It’s been a long, strange trip through Digital Civilization.
This class was like no other class I have had before. As promised, it delivered
experimental teaching methods, unprecedented levels of student-directed
learning, and interesting methods of collaboration. I have thought more about
the merits of educational styles than I ever thought I might. The class was
certainly successful on this count; the discussions within class really got me
thinking on my own time and of my own accord about the subject matter.
As others have done before me, I’ll go ahead and point out
what is really the main purpose of this post: how I fulfilled the learning outcomes
of the class.
History
I’m not sure I would claim that I learned about many new
historical time periods or events in this class. Almost everything we discussed
from history was something about which I had learned in the past. However, I nevertheless
believe that I succeeded in learning a great deal in terms of connections
between events that I would not have seen before. I have become more proficient
in recognizing the relevance and connection between events from history and
events today. The following blog posts reflect this ability to connect and
observe themes (an ability that I may or may not have already had, but never
really used).
Glasnost: Unpredictable Openness
If Everybody Blogs, Who Will Read?
Core Concepts
Information, Openness, Participation, and Control: the grand
quartet. Let me summarize what I learned and currently think about these
concepts. First, each is indeed a correct label for major elements of our
digital society, the discussion of which delivers valid and important
conclusions. Second, upon receiving such clear labels, a Digital Civilization
class will immediately attempt to categorize everything as pertinent to one or
another of them. In other words, the terms became cliché, buzzwords and
platitudes and filler to replace more meaningful definitions and discussion.
Why? Because it is easier; perhaps we as students in the class are a little too
lazy in that respect and we assume that the core concepts are automatically
understood in a manner sufficient to preclude the necessity of further
explanation. Third, the concepts are not nearly so clear cut as to justify such
usage. The core concepts are not a clear-cut partitioning of all of digital
discussion; they neither cover everything, nor are they disjoint. Crowdsourcing
is not only participation or only openness; it is both. It also involves
control and information. In short, I feel that such a division of concepts is
confusing; I say this not necessarily because the concepts are inaccurate or false,
but because students like me naturally expect more separation between distinct
categories.
Nevertheless, I have learned at least enough about these
concepts to be able to develop the preceding conclusion. To further demonstrate
my development of knowledge in connection with the core concepts, take a look
at the following blog posts.
Huey Lewis, Look No Further
Three Reasons Why I Stayed off the Anti-SOPA Bandwagon.Chopsticks on a Grand Piano
Technology: Paths of Least ResistanceNothing for Money
Three Reasons Why I Stayed off the Anti-SOPA Bandwagon.Chopsticks on a Grand Piano
Technology: Paths of Least ResistanceNothing for Money
Openness: Introduction
Digital Literacy
Consume: I think that the grand irony of my time spent in this
course is that I expected to develop a more critical view of digital sources
and information media. However, my naturally cynical mindset was more opened
than closed through the course and I am now more willing to use nontraditional
sources and means for information. That is not to say that I do not attempt to
effectively filter information. In fact, you might say that before my filter
was so strict that I missed out on potential opportunities for learning.
Nevertheless, I remain for the most part a skeptic. If I seek information
through online sources, I tend to err on the side of disbelief rather than the
side of acceptance of false or severely biased information. I believe that this
was reflected heavily in my information group’s presentation on responsible use
of digital resources in gathering information.
Create: Without a doubt the most treasured outcome of this
course to me was the initiation of this blog; I love to create and develop
ideas. Certainly the class was helpful in encouraging me to try new things and
take a more ambitious approach in doing so. As we discussed in the openness
portion of the final event, I am now aware that our society now values
collaboration very highly in the production of many works, but we have also
seen significant failings in collaboration (e.g. fifty students cannot write an
ebook in a month much better than nine women can conceive and give birth to a
baby in a month). I think that, in relation to our discussions of intellectual
property, collaboration, and openness, the key to overall innovation and
creativity is to be willing to let go just a little bit to that rabid sense of
propriety that we have.
Connect: I’m an attention junkie, so convincing me to share
my work is not a difficult task. However, I have benefited from this course in
understanding the more important reasons for connecting and sharing. Simply
put, it is as I explained under “create”. Collaboration helps us to create.
What I share may encourage someone to spread my or another idea or to develop
it. It is unfortunate that the best example that comes to mind now is the meme,
but in those it is clear that connecting allows an idea to spread and change
almost on its own.
Self-Directed Learning
In my experience self-directed learning is a two-edged
sword. I won’t tout its benefits, not because I don’t think they exist but
because they have been amply discussed in class. I’ll simply say that to me the
main reason one would encourage self-directed learning is because the student becomes
invested in the learning process and the problem of desire and motivation
solves itself. However, I have seen both second- and first-hand examples of the
shortcomings of asking a student to self-direct. First, a student may self-direct
to a topic of marginal importance. Second, and indeed more importantly,
self-directed learning requires advance interest in something related to the
course. Such interest is bound to exist in most students, but stress and
excessive workload from other classes and from life in general tend to suppress
that interest. I have often thought about the various pursuits of learning and
information I would like to make in a self-directed way, only to lament “If
only I had time for that!” Asking a student to learn in a self-directed fashion
becomes a request to the student to go do just enough to satisfy an otherwise
guilty conscience until the next required session of learning. The quality of
information obtained may be minimal. Perhaps this is an artifact of the student’s
dependence upon old learning styles, but it remains a real issue for me.
Nevertheless this class provided at least one tool to encourage
me to ensure quality in my self-directed learning; that tool was the blog.
Practically all of my blog posts reflect my self-directed efforts in learning,
and I researched most of these extensively simply to ensure that I would
produce a quality post. Hence you may see the quality of my self-direction by
browsing my blog.
Collaboration
I’ve already discussed collaboration somewhat, but this
could use some more attention. The learning outcome for the course says, “Students
learn to work collaboratively to identify and complete projects that are
meaningful to themselves and others.” I would say that I did get experience in
working collaboratively. However, despite the purportedly democratic nature of
the class, I never felt that the projects were meaningful or important to me. Thus
I did not necessarily accomplish this learning outcome exactly as it is
described, but this was not due to a failing of mine but due to the fact that
the class simply thrust the projects upon me. I worked with what I got and I
believe that I still delivered quality material despite a lack of personal
interest.
In summary, Digital Civilization was an interesting
experience and I do believe that the novel methods used in teaching the class
were effective. However, I would use caution in saying that the whole “take
back your education” self-directed learning concept is any better than other
methods. I have had classes across a spectrum of student involvement and
participation and from all of these I have learned and felt both challenged and
enlightened. Maybe it’s just the nature of a physics/math major to be given
problems more relevant to the advanced work of the field on a regular basis,
but I seldom feel that the work I do in my classes is artificial or otherwise
not beneficial in some way.
Ironically, despite the constant encouragement we receive to
seek education for more than just a grade, I never got too far beyond that
grade-seeking mindset in this class. I was aware that my thoughts were in
opposition to the class goals, but I was never convinced that I stood to gain
anything by trying harder than that. The one notable exception was when I was
blogging. My work on my blog was and is my own and I am very proud of most of
it.
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