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Day: January 22, 2017

Week 1 – Dusting off the cobwebs……

Week 1 – Dusting off the cobwebs……

 

During the seasonal break I had over indulged, I kept all course work on the shelf, and I even lost track of my fitness regime. After New Year, it was time to dust off those cobwebs. However, I decided to go for a run instead of prepare for the Education and Digital Cultures course; I began to procrastinate.

I’m a natural mover and I connect with the body as a living. I am fascinated by people; their actions both anatomically and their interactions with each other. The world of dance has progressed with the aid of technology. The students I teach are engrossed in a world where apps and an online community is available to them 24/7 with the additional extremity of the ‘smartphone.’ Rather than fight this evolving cyber culture I have enabled my teaching to embrace the latest technology and further engage my students.

I have always tried to keep my relationship with technology up to date and I take pride in my savvy approach socially and as a teacher. However, I feel that I did not prepare for a course that challenged me in a world that was unfamiliar and where I was the student. During my preparation and the first week of the course, I was out of my depth. I needed to research and digest before I began to post anything relevant.

I began looking through the online WordPress lessons, and I started to sweat. The idea of a lifestream blog on top of juggling my everyday life felt overwhelming! Can I do this? I began to fumble through my online WordPress canvas and grasp IFTTT via the already familiar apps; Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. My blog content was bland, and I felt basic tweets of 140 characters was all I could manage. As the week progressed and conversation evolved, I found a rhythm. I was a participant that would merely respond to my peers and rather than initiate the conversation by posting a blog entry or attaching a thought-provoking link; I eased into the first week through basic online interaction. I had become an observer. On reflection, I acknowledge that it is a course that I need to take a step at a time. I do not want to post merely for the sake of posting and as I gain further knowledge and understanding I hope to move on to the next virtual level. If I think back to my first run of the year, I thought that 5 miles was impossible and that I should settle for 3 miles. However, as I began to control my rhythm between strides each mile accomplished helped me move on to the next. I completed 5 miles at the end of that run. As the saying goes – I can not run 1,000 miles but I can run 1 mile 1,000 times. If I cover the course in incremental steps I am sure to fall in love with the online digital world of education.

References

Miller, V. (2011) Chapter 9: The Body and Information Technology, in Understanding Digital Culture. London:Sage.

 

@rennhann Thank You!! I spent so long trying to figure this out and it’s been resolved in 5 minutes 😝 #mscedc

@rennhann Thank You!! I spent so long trying to figure this out and it’s been resolved in 5 minutes 😝 #mscedc

from http://twitter.com/LinziMclagan
via IFTTT http://ift.tt/2j0xv2D http://twitter.com/LinziMclagan/status/823101764341821440

@rennhann I noticed your comments on blogs are linked with WordPress via IFTTT along with images of your Twitter posts? Any tips? ❤#mscedc

@rennhann I noticed your comments on blogs are linked with WordPress via IFTTT along with images of your Twitter posts? Any tips? ❤#mscedc

from http://twitter.com/LinziMclagan
via IFTTT http://ift.tt/2j0xv2D http://twitter.com/LinziMclagan/status/823095212021075968