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Mar
4
The danger of “experts”
Filed Under lifelong learning | View Comments
For the record, I am not a social media guru. I am a social media user. I like to play around with a site and figure out what it can do and how to do it. If it’s something I think I would use, I start using it. If someone else asks me about it, I’ll tell them what I think about it and how I use it. If someone asks how to do something on the site, I’ll walk them through it.
Most of the social media sites are, to me, tools, means to an end. I check them out. I learn how to use them. I help others. It’s what I do.
But I read blogs maintained by self-proclaimed social media gurus. At first, I was just looking to see if there was anything cool I hadn’t figured out on the sites I use. Now…the few I follow I follow more for sport.
Following a social media guru is a lot like subscribing to a fashion magazine. You read this week’s posts, and the current trend is displaying your newsletter subscriber counts along with your site subscriber counts. You read next week’s posts, and that subscriber count trend is suddenly total bunk, and really you should be feeding all your sites into a sidebar so visitors to your site can get a complete picture of who you are. Two weeks from now, that will be the most misguided strategy in the history of misguided strategies, and now you should be featuring a random monkey picture above the fold (and conveniently, the guru’s dear friend has just the plug-in to help you accomplish that).
I think I’ll stick to “citrus is the new black”, thanks. That’s at least likely to stick around for a few months.
It does highlight a problem, though. If you’re new to social media and social networking sites, then you should probably follow one or two of these “gurus” if for no other reason than to learn how to work the sites you’re using. They’re actually great for that. But once you’ve got the hang of things, you are following the guru at your own peril. In trying to stay on top of their trends, you find yourself caught in a whirlwind of changes that may or may not make any sense to you. You’re doing it because they’re the “expert”.
Instead of blindly following, look at their “trend” (which is really more of a fad) and decide for yourself whether or not you agree. Decide for yourself whether or not you really need to spend a weekend trying to make your site the new black. Pick your own advice the way you pick your own clothes. Your life will be simpler, and you will have a better understanding of who you are and why you’re doing things.
Mar
2
Train at Your Level
Filed Under lifelong learning, writing | View Comments
I’ve been writing my entire life. There are days when I forget this, but I have been writing since I was very little. And when one has been writing since she was very little (and made a point of paying attention in English class to learn as many of the rules for both content and grammar as she could squish into her little head), one tends to naturally grow her writing skills. In fact, I’ve often been praised for being a pretty decent, readable writer.
But a few years ago, I decided to get “serious” about my writing. I was just starting to teach essay writing and I was editing fiction and fan fiction for others, and I thought that maybe I could use a better grounding in how to write. So I started reading writing books and blogs. I read a lot of writing books and blogs. For a while, it didn’t bother me that they all pretty much said the same things, because I was doing the “proper” thing and rading all of these books and blogs and learning more about writing.
Early last year, I started realizing that not only were all the books sayig the same thing, but I already knew everything they said. I’d learned most of it in middle school English class and then honed it in high school English class. So I started weaning myself away from both. (I think I’m down to a couple of books still on my to-read list and a couple of writing blogs that I happen to find entertaining.)
And then I sat down to revise my second NaNovel, which had been frustrating me for years for various reasons. But I sat down, and I tried to put my finger on what was bothering me, and then I completely rewrote the entire manuscript, outline to draft. I felt like I’d done something better. But I started to revise the new manuscript, and found myself walking off after a couple of paragraphs. I just didn’t want to read it.
I sent the old draft and the new draft to a friend, who identified the problem fairly quickly: The draft written before I started reading books on how to write was more interesting and more engaging than the one written after all of this reading. I was shocked. I’d been learning how to hone my craft, and had written something worse than when I was relying on my school knowledge. (I had noticed a similar problem developing in my blog posts, as well, but I thought I was just being lazy.)
Now, I have to get back my writing skills from a few years ago, the ones I was so complimented on. It’s like starting up ballet after being gone for years. The skills are there, the memory is rusty. Through practice, I’ll get back to where I was.
The lesson here, for me anyway, is not to stop learning. For someone just starting to write, who doesn’t have good memories of strict, exacting English teachers, writing books and blogs are a great place to start. There are some great ones out there for the willing student. The lesson I learned is that you need to train at the level you’re at. For me, I need to identify my weak spots (like that pesky, pesky character development) and then seek out more advanced material to help me correct my problems.
