I want to take a moment to try and step back a bit from the Cognition, Learning, and the Internet experience and openly reflect on what I’ve noticed, how I feel, etc.. I do so in the hopes that it might generate a bit of reflection and conversation among us about what is actually going on – peeling back a meta-layer per say. (Sorry LDRSers… no direct connection to our class this time… but you are still welcome to read)
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I find myself equally distracted and intrigued by the Twitter back-channel. I like the conversation, the links, the ability to have a side-conversation in a way that doesn’t distract the whole class. However, when I engage, or search for a link, or re-read a blog to link a name and a face and an opinion… I suddenly am jolted back to the in-person conversation in a way I sometimes find disconcerting. Kind of like awakening your consciousness to an exit off the interstate that you’ve been waiting for but not remembering what happened for the last XX miles. I’m not sure if, for me, it is the best tool for “augmenting” my ability to engage and learn in class. However, I am also not the best at rapid-task-switching…
Despite an intense reliance on technology, I’ve come to the realization that I currently am not an active and efficient consumer of information on the internet. I don’t crawl blogs (checking VTCLIS12 or LDRS1016Spring2012 is something I have to think to do much less read or subscribe to others), and I don’t actively remember to bookmark on Delicious. Actually, I don’t really bookmark anything at all other then my credit card/banking homepages to login and my gmail… Yet, Facebook and/or Twitter are part of a reflex on my smartphone while passing time, so somehow I consume that much more than I do the things I actually find more intriguing such as blogs, the news, etc.
Have you noticed how Dr. C always makes an effort to reference someone’s blog each class session? It makes me feel our time spent blogging is valuable beyond just checking a box. Like he wants to weave our “online” thoughts into the active classroom conversation too. Pretty cool.
I find myself wishing that there was a better mechanism for a comment conversation. I read your post, I like it, I comment, you get the comment pushed to you, you respond, and I… well… forget to check back manually. Or, I write, you post, I approve from my phone while walking somewhere and… well… sorry about that. Why is this is case? If you made some insightful intriguing comment in person, surely I would respond! How can we push this a step further? OR, is this where Twitter could come in naturally? Anyone else have this issue or have any ideas?
I genuinely missed class on Thursday – missed spending the time together on Englebart or Twitter or… I’m not just saying this in an attempt to even out my Tuesday bad karma (#scoredpoorlyonApgar #readingvideofail). To be honest, I usually find the timing in my day for class incredibly inconvenient since it falls right in my mid-morning time at work – a time in the day where I usually get good solid work done at my desk before lunch and then afternoons full of meetings. Tuesdays and Thursdays leading up to 930 and as I race to commitments at 11, I find that my brain has trouble shifting gears – I am scattered, flustered, and behind. However, when we didn’t gather together on Thursday, I realized how much I value the many threads from class that run through my head for the rest of the week. I’m seeing and reading things in a bit of a different way thanks to you all. There was a news thing on “weblining” that I paid more attention to then I usually would, and when I heard about an upcoming CBS Sunday Morning show cover story on social media, my ears perked up.
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Sorry for the stream of consciousness/jumbled blog. But, I wanted to start reflecting a bit and this is some of what is running through my head when I take a step back from the experience so far. What are you seeing and noticing? Are you thinking, feeling, or acting any differently?
I found this post very intriguing. As far as the “discussions” through commenting, I 100% agree with you! I find myself commenting to insert my opinion, but never really getting response back or I see a comment on my own blog and, like you, I simply accept, read it, and say aww gee thanks! This is why I like the Twitter in class. Having side conversations and sharing references really quick makes the class discussion have much more substance. I find it very rewarding to be able to listen and be respectful to my professor while learnign even more with the other students in our class. However, I must admit that your feelings of getting “jolted” back in to the conversation after trying to pay attention to Twitter are definitely felt here as well. I am that girl who sits in the 2nd row and hates anyone who sits in the front row, right in front of me, and gets on facebook or twitter and talks to people. I feel so disrespectful if I sit that close and don’t pay attention. But, now I feel as if Twitter is distracting me from looking at the professor, causing some anxiety because I don’t know which one to pay attention to more! I want my classmates to feel I am participative, but I also want to be engaged in the class discussion. Therefore, I am planning on tweeting more outside of class. I hope that others will too, but I think that if I tweet outside of class, I will feel less pressured to get 15 tweets in during class. Although as I am writing this I realize that that most likely won’t happen. I love tweeting with yal back and forth during class! ahhh..what to do. I guess I’ll just have to continue dividing my attention. It’s been working sufficiently so far, though sometimes jolting, I’m sure I can manage the rest of the semester. What do you think about outside of class tweeting? Any predictions of if it will catch on or not?
Jordon – I think it might… but it will take time! I think sometimes with technology we expect everything to go 100 miles an hour. However, we are still building relationships and becoming comfortable with discussions – a process that takes time and work in the the virtual environment just as in the “real” (whatever that means) world. my two cents at least…
I just stumbled upon this blog and subsequent conversation. I was searching ‘meta layers’. A thought had popped into my head and decided to follow it.
Carry on.