So!
Today was my first self-agreed ‘slot’ for trying to make
progress with my BAPP Module One and I had absolutely no idea where to start-
and in a way I still don’t. So in this instance I turned to my Module handbook…
Do I now know what I’m supposed to be doing? No
Well yes and No.
I’m actually going to start this section by referring to
pages 43-45 of the handbook, -The Theoretical Concept-Learning Cycles- and say
that I don’t think I always ‘enter the learning cycle’ at the same point but I
often enter through
*ACTIVE EXPERIMENTATION*- a process of “trial and error”. I
came to this conclusion based on my approach to the Module Handbook. Now last
week I had a brief look through this handbook in what might be considered a ‘logical
format’ starting at the beginning and working through. (Perhaps I didn’t equip
myself with the best mindset before starting as I had already done a lot of the
week one associated activities prior and my brain was already in overload) So
no surprise, I got a fair way in and gave up. I couldn’t do any more! The
biggest disappointment in this is I still didn’t feel I had any idea of what I was
supposed to do. I like answers…. This course is not about answers!
Today in my search for answers I started at what I felt
might be the fastest point to getting an answer, the ‘Getting Started on the
ACI3611 Module One’ Section, I mean surely If there were to be instructions on
what to do they would be there, right? Well actually I lied, this is where I
intended to start but in actual fact I got distracted whilst turning to that page
and actually ended up flicking my way backwards through the handbook as things
jumped out at me. This also meant I got hugely distracted as I went… Just a
side note, I wouldn’t recommend reading in my seemingly random order as you
just realise that you’ve missed things and then inevitably get side-tracked! On
the other hand, I know I’ve ticked a lot off today. I requested two of the
books on the reading list get sent out to me, I opened and installed a RefWorks
account, I’ve caught up on lots of Blogs and eventually I progressed with the
Handbook!
I had so much to say about what I had eventually read today,
Lens 1 and 2 but throughout the process of writing this far too lengthy blog I
seemed to have forgotten so much of it so I will turn to picking out the main
topics that stood out to me:
1.’Not seeing a community as a group of people who all agree
with each other’- Particularly applicable to these series of blogs. I didn’t
understand how I was meant to comment on other peoples blogs when we all pretty
much stated the same things about our initial Skype Experience (a community
agreeing with each other) , but now having read only a few of the
conceptualised ideas within the handbook, and realising how much I don’t know,
I can see the real benefit of engaging in conversation with others to further
expand the level of understanding of concepts and to provoke each other into considering
things from different perspectives.
2. The Mark Zuckerburg concept that he thinks ‘connectivity
is a basic human right’– (the implications are that he is referring to web
connectivity) this concept is one I definitely wish to return too as there are
so many ethical considerations and I definitely think the Web literate culture
have and continue to shape the ‘culture’ and progression of the Web which
further excludes those who currently have no access to this ‘basic human right’.
3.MOOC’s- Now I haven’t fully looked into this but this
looks like a really great resource both in general life but also in aiding this
course. I signed up to audit a “Leaders of Learning” course as I think a huge
part of this course is understanding the concept of learning…. Again this is definitely
another example of the earlier mentioned ‘active experimental’ starting point
in the learning cycle as realistically I have very little idea of what I’ve
signed up to!
4. David Kolb’s Cycle of learning- I’d never considered
learning to be a cycle but when you consider it, it seems obvious that it must
be as you ‘never stop learning’… or do you- Alzheimer’s and regressive disease?
– but then to consider where you yourself naturally start that cycle is really
interesting. Although this course is obviously not related to Alzheimer’s/other
such illness or research I really wonder if they have considered this ‘learning
cycle’ in their research towards it and if there’s a way to apply it to the
development of such disease, or even if it holds some kind of answer to/in
preventing the regression.
So I’m going to conclude with the concept that I treat my
brain a bit like a Web browser, I open endless numbers of Tabs, in a whole
range of topics…and then leave those tabs running until I eventually get time
to go back and devote some time to fully understanding them!
It’s a bit of a jumbled mess, much like this blog, my
approach thus far to the Module, and probably a few blogs to come!
But ‘Understanding what you don’t know is important because
it is the first stage of learning’…
And on that note if anyone wants to explain the actual process
of ‘Citing a theory/page’ to me it would be very much appreciated as I’m sure I
should have Cited much of this blog…..
Thanks,
Lorien