Jan
19
Accidental Lessons
Filed Under lifelong learning, personal development, teaching moments | View Comments
I don’t like Ariel.
No, that’s not true. It’s not that I don’t like Ariel. I actually hate her. I have since I was sixteen. Teenaged me just couldn’t get behind a girl who gives up a critical (non-harmful) component of her personal identity to pursue a guy she doesn’t know anything about, but thinks is cute. Adult me doesn’t care for characters who do this, either.
The Disney Princesses in general have come under quite a bit of attack in recent months because of the lessons these characters, beloved by little girls for decades, have the potential to share. No one is looking at the fairy tale from which the Princess came or the period during which the movie was made. They’re too busy worrying that a mindset from days gone by will translate as “classic” and “expected” for girls of today.
And they’re not wrong for worrying.
Not too long ago, a picture was making the rounds on the feminist sites where someone had taken each Disney Princess and boiled her down to her essence. While I hotly disagree with the analysis of bookworm Belle, it illustrates the lesson a little girl could pick up from her favorite princess. The problem is, it’s not just little girls being imprinted with these lessons. Web series The Guild illustrates just how widespread the problem is when a male character insults another male character by telling him he has the street smarts of a cartoon princess.
When everyone learns a lesson incorrectly, it becomes that much harder to set the record straight.
I do appreciate how Huffy’s marketing department seems to be approaching the situation. The new commercial for their Disney Princess bikes shows two little girls off on a quest to rescue a prince (a teddy bear). Once he’s free, they take off on another adventure. The commercial has been already been recognized for promoting feminist values for little girls, but is it really enough?
It might prove to be a good start if the effort can be sustained by other girl-focused media.
Jan
11
Gaming Can Be Training
Filed Under gaming, lifelong learning | View Comments
Last night, my roommate explained Farmville to a friend of his. I personally don’t play the game, so I was fascinated as I listened to him explain the game and why he does what he does in game. For example, he explained he cultivates a certain type of crop because they’re cheap to plant and are guaranteed at least three times their worth when you sell the grown plant.
Having watched him play similar games, I know he’s applied this same mindset to those. As they keep working, he’s now always on the lookout for the best ROI, even though he has no clue what that means. And he’s looking to do the same when he makes deals with friends, coworkers, and others away from the game.
He’s also learning to be patient while he waits for things to happen in game so he can get what he needs to move on. I sat with him one night while he was playing the cafe game. We were chatting and he was cataloging the movies he’d just added to his collection, periodically looking at the screen. When I asked what he was doing, because it looked like his characters were moving around doing things on their own, he explained that he’d set up some things to cook, and he was waiting for one of them to finish so he could set up the next dish. This particular roommate can be impatient at times, so watching him find ways to keep himself occupied and calm while he waited for the in-game action to complete was impressive.
So, games can impart many lessons to both children and adults: being the best solo and team player you can, fair deals and interaction, and how to wisely invest resources.
Jan
8
Games Develop Transactional Awareness
Filed Under gaming, lifelong learning, personal development | View Comments
During grad school, I spent my weekends helping out at a friend’s game shop. The shop hosted the Pokemon League and held a weekly tournament, which meant there were a lot of tweens and teens in the shop. My friend was often handling sales and doing orders and to say the other owner wasn’t good with kids would be a gross understatement, so I ran League and the tournament and my friend did all the official paperwork for it.
Watching the kids between games and tournament rounds was interesting. They would swap strategy tips and help out confused newcomers. The more experienced kids would take on a trainer or mentoring role, adopting the new kid and showing them how to best use their cards or how to combine their cards. They would help them navigate the League procedures. The newcomer was quickly settled in, and the kids were helping each other become better players.
Sometimes, the kids would trade cards. They’d work together to find a comparable trade that would make both parties happy. Sometimes, they’d come borrow a trade magazine to check and make sure they had a fair trade going. When a dispute came up, they worked it out themselves or asked a third kid to help them resolve it. They only brought it to the owners if they absolutely couldn’t work it out on their own.
A couple of years after I left, these same kids were working together to set up in-store leagues and tournaments for other TCGs, continuing to mentor new kids in as they showed up. We were pretty proud of them.
