After purchasing ebooks for the EDC course, I read my first paperback that was delivered this week and I LOVED it. I seem to be more engaged with the physical presence of a book and less distracted by online activity, I read the book in two days. The selection of literature not only furthered my knowledge of MOOCs but helped my critical thinking on my current MOOC and online learning in general.
I had originally signed up to a Leadership and Management MOOC but found the course forum empty with basic instructions on Blackboard. Due to time restrictions for our mini-ethnography I made a decision to enrol on to a new course where the community was more social on the discussion forums and the subject was of personal interest.
Today I took part in a Brain-Move workshop where we looked at the principles of evolutionary biology, developmental psychology, biomechanics and applied neurology to elicit safety through the subconscious mind and enable easy, fluid and pain free movement. I wanted to record parts of the workshop on my phone with voice notes but could only enter the space with my water, yoga mat and notepad. The lack of technology allowed full participation and interaction. As humans our only purpose is to survive and we have a survival mechanism thats embedded from the age of 0-6 years old. The environment during the early years creates a sub conscious reaction whenever we experience stress or pain, therefore, we do not choose our actions, our behaviour is how we have been conditioned to survive….what about the children that are conditioned by technology throughout their Early Years? When they are stressed or threatened will they resort to digital and online coping strategies?
It made me think back to Miller’s (2011) article about the thinking mind and that ‘humanness’ is not captured in the movement of the body but located in the brain through our cognitive thought process. The body/mind dualism is something that has come up a few times in my blog but today I am considering if one learns dance through theory based learning and the
transfer of knowledge using technology gaining only declarative knowledge , is it ok to not have grasped or experienced the movement for themselves? As I think back to the video I shared in Block 1 I find myself asking more questions wondering if we should be aiming for tacit knowledge. I then dwelled on Valverde & Cochrane’s (2014) article that discusses the rooting of humans in their article particularly when expanding our physical bodies virtually.
“The practice of this conscious attention and intention is directed to sensing one’s weight by becoming somatic/kinaesthetically aware, focusing on breathing to diminish external muscles tension of body parts, following the directions of flow, in order to sense our very weight relaxed and connected”.
References:
Miller, V. (2011) Chapter 9: The Body and Information Technology, in Understanding Digital Culture. London: Sage. (e-reserve, pdf)
Valverde & Cochrane, T. (2014). Innovative dance-technology educational practices within senses places. Priced Technology, 13, 122-129.
I bought the first batch of Digital Education books with my kindle app and the second batch were paperbacks. I have so much to read that I have considered various apps and methods to get through it all within certain timeframes and daily limitations. I have considered recording myself and listening to the voice notes whilst driving and zamzar helps transfer articles into audio files. My preference is having an actual book as I grew up next to a library and adore the smell of books. I enjoy holding them in my hand, scribbling notes and placing colour coded post-it notes that resemble a rainbow. Last night I fell asleep with my head in the book, unfortunately, I did not learn anything through osmosis.
I need to write notes when reading articles online. Next time I’m going to record my thoughts using my phone while I drive …can’t get used to Evernote…..🎤📱📓✏️ #mscedc http://ift.tt/2lrOpgi
Now, despite reading the papers and ebooks on my computer I can’t seem to process my thoughts in the same way as good old paper and pen. My thoughts are bouncing between this block (Community Cultures) and the last block (Cyber Cultures). I, therefore, need to map out my thinking to make sense of it all before I blog. I also feel that the action of writing out my thoughts helps my memory and hopefully my recollection.