Inte 5340 Weekly Reflection

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Multimodality in Today’s Hyperconnected World.

My Week #2 Reflection

For most Americans living in today’s digital age, information and consumer goods come to us with relative ease.  With just a click of a button or a swipe of a bank card we consume and then go back for second and third helpings for things we likely don’t truly need but want in the hope of feeling more satisfied and complete.

And what about those of us who use social media to nourish our souls for social connections?  Are we so plugged into today’s hyperconnected world that it’s impossible for us to be truly present with those that mean the most to us?

What are the side effects of living our day-to-day lives in a highly immersive “on demand” hyperconnected kind of world?  And what are the consequences of just saying no to hyperconnection and embracing life off the grid?

These are the thoughts that consumed my mind earlier last week and then it occurred to me that I needed to just chillax!  Stop thinking about everything else that's needs to be done and focus on each task at hand, which at that time was finding a place to plug in my laptop so that I could finish watching the Unboxing Stories lesson by Dr. Michael Wesch.

And here I was sitting in a library box learning that society spends too much time quickly moving from box to box.  The irony.

The intention of travelling this summer is so that our family can connect and yet here I am out of town just as plugged into the grid as I am back at home.  What would the consequences be this week if I chose to spend more quality time outside of the box with my kids?  Well right now, the consequence is that I'm submitting this weekly reflection one day late, but I had a wonderful weekend truly connecting with those that mean the most to me.

I must confess, I think I've bitten off more than I can chew but I'm NOT going to raise the white flag and bow out of Inte 5340 this summer.  When I start to feel overwhelmed this week, and I know it's going to happen because we're now in San Diego staying in a rental house for the week that doesn't have a TV, I'm going to just stop, take a deep breath and focus on the task at hand without wasting mental energy worrying about all the other things that need to get done.  Depending on the time of day, I'm going to pour myself a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and remind myself the I need to get out of living in a box and spend more time off the grid with my children.

Ok, back to my reflection of last week.  After sending the following tweet earlier last week, I wrapped things up at the library because I knew my daughter needed my full attention and so we headed to the park to play, swing and connect.  I pushed her on the swing and we sang silly songs at the top of our lungs in the car.  I didn't touch or look at any screen for the rest of the day and that night I slept like a baby.

The next day as we drove back home for 3 days before packing things up to head for San Diego, I felt more calm and in touch with my creative mind.  The mantra for the summer is "think outside of the box" and so I took the opportunity to do something different for a Daily Challenge to make map art by going old school and folding a map into an origami fortune teller.

While I'm not a big fan of social media, I now understand the value of using tools like Twitter for this course as I've been inspired by the creativity this week from my fellow classmates.  Their tweets are giving me a push I need to challenge myself to experiment with the digital content that I'd like to create for this course.  Here are some of my favorite tweets from last week:

As for a challenging myself as it comes to creating digital content, I decided to go 100% visual last week and create my first infographic on the differences between Piaget Constructivism and Papert’s Constructionism.  From a design perspective, it was quite a stretch for me because of my limited graphics experience.  I spent a lot of time spinning my wheels trying to figure out how to use an app to create my infographic, but I’m pleased with the final result:

As to the question raised of which of learning theory best fits the pedagogy of this course, while I believe Piaget’s constructivism, Papert’s constructionism and Siemens’ connectivism all have value, if I was forced to pick just one, I would argue that the learning principles of connectivism adds the greatest value to learning in today’s hyperconnected digital age.  It’s a flexible approach to learning that combines the core elements of the learning theories of constructionism (project based learning where the student is in the pilot seat) with the core elements of connectivism (active learning where the teacher is in the pilot seat) while taking into account the role and value of 21st century technology.  It's a multifaceted and exciting way to learn because it's challenges one to explore, think and create.

I’d like to think that connectivism can be compared to listening to live improvisational jazz played by skilled musicians.  They start off in synch with each other but then take turns improvising to create and express new meaning to the song.  The improvisational mindset requires the musicians to just leap in and go for it and wow the crowd while feeding their creative soul.  And if the listener has a grasp on basic music theory, they understand that the music is worth listening to because even if it's messy at times it's still authentic.  The spontaneous creative passion oozing out of one musician who then passes that energy to another musician sharing the stage, that type of creative change is already happening here in Inte 5340 via Twitter.  How cool is that, right?

While I might still be feeling a little overwhelmed managing coursework deadlines (the kids right now are bugging me to get off the computer and take them to the beach) I'm also equally inspired to continue challenging myself using an improvisational mindset when it comes to not only creating digital content for this course but just as a way of living life.

The exchange of creativity so far in Inte 5340, it's been an amazing ride so far and I'm looking forward to hearing the voices of some of my classmates who will be participating in an upcoming class podcast.

I've come to realize that the exchange of knowledge in today's hyperconnected world, it can be a beautiful thing if you just stop, chillax and listen to what's being said.

And right now, the task at hand for me is to wrap up this weekly reflection, don't worry about the dishes and laundry that have already started piling up in this beach rental and just get outside and build sand castles with my kids.