Microblogging = Learning to mark by optimism - PERSONAL LEARNING NODES #12 (Originally posted to Twitwall on Dec. 07, 2008)

I became very fond of the Buddhist Philosopher site I found for my yesterday's Personal Learning Node. I tried it today as well:

1) Ultimately, our battle is with ourselves. Whether in our activities in society, or in historical, political or economic developments, everything essentially boils down to a struggle between positive and negative forces.

2) What kind of future do I envision for myself? What kind of self am I trying to develop? What do I want to accomplish in my life?" The thing is to paint this vision of your life in your heart as specifically as possible. That "painting" itself becomes the design of your future. The power of the heart enables us to actually create with our lives a wonderful masterpiece in accordance with that design.

I like to reflect the over 2000 year old thinking, because it sets the overwhelming amount of virtual infomation surrounding us into a perspective and a scale of a realistic size. It culminates in: Learning to know and understand what has a positive effect on our bigger and smaller desicions and the actions following them.

I found through Flickr comments my CCK08 fellow learner Heli's idea related to shadows of seedlings - tiny little spruces' reflections on white snow. That just as the seedlings, us learners have a shadow. Each one has a unique kind of a shadow. And Heli's idea most hitting: Wherever a web-teacher walks, s/he sees metaphors for pedagogic solutions...

This returns my thinking to learning recognizing which desicions and actions have a positive effect and impact. Positive (acc. to one Merriam-Webster Online definion) = Marked by optimism. Mircoblogging is exactly about learning how to mark things with optimism. Before the CCK08 course I highlighted the competence to understand and manage wholes. (Micro/photo)blogging has made me see that paying attention to very little things at a time - and consentrating, focusing - really is the most essential skill to practice. Throughout the CCK08 course we've tried to formulate definitions for what is connectivism. Today, for me, it is a learning experiment to unlearn old habits for needing to always first to know and understand goals and objectives. During digital age it's quite seldom possible. Again - the way you plan how to use you impact is what counts. And how you make it visible, real and happen through little accomplisments. Walking around seeking little things to use as metaphors in blog-teaching/sharing is a very productive practical way.

As an outcome of #CCK08 - microblogging PERSONAL LEARNING NODES #1 (Originally posted to Twitwall on Nov. 26, 2009)

I belong to a group of - what.. crazy.. NO! ..just.. passionate!! - people having used last 12 weeks of their learning and life in clarifying themselves - and then sharing the knowledge acquired in a 2.0 way - of WHAT IS CONNECTIVISM.

The above picture by George Siemens guided my initial steps to the 12-week-journey. The journey has been stigmatized - well, rather.. vizualized in our minds, through our minds and from our minds on - as constant two poles of information and knowledge rising, emerging, fading, re-emerging and expanding => CONNECTIVISM:

1) Learning - leadership and management - theory or not?

2) (R)evolutionary or not?

3) An answer to how we (should) change the way we change our way to handle the global change - or not?

@courosa just tweeted this link to a New Scientist article, from which the following quotation compresses the confusion the #cck08 course has caused:

"As connections increase, though, networked systems become increasingly tightly coupled. This means the impacts of failures can propagate: the more closely those two villages come to depend on each other, the more both will suffer if either has a problem. "Complexity leads to higher vulnerability in some ways," says Bar-Yam. "This is not widely understood."

The reason is that as networks become ever tighter, they start to transmit shocks rather than absorb them. "The intricate networks that tightly connect us together - and move people, materials, information, money and energy - amplify and transmit any shock," says Homer-Dixon. "A financial crisis, a terrorist attack or a disease outbreak has almost instant destabilising effects, from one side of the world to the other.""

Further - the two connective question poles could be:

4) Is connectivism a way to reshape your own impact toward the direction which moderates collisions caused by uncontrolled or unmanaged formation of PERSONAL LEARNING NODES - or not? My reply after 12 #cck08 week is YES - rather than no.

#cck08 will have an impact on my learning of a size I cannot describe yet. It is clear though, that the consequences carry my learning forward - yes, for several years on. The difficulty of the #cck08 learning is caused by the learning themes covering everything in the universe. And that's why the energy boosting effect - seen as an opposite pole again - is inevitable for one's personal learning. Just the learner has the willpower - lasting for 12 weeks.

2.0 networks are a necessary, an inevitable, tool for connective learning, management and behaviour. A vast part of my #cck08 energy boost has been taken by my setting up the basic 2.0 elements. Again - the opposite pole of that is that without that all, the following step of my learning, unpruning the past 12 weeks would not exist or even be possible.

During #cck08 - to visualize the formation of my PERSONAL LEARNING NODES - I started a photoblog. This twitwall is a beginning of my microblog. And my personal learning node formation triangle is completed by my blog - also started as an outcome of #cck08 - will be my connective learning hub for unpruning the past 12 weeks.

Blogging has during recent days started to increase my: 1) Feeling of continuation, 2) Feeling of belonging and => 3) Feeling of control. That all together increases the feeling of ability to reshape my impact - which I see as a cornerstone of building one's motivation.

The above is a true outcome of what is why #cck08 in my opinion ever was started - to help the participants EXPERIENCE CONNECTIVE WAYS OF LEARNING AND MANAGING IN PRACTICE.

I know I'm repeating myself - but again, it's getting midnight on my timezone :). Thank you for your reading, sharing, taking care of your impact.