a perspective about the desire to learn

A students perspective about a desire to learn something they don't know much about - a critique?

On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 4:47 PM, Felicity wrote:

I am often struck dumb by the fragmentation of communication that goes on in an Elluminate session..
I have come lately to teaching through this medium myself - its like a really really noisy classroom and hard for a girly swat (pre-interactivity I know I know) to establish emphasetic learnings. (learning based on emphases - my word!)
This made me think about me - as a student learner model (not a model learning student) - and my current freakish experience of teaching stuff through a medium I am so new in - I was thinking about how I asked you if I could go back to the Socially Constructed Media course without actually knowing if there is a timetable but trusting that I can fill out some of the (sensed) gaps in my tecknowledge - this trust is based on three assumptions.
1
That there is stuff to know and that will help
2
That whatever I practice will support knowing - its all going somewhere
3
That the order of its knowledge lodging is not so critical?..

Example - going to a dance show the other night and watching the choreographer struggle with a linear narrative - I was reviewing - see Theatreview - Finders Keepers

and as I was watching - re-placing sections in my mind to see if she - the choreographer would be more successful (clear) if she were to edit/ place the dance sections less in narrative order - so that the final piece/ dance became a whole but more through the attempts by the audience to make sense of it.. not the choreographer telling the story.

It seems odd but, for me when watching contemporary dance, often a more successful way of promoting the intricacies of a "story" - hmm filmwise like Sliding Doors with Gwyneth Paltrow..

so whilst chatting to David McQ afta - I thought up something... if Blogging weren't designed as a list - shopping list styles or worse even that what has been stated previously is lost because it has so easily been replaced by whatever else is next (shame on this post colonialist way of thinking) -

but instead was tiled as its interface or even thumb nailed on a page with a graphic "arrow " tool that could link (bit like a database keywords link - see Eric Educational) themes/ topics/ words to produce the next RSS - hmm my techno language is daunted again - imagine how steady the flow of ideas could become - learning to learner..
sort of like Delicious but forward facing (communicative) rather than accumulative..
Is there such a widget that would cope? gasp!!

- would we then be able to install a different face (not interface but a lisable face - say profile) of the learner?

and Response from leigh B - permission to use this feedback below ... and for efficiency sake I have inserted some responses/reactions in brackets - like a dialogue between words.. (FM... )

Indeed, blogging is as you suggest it should be. To you (FM...who? me - or the student that Leigh thinks I might be - the "unknower - the outsider even? or the cause of the session - i.e. the student who doesnt really exist - or the student who reports the process of learning - may be this can become the presentation assignment?),
LBcont. -it is linear. To your committed followers it is too. But to everyone else it is a patchwork or stumbled upon search result, emailed link recommending a post, or a stretch and a yawn followed by an "oh, why not. I have 5 minutes to read it". To most people, blogging is all interconnected and a "hypertext reality" - very non linear. I think I recall a dance performance in Melbourne back in 2001 inspired by hypertext. I'm sure it hasn't made its way to Dunedin yet - just as the Internet hasn't really either. (FM... aaaargh - how is it we have defaulted to your dance experience.. is this what I mean? Is it all I can mean?)

As for the difficulty to focus on such a session as this afternoon. I agree. I get that too.. its a different type of listening, requiring a pretty intense level of concentration. (FM - multitasking is not necessarily the best way of learning? see.. The multitasking generation and Attention literacy -What I found interesting is the way I somatically whirled out of the chaotic assemblage of multi techno learning tools and sorted a vortex - a calm place in the eye of the storm - to postion myself as a reflexive learner - i.e. what was I learning about this situation - therefore not soo much content driven knowledge accumulation - but questioning how do students (like me - distressed? ) learn?).

LB - Which is to say - its not for everyone. Part of that had a lot to do with the fact that we were trying to do a panel. Much the same as a radio panel. Which is inherently very non linear and difficult to do well. Even Radio NZ do it badly. Elluminate is much better used as a lecture delivery tool.. where you, Felicity can relax and watch passively (FM I actively resent this - I dont think I am passive by not being reliant on hyperactivity! - ouch Leigh! You dont know my history - just a virtual- ly empty space of your prejudgement!!)

The rest is back to Leigh...as you would in your average lecture. And perk up again when a prompt for "questions" was given. Personally, I think todays panel was not a great success. But it was worth a try.

Check the course blog for the recording, and see if that makes a difference. Have a listen while you cook a pasta in your PJs after a relaxing bath and wearing your fav slippers (or your equivalent depiction of a relaxed state). If you feel inclined, email one of the panel members (as you have me) and consider how very personal that is as a q and a session - that could go on for ever! Then compare that to attending a panel in a classroom at the Polytechnic, on a cold and windy day at around 4 in the afternoon, with 10 minutes left for questions. Precious are those classrooms. Over all, I'd prefer a panel discussion on a train ride up the gorge. We did that in 2006 with a packed carriage. It was a great success! Equal in distractions and requiring intense concentration some of the time.

LB - PS. Please add your notes to your blog. You're welcome to take anything I typed here btw.