People frown on the obsessiveness that can come from gaming, especially TCGs and miniature gaming, but they’re missing the benefits these kids get from engaging in them. They learn to share their knowledge. They learn how to help out someone else, selflessly in most cases. They learn how to resolve their own disagreements. They learn how to negotiate with an eye toward win-win results. They learn how to interact with each other, and they learn what is appropriate and what is inappropriate in interacting with someone else.
Gaming develops a wide range of skills, which helps younger gamers develop into adults who can better handle the world around them.
Jan
4
Gaming Builds Business Skills
Filed Under gaming, lifelong learning | View Comments
Over the holidays, I had the opportunity to play Rock Band with some friends. I was already playing when they showed up, and I had to fight to not let my stage fright get the better of me (especially since I used to play with one of them all the time). But I stood there, hoping they weren’t listening to me, hoping they weren’t watching the screen. Deep down, I knew they were making mental notes of every phrase I completed that wasn’t perfect.
They really weren’t. They were too busy discussing the background to care what I was doing, and as soon as the song was over they were grabbing guitars and logging on. Lesson #1: No one expects you to be perfect. They just want you to try.
Before long, the three of us were jamming out, having fun. Everyone worked at their own level, and we sounded great. Occasionally, one of us would try to play something a level higher than we normally would, just to see if we could do it, and the others were supportive. Lesson #2: You don’t have to be as talented as the guy next to you. You just have to do well at your own level and stretch yourself periodically.
Of course, in pushing ourselves (or in trying songs one of us really didn’t know), we’d inevitably find ourselves struggling. No one would really notice until part of the screen started glowing red, and then someone would activate their Overdrive and save us. Lesson #3: When everyone is keeping up their end of the job, no one notices your mistakes until there’s a noticeable call for help, and then they help you out.
I’ve felt for a long time that gaming, like playing, is necessary for skill development. Small children learn about the world around them through play. Children and adults learn how to interact with each other and the world around them through gaming. There are companies that are starting to view skills acquired through gaming just as strong or as valid as those earned through work and volunteer experience.
You just have to open yourself to learning and to what constitutes a “learning experience”.
Dec
8
I don’t hear it often, but occasionally a student will ask me why I’m forcing him to learn a math skill he’s struggling with. I usually start asking about hobbies, interests, and future plans and tie what he’s doing to that. The student still grumbles, but he gets back to work, soon mastering the skill and grumbling about the next one.
While I love to learn new things, I can sympathize with my students. It’s hard to make yourself work through challenging skills when you can’t see where you’re going.
A couple of summers ago, I decided I’d had it with not being able to draw anything more than a stick figure and started working through the beginning lessons at Drawspace. The first lessons were simple enough, but I quickly got to the real-life human lessons. I hated them. I dreaded them. In fact, I kind of put them off because I didn’t want to do them. I completely ignored the last lesson because I felt like I couldn’t handle yet another failure (and a friend had loaned me an anatomy book that was proving far more useful).
While I was avoiding the lessons I didn’t want to do, I was enjoying the cartoon lessons. It didn’t take long to realize that if I wanted those to come out well, then I had to learn about human proportions and the basics of drawing a well-constructed, believable person. I didn’t go back to the lessons I’d skipped. Instead, I started experimenting with drawing people. Then, I discovered a manga how-to that showed me a way to take my stick figures and build them up to people.
I can almost draw human-shaped people now, as long as you don’t look at their hands, but I wouldn’t have reached that point if I hadn’t put myself through the challenge of actually learning about human shapes and proportions, my people would still have this grammar-school blob quality to them.
Sometimes, when a student is really struggling to see where he is in the big picture and I can see that he needs that big picture clarified for him, I share that with him. He usually asks to draw instead of doing math, but I just laugh and make him get back to work. When the next skill is easier, he more often than not tackles it because he can see that he knows part of the skill already. The big picture is that much clearer because he pushed himself through the challenge.
Nov
19
In preparation for watching the finale tonight, I’ve been watching the Project Runway extras. Extended judging. Designer interviews. One thing really stood out to me as I listened to each one discuss where he or she came from: Where you start doesn’t have to be where you’ll end up, but what you do on the way can guide, shape, and have a profound effect on your ultimate destination.
Some of this season’s contestants have been designing from the get-go. They knew early on what they wanted to do, and they’ve followed their heart. Others had to “arrive”. One of them actually started out as a med student. He found the human body fascinating, but not enough to repair it. Going through med school, though, gave him a better understanding of the human body, which has, in turn, made him a good designer.
