Preparing blog entries has made me examine my learning style more closely.
I see learning as more than a process or a product. It is a natural state of being that continues, consciously or unconsciously, throughout our lifetimes. Knowledge is the result of the learning state when connections are made about the thoughts and feelings stimulated by multi-sensory input from our interactions with people, places, things and other states of being.
The metaphors for learning that most closely resembles my approach to learning in this unit is that of a fractalled jigsaw, where each piece of the jigsaw is in turn constructed from pieces of its own.
Blog’s are essentially linear sets of records. At first I thought that as a reflective device, a blog might represent a flow of consciousness, tracking learning as we stumble upon gems of wisdom that resonate with our prior experiences to create new impressions or beliefs. However as I investigated the information learning activity context, I found myself exploring an eclectic mix of topics that were difficult to track in a linear fashion. They were more like circles within circles or spirals within spirals than links in a chain. Although blog entries can be hyperlinked to illustrate relationships amongst topics, thinking in terms of blog entries seemed restrictive. The difficulty I faced in preparing items for my blog was that I was often researching a number of topics simultaneously and sources found to update my understanding in one area, might also be relevant to my understanding in another area.
So I found the linear nature of blogging less suited to recording my learning journey than a wiki might have been. A set of well-named and tagged wiki entries might afford a better format to record, track and represent my investigation of topics.
I did learn that a meaningful title for blog entries was necessary for relocating particular topics if I wanted to update them.
This diagram represents what I recall of the ideas I have explored, and how they might be related.
By examining this diagram, I am reminded of the areas of learning that I restricted by choosing to work with a Prep class.
One of the areas that I would like to have explored further is multimodal texts. Multimedia, hypertext and multimodal texts with Web 2.0 capabilities draw readers into the text in ways that are not possible in printed texts (James 1999 in Unsworth, 2001). The nature of web-based texts, requires students to develop the ability to read the links and frames of web pages.
Links are gateways or access points to further information and they also imply associations amongst ideas and beliefs. Therefore links can influence how people think about a subject (Burbules 1997: 113 in Unsworth, 2001, p.12). For example, links from a web page of a political organisation to web pages related to a specific religion could be interpretted as a link between the two organisations. Similarly if a human rights web page is linked to pro-life web pages, the links implies the belief that abortion violates human rights. (Unsworth, 2001, p.12) Menu links can also be interpretted. Menu items placed at the top or left-hand side of the web page, or in the top level of multi-level menus might be seen as more important than those placed at the bottom of the page or in lower level menus. For example, on an organisation’s website, those departments or activities that have a top level menu item might feel more valued than those who don’t.
Frames are used to position two or more texts or images within one window. This affords web page designers potential to privilege or associate information by screen position (Moore 1999 in Unsworth, 2001). Text placed beside eye-catching illustrations is likely to get more attention. Information about a new anti-aging face cream placed beside images of beautiful young women will imply that the cream will achieve those results.
Interpretting the meta-knowledge of digital devices requires an understanding of how hyperlinks and frames are achieved. Ultimately, ‘the more one is aware of how this is done, the more one can be aware that it was done and that it could have been done otherwise’ (Burbules 1997, p. 119, in Unsworth, 2001).
REFERENCES
Unsworth, L. (2001). Teaching multiliteracies across the curriculum: Changing contexts of text and image in classroom practice. Buckingham, Philadelphia. Open University Press. Retrieved September 25, 2011, from http://ftp.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/openup/chapters/0335206042.pdf
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