What a week this has been for me in this IDS 121 class! I've viewed videos, read articles, and discussed. From the beginning there was much to absorb. "How Does the Brain Work" was an interesting video that used the concept of Magic to explain how our brain makes "choices" of what we actually "see." It was interesting to discover that our brain actually makes choices as to what it sees. This implies that our brains are sensitive to motions and can actually make "assumptions" of things before they happen. My favorite quote was "Magic is like cognitive juggling." Although our brains are the "ultimate computer," WATSON is the smartest machine on earth! He understands different meanings in context, he can analyze, learn from mistakes, and even problem solve. He does this by imitating humans! This makes me realize even more that the BRAIN is the human computer capable of making WATSON happen.
We read articles on college students and their writing" lives. This was a survey done on freshman at various universities. The contents surveyed included various lists of what was valued, most meaningful, and most used. The reading discussion blog was far more useful and entertaining! I felt Reputation Management/Digital Footprints to be more helpful. I agreed with much that was shared. It is a defining feature of online life to carefully monitor. Good discussions and comments stemmed from this article. Younger students do monitor better because they learn from the many experiences on their society of friends, teachers, parents, and community. Adults are least careful because they aren't as savvy, aren't targets of societal abuse, and just don't think it will happen to them. Many more adults are concerned about identity theft. The Benefits of Facebook also held my attention, but was a predictable survey. From the theories they tested, to the results that was gleaned, nothing was very surprising. This brought on the best discussions of the week however, as we commented on ideas from what is "friending" to having "friends" the meaning of friends vs "friends" and so on.
I'm taking a stab that my "focus" is to mean how I thought about thinking as I went through these articles. As I've stated before, this procedure is either way too abstract for me, or I'm way too concrete in my understanding of what this is to be, or become. With that in mind, we all have different ways we learn, or learning styles. ( www.ldpride.netlearningstyles.MT.htm.) and (http://people.usd.rdu/~bwjames/tut/learning-htm.style/) I will proceed in my style or what I'm thinking is my style, beacuase that is all I can do at this point in time. My favorite part of the week was listening to Kevin Kelly. He was interesting in his factual epic account of the timeline of humanity with technology. His wordage was understandable, his history concrete, and his phrase-ology (?) kept me in the loop with the discussion boards. When I felt stuck in the muddle of words, I would go back to my notes on Kelly. His quote, "humanity is our greatest invention," let me think about the creative, intellectual students we are, and how these blogs let us "talk," if even just to ourselves, about the things we can share in life. I found the bulk of blogs to be thoughts centered on social connecting, one form or another. The responses always came to this. Kelly states, " technology will always be an extension of life." This was the thread that held our discussions together. When JOEL asks if "we will become technologically illiterate as we grow older?" I answer not really. The increased knowledge of the technology we already know, coupled with the fact that we make those changes to correct our mistakes proves Kelly's idea that we constantly strive to organize trends in our society to make us better. I agree with KERI when she states that "we are a much more savvy generation.." not only in the ways we use technology, but also in our cultural ideas. As a society we have more freedoms, more choices, more opportunities that allow us to come up with more and more technological ideas.
Summing up, this week has been loaded with thought and work. To tell you where I am right know would be the proverbial needle/ haystack thing! I'm searching hard. I still am requesting a sample, or direction on a choice so that I know I'm on the right track.The only thing I can come up with is something about learning styles. I don't do well with abstract ideas, so it's got to be something concrete or factual.
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