I have been using Feedly as my aggregator for the blogs of NGL course participants but for other blogs, such as writing blogs, I am still using Blogger's feed section. This is because I have found Feedly to not recognise some blog's urls, whereas Blogger will recognise most. David, the course lecturer, has said that he uses it as his main "seeking" mechanism but I have found it to be too unreliable. Nevertheless, I am sticking with it and am hoping that it may just be an issue on my end.
To be more active with my peers is one of my greatest challenges. As I will read what many have posted using Feedly but then when I go to write future blogs I will forget which blog has the relevant ideas that I need to link back to. David offers the idea to "jot down rough ideas and links to what sparked those ideas." I like this approach and some of my former posts did do this. At one stage I had ten drafts sitting with ideas and questions ready to go.
Sharing what I find via Diigo is also another major challenge as I'm finding myself flat-out with all the other requirements of NGL and another course that I am taking, Theories of Learning Futures.
I have come to the realisation that in order to make further progress I need to start committing quick "mind dumps" of my working ideas and thoughts, as David suggests. I can see that this is a much more valuable tool, particularly if one wants to really learn what he or she is learning, and not only see the blog as a way to share the learning process. If some individuals do connect with what I write, or at least comment, then it can be seen as an opportunity for an "unexpected bit of learning."
What sparked this realisation was a reading on situated learning - a theory about how we learn in social contexts. Goel et al., writes that when individuals "externalise their mental models, making [them] explicit in order for [their thoughts] to be amenable to change," it is only then will they be able to change. This was an epiphany for me and elucidated the reason why blogging is such a powerful tool in the learning process. It is through writing our ideas down that we make what we learn explicit, thus enabling us to "reflect upon it, and reanalyse it in light of new and sometimes conflicting information" (Goal et all., 2008).
What sparked this realisation was a reading on situated learning - a theory about how we learn in social contexts. Goel et al., writes that when individuals "externalise their mental models, making [them] explicit in order for [their thoughts] to be amenable to change," it is only then will they be able to change. This was an epiphany for me and elucidated the reason why blogging is such a powerful tool in the learning process. It is through writing our ideas down that we make what we learn explicit, thus enabling us to "reflect upon it, and reanalyse it in light of new and sometimes conflicting information" (Goal et all., 2008).
As with any routine I have found that I need to continually adapt my routine, whether it is for writing a novel, or participating in the NGL course. As David says, it is a "process that works for me and where I'm at right now." This is indeed where I am at right now.
References:
Goel, L. et al., (2010). Situated Learning: Conceptualisation and Measurement, Journal of Innovative Education, 8(1), 215–240.
Goel, L. et al., (2010). Situated Learning: Conceptualisation and Measurement, Journal of Innovative Education, 8(1), 215–240.
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