Using Emerging Technology Must be Like Learning Grafetti Art and Tagging

      I continue to learn about two things in using technological tools.  I am learning that I really am becoming more capable of things like downloading and setting up programs on my Mac.  This has been a bit of a challenge for me at times and I make visits to the Apple store to make sure that I am “doing it right”.  Each time I also get some more advice on how to make it easier for me to use as well so the Apple store visits are not a waste!  I am also learning that I need to just need to relax and try.  Try to experiment and try things out.  This is so much easier for me to do in real life and yet I am apprehensive about this with technology.  I am too quick at just throwing my hands up and feeling like “I can’t figure this out or it can’t be done” and quit.  It was so cool when a classmate suggested that I save a power point as a PDF as I was not able to load into Moodle because of the size.  I didn’t even know that could be done.  And I did it!

      For the first time in my life, I entered a virtual learning landscape.  I nearly fell of laughing uncontrollable when I found the first assignment in a class to set up my own avatar.  My youngest son Joe is obsessed with avatars; and to be told I would be setting my own up nearly knocked me off my chair.  I haven’t played video games in years and have never visited a “virtual landscape”.  I found that after spending some time in it just playing around and trying, I was actually able to do some things like change my appearance and fly and run.  I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t give my avatar a cane tike I use but I guess my avatar will be my pseudo self and not limited. 

        As I was trying this new environment and wondering if I would look silly with my classmates (that kindergarten fear which haunts us all our lives), I realized that I was not silly and probably not the only “first timer”.  I was really glad that I spent some time several days before class trying this environment (virtual reality) out to give me some time to struggle and figure things out.  That’s what I do in real life, as stated above.  I had images in my mind, of a “first time” beginner graffiti artist.  Wondering how to have their tag look good in passing for the passersby and not look juvenille.   What must the beginning look like for a graffiti artist?  I’m sure their first tags weren’t as nice as the ones in this post.  And how do they figure out how to paint and tag to pass along these covert messages to the community they are messaging?  To everything, including virtual worlds, evolution is at work.

        Through looking at the work of others during this learning process, I was amazed and amused at approaches to doing assignments and using technology.  I was amazed at the ways one person really integrated her own art work into her power point program.  I was amused at another person’s approach by using humor and light heartedness in discussing his work history.  Other presentations gave me ideas about how important it is to “frame” what I am trying to do in its’ simplest terms.  I found myself thinking about how it will be important for me in my work with parents in a Parent Education group, where I am adding in technology, to really try to keep topics and tasks simple and easy.  It can be overwhelming to get bogged down with jargon.  I believe I can make new learning less apprehensive by trying to keep things plain and easy.

In looking ahead I still a bit nervous about how I will do with what I am trying.  I am trying to figure out how to integrate technology into learning for parents.  I have some nuts and bolts work to do from the beginning.  For one, I need to develop rubrics for: what do I want parents to learn and how, how to know “is what I am doing working” and ways to evaluate.  More importantly, I have to lay a solid framework for the ethics of what I am attempting to do and how I will address issues or problems when using new technology.  I believe that using new and emerging technology and social networking tools will break through barriers that exist for adult learners in parenting education. 

       In terms of new media and new literacies involving technology, I believe it is important to keep it simple and to relax.  And to try and encourage adult learners with whom I am working with to do the same.  Perhaps as I move forward with working on my web site, I need to relax and sit back and see it as an evolving project and not something that has to be perfect.  I want to see my web site as the wall of a building where the beginning tag grows into a beautiful piece of graffiti art.