Last week I felt completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information I was trying to digest via the Bb Discussion, Electronic Journals, linked pages, and readings. Oh, and I was still unpacking and setting up the house!
The boxes are now unpacked and the house is mostly set up - enough so, that I do not feel compelled to spend a lot of time each day working on that. But that does not fully account for my improved state of mind this week! So what else is at play? And how (and what) have I managed to learn during week 2?
Time as a resource
First and foremost, I am reminded of a friend who once said, "You can't be the best at everything." The context in which that statement was made does not matter, but the core truth is relevant to this situation as well: I can balance being a good father, a good husband, a good classmate, and a good student with the time available in each day. What I cannot do is be excellent at all. So, I have dialed back my quantity of participation this week and striven for a moderated approach that is more focused on quality. My family is also very understanding, and knows that they are always first in my life!
In my reflections on time and time management, I thought of a statement that I unfortunately cannot attribute: "You can always make more things, but you can never make more time; time is a finite resource." This paraphrased quote came to mind while reading Cindy's blog on Second Life. If a tool is that difficult to learn and use, then how valuable will it be to the learner? In my own case, I have passed on the opportunity to learn about Second Life for now (although it sounds interesting from what Bryan described). Perhaps by then, the tool will become easier as promised.
Other tools we have looked at this week showed more promise both in the application to the learning environment and in the amount of time necessary to get up and running. Twitter, Flickr, Diigo, and YouTube are all simple to setup and begin using. For the instructor, these tools are also relatively easy to setup for a learning topic. For remote learners, I see YouTube as a reasonable substitute for a live instructor. I could see a scenario where a live YouTube feed with a Twitter return channel (monitored by an assistant) could be a simple and cost-effective alternative to some other remote video learning solutions. A combination of Flickr, Diigo, and YouTube would be especially beneficial for reading and interacting between class sessions. The ability to embed photos from Flickr and videos from YouTube make creating a wiki or a Site (a la Google) easy for most people with basic computer and internet skills.
Time-wasters
This past week I also found myself frustrated at some of the time-wasters of the web in general and with some Web 2.0 technologies in particular. Amanda's blog, "You go back Jack do it again…" caused me to write a rather long response discussing a few questions that I had. When I pressed submit I got an error because I forgot to enter the captcha code - more on that in a minute. So I hit the back button only to find my entire post was lost. If Web2.0 is so happening and now, the cutting edge of technology and society, shouldn't this problem be solved by now? And speaking of things that don't make sense: If I am a logged in user, why would I be required to enter a captcha code? Now I am not a registered EduBlog user, so the need to enter a captcha code makes sense to comment on her blog makes sense. Blogger does not require a captcha when logged in, but other sites do. I never noticed this until now!
Produsage
My final observations include some comments about Gina's blog entries and comment chains on Bruns' book. I agree with her in many ways on this book. His style of writing is very wordy and convoluted - I understand big words, but prefer a writer who gets to his or her point. In that vein, I've never understood the need to write "utilize" when "use" almost always does the job just as well. I'm still sticking with the book, although I am doubtful it will take 400 pages to convey the meaningful points! As I read and skim, I keep finding my inner dialog repeating, "okay, I get it - let's move on."
Activity log
I am taking Vanessa's advice on summarizing my activities this past week. I've tried to spread my activity around: making blog entries, commenting of others' blogs, participating in Bb discussions, contributing to the wiki space. So, rather than list them in detail here I am trusting that my presence and contributions have been noted! A more detailed list is available if needed...
