I absolutely LOVE David White’s short, concise and informative videos about “Visitors” and “Residents” within a “Personal” and “Institutional” context. It all made perfect sense and for the first time, I feel I can finally verbalise my virtual activities in non-linear and more quantifiable terms.
It was also very exciting to know that looking up information on wikipedia is akin to participating in “black market” learning activities. How liberating to be doing something that is collaborative, real-time and quite frowned upon by staid institutions.
However, participating in David White’s webinar last week raised a lot of questions in my head, and re-watching the video again did very little to lower my anxiety level about the question: how do I apply “it” to my everyday work situation? Fortunately, his personal blog (www.daveowhite.com) provided a great deal of solid, practical techniques and solutions.
My key learning points this week:
1. Magical Discussion Table
You enter a virtual classroom and you are lost. Where is everyone sitting. Does everyone know who there are sitting next to. Who is absent? Who left? A sense of desperate and quiet disorientation starts to crawl in.
The solution is very simple. Ask everyone in the zoom session to write their names down around an imaginary table and situate ourselves within the same space. I must confess that after reading about this technique, I felt all the tensions on my shoulders melt away. Finally, this is one simple technique I can use to visualise everyone in the virtual classroom, and orientate everyone to the same page!
2. The School Is Not Shut!
It is true that the learning sessions have moved exclusively online for me, and for alot of my colleagues and students, but the School is not out of business and we are still doing work in our respective homes. The usual camaraderie and exchange of ideas that flows around fluidly in meetings formal and informal may not be in place, but the school is NOT shut….. we just moved it to a place call “virtually anywhere”.
3. Know Thyself
I confess: I am drowning in the sea of virtual communities and space… twitter and facebook and miro board and padlets and ONL community and personal blog and more fellow learners’ blogs.
Blah. I don’t need so many outlets to express myself. I just need ONE.
The “resident” and “visitor” concept gave me great comfort knowing where I am in the virtual world and the “Quadrant of Literacy” allowed me to clearly visualise my knowledge and comfort level, and a way to encourage myself to either enhance my skill sets to become more comfortable “residing” in the virtual space or stay put and do nothing (and not feel guilty!!) because I am merely “visiting”. Being able to visualise and verbalise my thoughts and feelings is just absolutely liberating.
4. Get Help, AI is telling you so
Ever feel tongue-tied and not know what to say at the moment when you want to say it? Or just feel something but don’t quite have the ability to put together insightful coherent sentences?
Well, the algorithm that are used at Facebook and Twitter to analyse your thoughts and virtual habits may just be your saving grace. When you suddenly start to get alot more advertisement about mental health and wellness. It might be time to sit up and take note. Your choice of words and the semantics of your written content is a reflection of how you are feeling and the AI is picking it up, and telling you… get help. Or go to these following places…. ads …. ads …. ads…. to get help.
5. Anxious? Look at anything related to nature.
The science is rock solid and the application is simple. When you are feeling anxious or upset or frustrated or angry or violent or stressed or desperate or lonely or depressed or lethargic: look at images of nature. Your stress level will go down and your ability to concentrate will go up.
So, just put up a nice picture of nature on your computer screen where you can see easily and quickly and let that be your safe space when you need to just get away from it all.
Want to learn more? Here are the research papers and resources that contributed to my reflections this week:
