sleeping, I’m thinking about how I can add a new link, or find a new icon to make the skin that covers my blog more comfortable to fit me.

It’s difficult to choose which other blogs to follow, and to limit the interests I stay updated with. Although this IS an academic endeavor, I also realize there are numerous readings we will do, and educational/organizational/vocational blogs we will follow, so I will try to get my ideas across with as little text as possible, which will also challenge ME to dive into the web2.0 CyberPool of ‘life’, and find treasures that await me, so I can bring them back to the surface to share them with you. I’m positive that after a day of reading, it will also be refreshing to hear Rob’s stories through picture, song, video, animation, and every media we have available to us. Approaching storytelling through blog, “the constructive quality of the blog (discourse) leaves the story open for future negotiation and re-iteration. Personal narratives remain open to new possibilities, reiterations, even moments of transformation that might lend texture or help to re-narrate previous history. As noted, good autobiographies often note moments of transformation; blogging offers a plurality of “moments” in nonlinear fashion, for re-negotiation.” (Blevins, 2007, p. 258)

I am thoroughly enjoying the pressure of finding ideas to present to others that make my world a more enjoyable place to lounge; I hope I can do the same for you.

Discussion of the tool in terms of teaching and learning

I am a kindergarten teacher, and I have very little contact with humans over the age of 6 on an average day. My students can’t open twinkies, juice boxes, or ziplocked sandwich bags themselves, so at work I rarely get a chance to leave my classroom. Being online and having discussion with adults is cool, and it allows me to share a side of myself that is difficult to integrate into my professional life. In my classroom, our students, by January, are able to activate our SMARTboard, click through a PowerPoint presentation, watch a video clip, and play online mathematics learning games, but bringing the life of a blog to their developing minds appears to be a formidable challenge. Our school division encourages teachers not to post ideas to social networking sites during school hours, nor with students’ ideas in the event that posting an event violates FOIP. Still, when we can find a radio station online that hasn’t been blocked by the school division we listen to some music during in-class gym times, or for class parties involving musical chairs. I have already found several of the threads in our class discussion to be valuable in helping me to reflect on how my students can take ownership of technology in the classroom in ways I never thought possible – thank you (cf. Web 2.0 Projects, Freedman, 2008).

Three years ago, one of my kindergarten students made a computer similar to the one in the video linked below, and it is encouraging to know that systems thinking and social networking is intuitive for the next generation.



I am very excited to see how much learning takes place through our 501 class from here on in.

Cheers, rob



References

Blevins, D. (2007). Story telling or storied telling? Media’s pedagogical ability to shapen narrative as a form of “knowing”. Religious Education, 102(3), 250-263.

Brooks, L. (2008). "Old School" Meet school library 2.0: Bump your media program into an innovative model for teaching and learning. Library Media Connection (April/May), 14-16.

Chaney, K. (2005) Blogs-learning a new arts medium: So far neither rare nor exactly well done. Teaching Artist Journal, 3(4), 233-240.

Cousins, D. (2007) Exploring School Library 2.0 Tools in an Elementary Setting. Diss. University of Alberta, 2007. Edmonton: Dept. of Elementary Education, 2007. Print.

Freedman, T. (2008) Web 2.0 projects. Terry Freedman Ltd.: Great Britain.

Viegas, F., Boyd, D., Nguyen, D., Potter J., and Donath, J. Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences – 2004. Cambridge: IEEE, 2004. Print.