I think that’s one benefit creatives have — they can take what they’ve seen and done, and apply it to make their work stronger and more personal. Every life experience becomes one more layer in their work. When you aren’t doing creative work, it’s easy to take a narrow-minded approach to your work. Instead of embracing what you’ve done and been, you get yourself locked into the role you’re currently in.
This is my current struggle. I went from creating workshops, educational programs, and mini-games to doing nothing but teaching someone else’s curriculum and doing admin work. When I started realizing I wasn’t happy with where I was, I started looking to jobs I probably never would have considered and naturally couldn’t figure out how to make myself fit into them. I even lost my love of volunteering because I kept trying to serve companies and causes I just wasn’t interested in.
A few months ago, I started actually looking at my own path, at where I’ve been, and I noticed something. My path has been filled with the kind of organizing, creative, and educational work that I enjoy. I’ve had it with me all along. Years of assisting with curating and managing collections, both at work and privately. Years of writing, crafting, designing. Years of not only teaching, but coaching, mentoring, and directing. It’s all right there, waiting to be added up to something I’m really going to shine at and enjoy.
And then I started running into this message everywhere.
I actually share it with my students now when they worry that what they decide to do in their electives at school or in their college work will tie them down forever. I tell them to study what interests them right now and let it become part of who they are, because they honestly never know how an interest from their youth will help shape and direct their future.
Sep
16
Learn by experimenting
Filed Under lifelong learning | View Comments
For years, we sit in a classroom and learn what someone else wants us to how they want us to. And then we stumble out into the Grown-Up World, knowing everything.
Okay, really, we don’t know everything. We know the basic skills and knowledge to be able to function and respond to the world around us. But there’s always something else to learn, and once we’re out of the classroom it’s up to us to figure out how we’re going to learn.
In my case, I’ve always had a research or creative project going since I was a teenager. I’d be in the library carrying around a Reader’s Guide to Periodic Literature, combing through card catalogs, and piling up books listed in the bibliography of a book I’d already found. I’d be in the middle of my room, papers, scissors, markers, and glue spread out around me (or some sort of fiber and cloth in my later teens). I’d be choreographing to a new favorite song. I’d be doing something.
As I’ve gotten older, my research and my creative projects have really intersected. I’m learning new skills so I can do new things. I’m learning more about a topic so I can include it in something I’m writing. I’m on a forum trying to figure out where I screwed up with something I just learned how to do. (That last one happens more than you’d imagine.)
The point is: just because we’re out of the formal classroom, we haven’t suddenly earned the right to stop learning. We’re doing it informally now. We’re pursuing our own projects, experimenting with ideas and tools to learn, create, and share. When we stop learning, when we stop experimenting, we stop growing as people.
Sep
14
The necessary, but unloved, skill
Filed Under lifelong learning, personal development | View Comments
The school year has begun, and I’m starting to meet new students at the tutoring center. One of my new study skills students and I were talking about his course load for the year, and I discovered he was taking both an Auto-CAD and a drawing class. When I asked why both, he said he liked drafting, but he needed to learn drawing skills to really get where he wants to be after high school.
I could appreciate that. The road I’m building under my feet will definitely benefit from my having some sort of drawing skill, but I struggle to create stick figures. Last summer, I took the time to work through the beginning level of Drawspace in the hopes of developing some sort of skill. What I found was that I could duplicate the lessons, but when I tried to apply techniques on my own, it was like I had never learned the skill. To make matters worse, I hated doing the real-life human lessons. In fact, I often put them off because I didn’t want to do them. I completely ignored the last lesson because I felt like I’d had enough. I gave up and promised myself that I’d go back to it when I was less frustrated.
Despite my problems recreating people, I enjoyed the cartoon lessons. I knew that if I wanted those to come out well, then I needed to understand human proportions and the basics of drawing a well-constructed, believable person. I found a book that taught drawing people from stick figure bases. I could wrap my mind around that, but in the end I became frustrated again and put down my pencils.
Even though drawing and I don’t really get along me right now, I know that I have to gain a little mastery over it to really be successful in my chosen future. I’ll keep at it in these little bursts until it frustrates me less, and then I’ll work on it in longer bursts until I’m where I want to be. By then, I might even enjoy the thought of drawing.
