Reflections - Part 2

Source: Flickr Creative Commons, McD22

For my digital civilization class, we are supposed do a reflective post to evaluate how we have met the different learning outcomes of the class. My goal with this post is hopefully to share some specifics ways in which I have approached and hopefully met those learning objectives.


Historical Content 

One of things I have really enjoyed about this class is the opportunity to learn about key individuals who have played pivotal roles in their respective time period. I feel that focusing my learning, initially, on individuals and their contributions has helped me to better visualize and understand what was going on in that time period. One of my favorite examples was learning about John Maynard Keynes. Not only do I understand his contribution better after learning about him, but because now I am much more able to understand better why the US government has pursued certain economic (i.e., fiscal and monetary) policies, which I feel will very valuable to me in the future.

Learning about a particular person sparks my interest about that time period and acts as a memory trigger to remember the prominent themes, ideas, and events of that time period. I have found that because I have a passion for learning about individuals’ lives and contribution, I tend to organize and tie my learning (e.g., prominent themes, ideas, movements) to them.

Also, the act of learning about historical content online posing many challenges due to the potential for information overload; however, I enjoy and seek the diversity of learning mediums (e.g., audio, visual, different types of websites) that are available to learn about the past. It has made the process very exciting to me and like it because I feel like my curiosity on historical subjects isn’t limited to how fast I can look up books physically at a library (rebuttal on that later).

Computing Concepts and Digital Culture

This is an area that has been fun for me. I love computers and how they work; however, to be completely honest, my past experience in computing has been somewhat limited. I have enjoyed this class because it has forced me to come out caveman shell (however painful that might be) and become more digitally literate.
Although I feel like even though I have already learned and become familiar many of the computing concepts in my other information systems courses, I feel like I still hadn’t necessarily become a part of the digital culture. Because of taking this class, I am much more digitally literature and am a part of the digital culture/conversation.

Self-Directed Learning

Consume

I think as with most things practice, or intentional practice, leads toward improved performance. I feel that because I have practiced so much at consuming material online for this class, my ability to do it has improved dramatically. I am now much more able to intelligently filter through and consume information.

In spite of being in a digital civilizations class, I think I have gone to the library and looked up more books than I have in the last three years of my college experience. Don’t tell you anyone, but it was kind of fun. In Romanticism post, I allude to the experience of discovery and perhaps nostalgia I had while looking up and reading tangible books at the library.

Create

I think this has been my favorite part of the class. Like President Uchtdorf has said, “The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.” I have loved learning new tools that have allowed me to create media and creations that I never would have been able to before. I feel like I have made a conscious effort to regularly learn new tools that I didn’t know before (e.g., Prezi, Garage band, embedding mp3 files in your blog) and it has been great. I have noted that often learning new digital tools to create takes me a long time to do; however, in the end, I feel like it is worth it because I end up being more familiar with the tool than I would have been otherwise.

Connect 

I think by far, this has been the weakest area for me. Like someone mentioned in class, I tend to spend most of my time consuming and creating. However, I have experienced many times the very rewarding experience of connecting with others. Nothing is more fun than having someone else commenting on your blog (it’s very validating to know that someone is taking to write to read your work) and then to do that for them. I have set goals for myself and have started to comment a lot more frequently than I was doing at the first of the semester.

One last point. Focusing on connecting in the digital realm has actually helped me to better connect for with people in person. As I share my experiences, thoughts, and creations I am having online with my friends, roommates, and family it furthers the online conversation and normally leads interesting to a greater knowledge base and enriched conversation as my friends and others add their insights and comments.