I have a lot on my plate these days. I’m editing one of my novels. I just finished the Beginner level of the online drawing program I’ve been working through for the past couple of months. I’ve finally decided to put myself through an intensive study of knowledge management and information architecture.
I’m also trying to move back to the original Rebecca Thomas Designs website.
The original site was structured to meet the needs of the person I was when I started blogging. Each of my interests had their own blog, blocked off by Multiply. The design was clean, simple, able to be appropriate, regardless of which blog you were looking at.
The problem came when my focus changed, and the multiple blogs no longer reflected the person I realized was hiding in here. The person I am is a blend of teacher, content creator, and leader/coach; and now I want my blog to reflect that.
It would seem like some of the old blogs could just be re-purposed to fit this new me…but I want something more complicated. I want all of my blog entries to show up in the main blog, but leave people the option to see only the topics they want within these three major spheres of my life (preferably without the pain that comes with managing a blog broken apart by Multiply).
A couple of weeks ago, I started playing with FriendFeed and Yahoo Pipes to create a pair of all-in-one stops for Dead Bunny. Using tags and categories in his blog, Delicious, goodreads, Twitter and YouTube, I’ve pulled together an easy-to-use lifestream. It was fairly simple to put together, and running Yahoo Pipes through Feedburner has already allowed people to take advantage of subscribing to Dead Bunny’s content and getting it emailed to them. My next step is to figure out how to pull it into my original blog, and then to create a specific corner for him on the original website.
I’m already looking at creating a Yahoo Pipe for my design content. It’s really forcing me to think about how I use websites and tags to present and organize my work.
Even more importantly, I’m also starting to look at this as a means to pull together some sort of portfolio. I may have to build a few to reflect my work in different contexts, but I’m definitely looking forward to it.
In short, tags and categories can be used through FriendFeed and Yahoo Pipes (or other lifestreaming/mash-up tools) to create focused streams of your content. You can also use Yahoo Pipes to pull together information on topics that you’re researching.
Posted by Rebecca as Personal development, content development at 10:08 AM EDT
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I’m now taking (It’s probably more fair to call what I’m doing “auditing”, as I’m trying to squeeze in what I can of the required readings and activities around my already bursting schedule.) a connectivism course led by George Siemens and Stephen Downes that’s really looking more to explore in real time connectivism in an asynchronous setting.
Naturally, one of the early questions popping up is the difference between connectivism and constructivism. I’m taking this class because my periodic research on connectivism has often left me wondering the same thing. I’ve seen connectivism as connecting prior learning to what I’m now learning. Sort of a “How does this fit with what I already know” approach. Going through this week’s readings, I’m finding that my interpretation may really be too shallow.
Of course, I’m learning I may also be incorrect in my interpretation of constructivism. Constructivism was one of the educational theories presented to us my first semester in my teacher prep program. We were all encouraged to figure out which theory (or blend of theories) best fit how we learned and how we taught. Amazingly, I felt drawn to constructivism. It just seemed to fit with my emerging career in museum education and how I worked with students and developing programs.
Even this morning, as I sit here working on the next set of Dead Bunny videos, I’m really looking to build on what a student already knows to help them understand that video’s skill.
ack to the point, connectivism isn’t about making connections within the student to help them learn. It’s about creating connections outside the student, to create feedback loops that help cement the idea for the student. I wonder, though, if that really does create the right atmosphere for skill and concept mastery. It will be interesting to read and watch.
Posted by Rebecca as lifelong learning at 9:30 AM EDT
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My computer’s power supply was fried by a freak power surge a few months ago. I got it back not too long ago, and have been shifting everything from the computer I was borrowing back to the external drive so I can access it with my own computer.
This morning, I plugged the drive back into my computer, and discovered my computer can’t even see the drive. It gave me an error message telling me how to mount it to my computer, but that didn’t work. So, I”m sitting here with a drive full of data I can’t access. I’m still working on fixing it, but it’s led to a small problem. Today, I was planning on cleaning up my resumes and sending one out. But guess where my resumes are?
Really, I should feel very frustrated right now. I’m having to take what’s on my LinkedIn profile and reshape it into a pair of resumes that define my career. But I’m not frustrated at all. This is a chance to “start fresh” to an extent. It’s a chance to think about what’s been really important in my career, what’s really stuck with me, and then revise my resume to reflect that.
This is a blessing when you really think about it. How often are you forced into thinking about what’s really mattered to you during your career?
Posted by Rebecca as Personal development at 12:08 PM EDT
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