meta frog

Reflecting on thinking about learning

Stuck in a loop

So, I'm trying to upload my 3x5 images for the Purpos/ed April campaign and I 've found myself getting a bit stuck in a loop.

Two loops to be precise.

The first loop is a creativity loop. I had chosen a quote that I found particularly entertaining: “The internet provides us with rich and free spaces for expansive learning.” from The Practice of Freedom by Graham Attwell. It instantly made me think of some images that I would like to take myself. That is, with my own camera, instead of searching the Creative Commons like Purpos/ed suggest. Now of course, I'm no photographer, so actually taking the images I could see in my head has proved somewhat tricky - and I don't have quite what I was searching for. This has meant that I've gone back to the images a few times and tried to take more. Then I've returned to the first images I took and tried to edit those. Then I've become dissatisfied with all of them and tried to take even more. I've got stuck. In a loop.

So I'm breaking out of it today and these are my two best images (yes, I know). I'll have to choose one of them for tomorrow, which is the day my image 'goes live'.

The second loop is a technical one to do with Creative Commons. The instructions on Purpos/ed say that I should give the image a CC by license. But they're my own images, and I've never licensed them before. If only I'd just searched the Creative Commons instead of trying to be so damn creative. So I've gone back to my images and looked at them. Then I've gone to the Creative Commons site and tried to work out what's going on. Then I've gone to my Flickr site and had a look at that. But I've done nothing. I've been stuck. In a loop.

So here's me breaking out of the loop. This e-mail will send my images to Posterous. Posterous will send my images to Flickr. Then I should be able to work out how to assign a creative commons thing to them. Shouldn't I?

I hope so.

At least I'm not stuck any more.

(download)

Top 5 criteria for making a top 10 list

I've noticed that a lot of bloggers and web 2.0 gurus like making top 10 lists for different things. I can't get 'High Fidelity' by Nick Hornby out of my head when I see a top 10 list. Admittedly, in High Fidelity, Rob Fleming, the main character makes only top 5 lists - you've got to do twice the thinking for a top 10 list - but I'm about to challenge myself to do it. Yes, unheard of before, I'm going to make a list of my top 10 educational games. OK, so maybe lots of people have done that, but I might as well throw my money in the top 10 games hat. Anyway, here are my top 5 criteria for making my top 10 list.

  1. Make sure you have some experience of items on your list. People can find stuff out from Wikipedia, so don't just be academically right. You've got have lived it...
  2. Try to put your list in some kind of order. It may only be a list, but it can still have a narrative. I love it when I get to about item 6 and the tension is broken with some witty humour or self-deprecating reflection. Or when point 3 comes along and you can't help nodding sagely at the thoughtful insight.
  3. Remember that nobody really bothers much with the middle of the list. So you don't need to write much for that point.
  4. Make sure you have some experience of items on your list. It sounds obvious, but you wouldn't guess the amount of people who just look things up on Wikipedia and then pretend they know all about it.
  5. Don't repeat yourself. You may think you're making a point, but you could have just made a shorter list.
I hope everyone finds that helpful.

Vagueness, Titles and an Inability to get to the Point.

Please take this post in the manner it was written - with a generous pinch of sugar and probably a substantial spoonful of sugar too.

Have you noticed the recent trend for titles of blog posts. There seem to be a plethora of posts written with this three subject pattern: "Blah blah, Blah blah and Blah-bla-blah Blah"

On my reader at the moment there's three such articles I'm yet to read:

At least 3 or 4 more have passed me by on Tweetdeck today.

And then to my shock I notice one on my own blog:
And I suppose that's kind of what blogging is. It's exploring ideas, linking them, reflecting on what you do using the written word to do so. So there's probably a natural inability to get to the point (and if you've ever read many of my posts you'll definitely agree). That's because bloggers are explorers, not journalists. We connect things, we don't define them.

But I still think there's a call on me as an educator to use words precisely. While I jokingly reflect on blog titles, I rail against the inaccurate use of words in pairs. You hear them all the time in schools - 'leadership and management'; 'monitoring and evaluation'. I always check myself when I hear myself say such things because I know that when I do I'm being vague.

Why use two words when you could use one?

Maybe sometimes we're just filling up the space.

Oh dear, is this what I've just done. Being 'meta' or navel-gazing. It's the same difference.

Scattered and Superficial Thinker

A few days ago I finally turned to some academic work that I had been putting off for a while. I turned off all my distractions - Tweetdeck, Googlemail, my phone, the tv. Then I sat in a quiet room and did the work using only a PDF of the arthcle I was studying and notepad on my laptop.

I had spent the week leading up to that being in charge of childcare, but nevertheless had grabbed a few minutes here and there to get some work done - planning, preparation, admin and the like. I had also held some really interesting conversations on Twitter, read some interesting blogs and responded to the odd e-mail. You may be wondering exactly how I care for my children, but it's amazing what you can fo with CBeebies on in the room...

Somehow I'd never felt able to focus on the academic stuff with the kids about, and when I came to the study itself, I had also felt the necessity of turning off the online distractions.

I hadn't thought conciously about that decision until today when I read a really good article in the Telegraph called 'How the Internet is making us stupid' by Nicholas Carr.

He has pulled together various bits of research that show how all the distractions we engage reduce the depth at which we think. We are becoming shallow thinkers.

He writes things like: 'people who juggle many tasks are often less creative and less productive than those who do one thing at a time.'

And: 'People who read text studded with links, the studies show, comprehend less than those who read words printed on pages.'

He also quotes developmental psychologist, Patricia Greenfeld who says that while 'every medium develops some cognitive skills at the expense of others' there are 'new weaknesses in higher-order cognitive processes.'

And Roman philosopher Seneca who said: 'To be everywhere is to be nowhere.'

He goes on to quote neuroscientist Michael Merzenich who said that as our brains adapt to this shallow way of thinking, 'the long term effect on the quality of our intellectual lives could be deadly.'

Now I'm not to sure about that. I think we need to be able adapt to different ways of thinking for different purposes, which is what I found the other evening when I successfully engaged in some study. But I do agree with him when he says that 'skimming is becoming our dominant mode of thought'. I've been guilty of spending too long in skimming mode recently and that whole way of thinking has stopped me from even being ready to attempt any academic study.

My conclusion

I must be determined not to let 'skimming' be my default mode and schedule myself time to engage in different types of thinking.

Do you agree with Carr's article? Have you read any research that indicates the positive impacts on thinking of using social media?

Using words for the first time

I used the phrase 'paradigm shift' in my post 'The lie of the leadership pyramid.' It was the first time I had ever used the phrase in writing and I caught myself wondering if I really knew what it meant. I used it to mean a complete 180 change of perspective. I think that's right but as I right this I'm off the grid in North Devon and have no way to check.

I think this happens quite often. I'm pretty sure that I understand something and so I go ahead and talk about it as if I'm 100% sure. As a teacher you get used to speaking with authority about stuff. It's an authority I can get used to, rely upon or even become downright lazy with. But when it is challenged, I find myself in an interesting predicament. How do you explain what you're not quite sure about?

Worse if no-one challenges you and you continue making the mistake that you first made.

It reminds me of the story of 'hirsute' man - which I'm not sure is urban myth or fact.

Apparently there was this bloke who used the word 'hirsute' to mean 'therefore'. He would say things like "Hirsute, we can solve the problem by..." and "I am becoming rather thirsty, hirsute I will need another cup of coffee."

Unfortunately 'hirsute' doesn't mean 'therefore'.

'Hirsute' means 'hairy'.

When, he found this out, the man who was in his 40s was so mortified by his years of erroneous word-use he promptly killed himself.

A tragic tale, but one with a salient point for those of us who are prone to a high degree of barely accurate verbosity.

Off the Grid

I've been writing many posts recently 'off the grid'. Disconnected from both wifi and mobile signal at Lee Abbey in Devon. Apparently, if I walked to the top of the hill I could pick up a faint signal, but it would be a lot of effort for not much gain.* There seem to be both advantages and disadvantages to this. 

Advantages 

There is a certain clarity of thought gained through being here. And I think that is partly down to cutting down distractions - such as not being able to access e-mail, Twitter, text and the like. Since becoming a GCT, my e-mails have rocketed and even though many of them aren't relevant to me, it still takes a certain amount of effort to process the information. 

Another reason for the clarity of thought is the place itself. It is beautiful. The curves of the tree lines on the hills, the slope down to the bay and the arc of the bay itself. I'm sure there's something on Maslow's heirarchy about that. 

Disadvantages 

I am used to checking things that I'm not too sure of, and my favourite method is Google. For example, when I referred to Maslow's Heirarchy in the previous paragraph, I would have liked to check that my guess was correct and maybe provide some helpful image to explain what I meant. But Maslow's Heirarchy is one of those things that I'm not completely sure about. 

Another downside is being disconnected from my PLN. My PLN, particularly on Twitter, has become increasingly inspiring over recent months - not because of any radical changes to personnel, but more because I've become a better listener. Posts and tweets from my PLN have inspired me to think new thoughts and write new stuff. Probably 75% of what I blog about is inspired directly by other people's posts. 

Impact 

How will I post this post? It's written now. Will I hit the e-mail button so if gets posted as soon as I get back in range? Or will I wait until I get home, check out the Maslow's heirarchy thing, add a few appropriate images of the bay I talked about? What's more important to me, the process or the product? How many times should I re-draft a blog post? 

*that's a joke for electrical engineers.