Overall, I feel like I’ve been improving with my blogging. A month remains and while I feel I’m improving, my realistic side tells me I need to learn much more by semester’s end in order to call this class a complete success.
I made the mistake of reading Brad’s evaluation of my blog so I feel I’ve poisoned the well of my self-evaluation. The Digiciv class is difficult in part because of its interdisciplinary studies and in part because the concepts are complex on their own. I have struggled with connecting historical content with computing concepts. Considering blogging content, lack of connecting posts to other posts and connecting historical and computing concepts in a post have been my chief failures. Right now, I’m averaging one blog per class period. I think that’s all right, but my goal is to double my blog posts in half the time that it took me to get where I am (a bit of Moore’s law, though it would be ridiculous to reproduce: writing 48 posts in two weeks and then 96 in one week). Hopefully, more frequent will lead to more connected and more varied.
I have made a maiming error in my approach to digital culture and computing concepts. Over the past month I’ve been spending my walks to campus reading Jeff Howe’s Crowdsourcing. While it was a great book and I did blog a little bit about it, I failed to post often on the ideas that it gave me by persuading myself that I would write a magnificent post once I finished. I finished sampling from each chapter tonight (look for that post in the coming week), and realized that I have been sidetracked by crowdsourcing and my self-directed learning narrowed.
I’ve also been trying to limit the time I spend blogging because I’ve felt the sprawl of internet learning. A fun youtube video then an interesting diigo bookmark. If I wasn’t swamped with homework and classes, I’d be swamped instead with diigo bookmarks and commenting on blogs. In the Consume, Create and Connect areas, I’m hit and miss.
Consume: I’ve been learning better focus techniques (timing my consumption, avoiding the internet, creating rewards for finishing in time) and it’s helped. However, I still spend too much time. I need more sampling practice.
Create: I’ve been getting more frequent with my blogs and I’ve tried to find videos and pictures to engage readers. I’ve found also that shorter is better (except this blog) for mine and other's time and for receiving comments. Make my point and let the uninterested move on. I still feel there’s something lacking.
Connect: Networked blogs opened my narrow mind. I connected my blog to facebook and over one day I got more pageviews then the entire month previously. So I decided a good way to connect is facebook. Anyone from the class that I knew by name and face, received a friend request. It’s nearly meaningless to some people, but to others it means a lot. I’ve also made an effort to comment on other blogs at least as much as I post. However, I’m still not feeling socially discovered. I need to read the Social Discovery blog that Prof. Burton wrote and revive my desire to attain social discovery.
***A note to those who aren't teachers of my digital civilizations class, I really appreciate feedback like brad's evaluation on his blog. If anything came to your mind while you read this post please make a comment. I appreciate your creative help.
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