Dear Reflective E-Journal,
I have had a harrowing day. I believe my learning intentions had clarity, so it is hard for me to identify the barriers and “thwarted enablers” involved, perhaps you can help.I wanted to post a comment on a 2 Cents Worth blog post on Tech Supported Learning Spaces 2011
I like thinking about learning environments and I enjoy future thinking so I did not anticipate any great challenge in the task. After all David's post had already covered “Display technology/ Audio input/output technology/ Immersive, “cave-like” environments/ Wireless communications/ IP-based communications/ Printing/ Access to wide-area, IP-based teleconferencingcapabilities/ and Personal computing” – I merely had to comment on anything I imagined missing.
As a result of yesterdays’ resolution to broaden my online interests, and Insouciant Femme’s kind enthusiasm for my resolve I decided to prepare for the post comment by re-reading the Christmas and New Year Special Issue of New Scientist.
I was immediately captured by Walk on the Wild Side – New Scientist December 2005 p 53. Here was an idea missing from David’s Tech Supported Learning Spaces. The morning was spent creating a "reflexzonmassage" zone on the floor around my desk by “cobbling together” “broom handles, bamboo poles, hosepipes, gravel, pebbles, dried peas, driftwood, fallen logs, sand, door mats and strips of turf”.
“The feet of a typical urbanite rarely encounter terrain any more undulating than a crack in the pavement. ….. By ironing all the bumps out of our urban environment we put ourselves at risk of a surprising number of chronic illnesses and disabilities.”
The end result looked awesome, and I am confident that David will want to embrace this immediately but to be honest it did not get an enthusiastic reception from others in the household who suffered bamboo splinters, numerous stone bruises and three stubbed toes trying to get to the kitchen and back.
Chastened but undaunted, I returned to reading New Scientist for inspiration. How Clean is Your Mouse – Your workspace is seething with myriad mites microbes and moulds. New Scientist December 2005 p 43. saw me spend the afternoon tightly swaddling all the computer chairs in the house with multiple layers of clingwrap to better escape the “plume of dust mite faeces” that apparently belch out from the sides every time someone sits down.
I have to report that this initiative was greeted even less favourably than the creation of a reflexzonmassage zone. But by focusing on the hazards of unrestrained plumes of mite faeces, I was strong enough to ignore the energetic gesturing and kind invitations to vacate the premises, and continued wrapping. I have to admit that it feels funny at first and the squeaky noises are a little disconcerting. But I am confident that taking “dust mite faeces” into account will be a significant step in designing a futuristic learning environment.
By evening I had made a number of barefooted nature rambles on the textured surfaces around my desk, and popped on and off my computer chair twenty five times in as many seconds without being enveloped in a bottom induced belch cloud of mite faeces. Success should have been mine for the posting.
The trouble is the soles of my feet feel as if they have been beaten with sticks and I’ve snapped one of the wheels off the computer chair. As you might imagine the incline and tautness of the clingwrap seat surface means everytime I try to sit down I slip off onto the textured surface of the floor.
Reading widely means I am just too exhausted to post a comment today.
Do you think things might be better in the morning?
Artichoke.
P.S I checked out a web document sharing site [beta version] Writely that I read about on another edubloggers site – it allows you to edit documents online with whomever you choose, and then publish and blog them online.
“Nothing to download -- your browser is all you need. • Collaborate just by entering people's e-mail addresses. • Publish on the web or post to your blog with a click.”
Think it might be fun to try this out with some of the ict_pd cluster schools this year, what do you reckon?
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