Learning about blogging really changed my perspective on blogging

As I started this blog, I had no idea what I was going to write about! I knew that anything was acceptable this week, but I was not sure what to make of that. I then browsed through the material provided by Dr. Nelson and am now feeling so inspired! I have never been a fan of blogging. After being required to blog for a class last semester, I became even LESS of a blogging fan! I initially felt a little better about this semester since there are due dates (LOL, maybe I hated it so much last semester because I put most of it off until the last minute) and I will now be able to complete the assignments in a structured, timely format.

For this post, I’ve decided to share what I connected with the most and what I took away from this week’s content.

“The best (and most successful) academics  are the ones who are so caught up in the importance of their work, so caught up with their simple passion for a subject, that they publicise it with every breadth. Twitter and blogs, and embarrassingly enthusiastic drunken conversations at parties, are not add-ons to academic research, but a simple reflection of the passion that underpins it.” This was almost spiritual for me. As I said earlier, I’ve never been a fan of blogging. When I consider it from this perspective, it really alters my mentality. Seth Godin and Tom Peters said it best when they described blogging as a form of “micro publishing.” It is “forcing yourself to become part of the conversation” about your research or anything that you are passionate about. Tom Peters said it is the “best damn marketing tool by an order of magnitude that I’ve ever had, and it’s free!” I am personally at the point where school work and research is no longer just a separate component of my day-to-day life – it has become the main component now. I am lucky enough that my research is truly a passion and I feel compelled to share the things I learn with the world! I am pretty proud of that, although I feel that others have probably already reached this mentality at earlier stages in their careers.

I had many favorite takeaways from the baby george TED talk, so I’ve pasted them below –

we think learning is just dumping a bunch of information on people to store in their heads- this is actually a very narrow view of what learning really is.

In college, many students want to just “get by,” but by doing this, it’s like they are just sneaking by their whole college education.

Vaccination theory: once you have had a course, you have learned the material associated with that subject; therefore, you won’t have to “suffer through” another round of the same course.

Learning is a fundamental human trait. It has somehow been misdefined by the concept of school.

Real learning is not about memorizing the answers to a class. real learning is about the questions that you take out of a class. the questions that inspire you and take you all over the world. questions can open up new connections for you, they can force you to take chances and do things you thought you might never do. 

asking questions, making connections, and taking chances took us down from the trees and took us to the moon. 

three deep questions are really driving students: who am I? what am I gonna do? am I gonna make it?

learning is a lot more than what can be scored. we have to keep loving ourselves, even as we fall, and one of these days, we will make it!!

Needless to say, baby George’s dad really inspired me.

I am looking forward to this semester!