Thing #3 A place to tell of thoughts you think

Welcome to the third addition of my nooblog,

Last time I talked a lot about myself.  This time I will try to keep the post focused on the topic at hand: technology in the classroom, more specifically blogs.  First, an observation that will lead to my first point.  The more I write here the more I begin to feel at ease putting my thoughts in a public place.  I am usually a very private person, not one to try and get attention focused on myself.  I will happily work behind the scenes if only the task is accomplished in the best way possible.   Writing a blog could be a way for a student who has an attitude similar to mine to get their thoughts out there for the class to see in a way that feels safe for them.  These class blogs would certainly need to be moderated; trolls have no boundaries and there is one lurking in all of us.  The same psychology that allows people to become merciless and opinionated on the internet could allow a shy person to open up and share their thoughts.  The internet creates a "barrier" between yourself and the people with whom you communicate.  You might say something in a chat room or on your blog you might never say in person while seemingly "protected" by a pseudonym and whacky profile picture; one can become a completely different person through the magic of the internet.

That's me in the in the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft.  Those of you who know me in the real world know that I am not nearly that intimidating.  World of Warcraft was really my first experience with Web 2.0.  I have spent literally months of real world time doing things in things in the world of Azeroth, the game's primary setting.  I made friends I have never seen in person, but I collaborated with them on many an epic quest and daring dungeon crawl.  The point here is that on the internet you can become whoever you choose to be; just pick a race and a class and start killing boars in the forest, so to speak. 

Back to task, a blog could be used in conjuntion with a reearch project.  Each student could be assigned a topic within each unit and tasked with finding out more about it and writing a blog post with their findings.  This could save classtime for more instruction by moving a time consuming presentation day to homework and lessening the stress on those shy students I mentioned earlier. 

In future education courses I may begin a blog for the course whether I am required to or not and share the URL with the class so I can share any useful tips or resources I may find.  Though with that I would do well to review the school's policy on academic dishonesty.  Even though I would do this with the best of intentions one cannot rule out the skullduggery of a few dishonest souls.  Depending on how it played out the backlash on me could be severe.

Bis nachste Zeit

Thing #2 Got GIFs?

Hey it's been too long!

I just loaded my doppelme avatar onto my blog.  He looks pretty much like me in every way... except that this is me outside of school.  When I'm not studying I like to hit the road on my Harley and see the sights.  Where I am now you have to drive a little while to get out of the cityscape and into the countryside.  I'll only say this once... riding a Harley in a crowded city is no fun.  Having to stop umpteen times on a hot summer day with a hot engine a few inches from your person is unpleasant to put it mildly.  So when I'm not in the classroom or slaying dragons in Skyrim I like to hop on the hog and take a nice long ride around the countryside.  I don't see many animals when I'm riding though... wonder why that is.

When naming my blog I could not decide whether to go for something funny or for something serious.  So, I compromised. It's not really funny and only slightly serious, but it does declare what the aim of the blog is; to collect  useful thoughts from myself and others.  The order of the words is a play on the Cyrillic initials for the former Soviet Union: CCCP.  To be clear, I am not a communist just a history buff with a flair for languages and trivia.  When setting up the blog I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was part of my Google suite so I could use my Gmail and other tools in conjunction and can be quickly accessed from my Google homepage.  I already have far too many bookmarks and one more might have sent me over the edge.  The creation process was not hard, but I progressed carefully as I do in most new things. 

See you all shortly...

Thing #1 Lifelong Learning

Hello Internet! I'll risk a little vulnerability here by saying this is my first blog.  Before this I had a rather negative opinion of blogging and most internet culture in general.  As a longtime gamer I have seen some of the worst things the internet has to offer. But, with this project I hope to change my view of the blogosphere and make my internet experience more complete. 

The first topic in this project covers lifelong learning.  It includes a list of "7 1/2" habits of lifelong learners and asks us to select two of them: the one tha is the hardest and the one that is the easist for you to do.  The one that is easist for me is "Begin with the end in mind."  I have always been able to visualize my goals for a class or learning activity be it a blacksmithing class or music appreciation.  I know what I want from a learning experience before I partake in it.  The hardest one for me is "Accept responsibility for my own learning."  As much a s I know what I want from something I sometimes fall victim to the instant gratification impulse that so plagues my generation.  This is often a problem for me in my field of history; especially when trying to research a very specific topic independently.  When I go to a class I walk in sit down and my brain says "OK, lay it on me."  Then I go home with my books or research project and my brain says "Wellll, I already spent two hours in class today with this.  How much more do I really need? I'll do it later. Oh look! Skyrim!"  It has put me in a tight spot more than once now and is something I struggle with in a very real sense.  Somehow I trick myself into thinking that I can just hit the books really hard for a few days learn it all, but that is not how I learn.  I have to cultivate my knowledge over a considerable period of time for it to stick in my head.  The reality has started to set in with these past few classes though. So the next attempt should be tempered by experience, right? Fifty times bitten twice shy?

Well that is all the time I have for today.  I'll see you next time here on Constructive Cognition Collection Project with some updates on constructing this blog.

This is aegiron2473 signing off...