The Online Self

 This week I read three articles:

1. Connectivism Defined by Downes

2. Digitial Identities by Stewart

3. Seven Habits of Highly Conected People by Downes


    The central focus of these was in the online self and connecting with others.  The argument is made that in order to connect with others, you must be online and engaged in the community where your research and conversational areas are taking place. If you are only writing work and not taking teh time to read, then you are not a part fo the conversation and cannot be aware of what is going on around you. I do wonder, though, how much can be done without some awareness of the conversations going on aruond us. If I, as someone with an interest in computational thinking, want to contribute and go about learning more in the area of computational thinking, then I do need to build my work on that of others and be aware of what is going on in the world around me. If I am not aware of the literature, for example, I may not be aware that there is some debate going on amongst the experts in the field as to the definition of computational thinking and what skills are involved. If I am not aware of that, or involved in that, I could be missing teh transition back to adding in other aspects of computational thinking that have been lsot over teh last 16 years since it has become popular again, or miss out on some other critical aspect of the refining of the definition. 

    Being present in the conversation and connecting with the people around you is critical to this endeavor. If you are not making strides toward connecting wht others in the ield and working collaboratively with others in the field, we will be missing many of the important aspets of the growing and evolving research that is happening in this area.

Comments

  1. YvetteFebruary 7, 2022 at 8:35 AM

    Thanks, Meg, for your insights. "Being present" in our study and research endeavors does help us make better progress than if we wouldn't attempt the engagements. I'm supposing also, that even when the engagements may not be favorable (That's what I'm afraid of!), we will learn something from the attempt.

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  2. UnknownFebruary 7, 2022 at 10:07 AM

    You are so right, people really can't contribute to the conversation without being aware of what the conversation that is currently going on is. It is crazy the amount of silos there are within sectors though I do know that the tech sector is a little more connected than others but still we end up stuck in these loops of people trying to reinvent the wheel and we end up not moving forward
    Theresa

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