Category: Digital Skills

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Narrating U

My experience narrating/modifying my personal WordPress site was analogous to piloting a boat with the throttle engaged at full speed, yet struggling to achieve the desirable efficiency up on a plane. Once I achieved a better level of navigational understanding, the bow trimmed up and the boat began planing nicely. As it relates to comprehension, I suppose my only main challenge surrounded bridging the instruction terminology with the intent of the task. As a matter of working through the understanding, I had some difficultly really grasping what I was trying to accomplish. In reflection, once I determined that I was simply building my own electronic presence, such as a website, the sequencing began to naturally fall into place.

I worked through my challenges via trial and error. Essentially I pivoted between the online learning instructions, my own site dashboard, and the menu video instructions. Once I connected one process with another, it became much easier to understand the functionality of the menu and category tools. Once I was up and running, it became enjoyable spending more time tweaking the site to align with my own personal needs and wants.

The next time I encounter similar tasks building, processing and sequencing, I will spend more time drafting out an architecture on paper of what I am expected to accomplish. It was by this means in which I used to assemble my menu, sub-menus and categories. Additionally, depending on the personal network developed over the course of the MA program, I would not hesitate in contacting others in the cohort to help field issues that I may be having.

Matt

 

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Annotating U

After stumbling through the hypothes.is user name sign up sequence, mistakenly using a pseudonym (sultanofsurrey), rather than my real name, it came as no surprise that this manifesto for “teaching online” hails from the United Kingdom. Like the University of Edinburgh, the University of Liverpool has also been encouraging and delivering a platform to support online learning for students abroad for well over 100 years, albeit for the most part without the technological advancements of late.

My experience with the hypothes.is was delightful and most certainly would have enjoyed aspects of this tool during portions of my undergrad. For the most part, my competencies mastering new web tools has been average to above average; however, I do have some concerns moving forward. With so many “advancements” with interactive tools, programs and applications to accentuate and expand the intent of the learning, I fear that all these additional steps/tasks to master/tackle multiple user names, pseudonyms, passwords, sites, pages will impede the actual learning we are here for. I realize that within the framework of distance/online learning at the graduate level, we cannot return to “read this book and communicate your understanding through an essay”; therefore, ultimately my hope is that these tools will eventually become simple enough to amplify, versus muffle the intent of the learning.

Matt