Time Scarcity
I have a growing sense of disquiet that I need to contemplate a bit regarding how to stay up to speed on emerging trends and innovative ideas amidst all the activity I’m now embroiled in.
Things are going really well so far, there’s no doubt about that. It’s just the sheer magnitude of the work I’m doing creates a very busy schedule, and I’m finding that the time I used to allocate to open contemplation about broader theoretical concepts and innovative ideas is now being devoted to resolving immediate practical or pragmatic ones.
So while the latter has provided me with some invauable insight into how things really work and look in practice, it’s critical that I keep my broader vision sharp and in tune. This is one of my other key roles here after all – to help identify, plan and implement strategic innovative projects in conjunction with select academics.
Maintaining Ties, Preserving Space
Maintaining ties with my existing network and continuing to preserve space for blogging and reflection are undoubtedly the cornerstones of this strategy. But again, this hinges on a demonstrated willingness to set aside the time, and perhaps more importantly, to protect it.
For instance, Fridays I’ve designated as update day for my Digital Pedagogies blog, which distributes ongoing updates of what I’m up to for the local faculty. Whether anyone is actually reading it is another matter, but the point here is that I’m attempting to model a sort of transparency in work habits, as well as model use of a blog as a medium for communication.
Yet the Digital Pedagogies blog (refered to as “DP” hereafter) addresses the practical, pragmatic needs of the faculty – at least at this stage – so establishing space for my personal research interests is really important too. Thats’s where this blog comes in, and where the distinction lay between the two.
Because it caters to a far broader audience, many of whom have very drastically differing views on technology in education than I do, DP is a far tamer, much less opinionated blog than the TechTicker.
I’m certainly not keeping this one a secret though, and in fact hope people will eventually stumble upon this space and consider my arguments in an open-minded way. It’s just that the faculty needs more than op/ed pieces on open education, distributed learning spaces and educational change. Likewise, though, I need a space to explore what I personally think, and develop my opinions and arguments, which is what I do here.
I am managing to do some writing on the way into the uni in the mornings, however in light of the fact I had to give back my laptop before moving to FASS, I’m using my mobile phone to compose the entries. Not only does this make the process extraordinarily tedious (and prone to typos) I’m also not able to read or refer to papers or research in any deep, meaningful way. So I’d like to be able to devote some time to writing and reflection during the day as well at some point.
Exposure to New Ideas
Thus far, blogs will help address my reflective or brainstorming needs, and preserved network ties, my discursive needs – however I also want to ensure I am availing myself to ample and sufficiently diverse sources of information and new ideas.
Certainly some of this will come through the network during discussion, but establishing space for slow consumption of reading materials, such as research papers, news articles, blog posts or podcasts is equally important. This seems to require the greatest allocation of time and space though, so reconciling this with my schedule may be a bit tricky – at least until I can get a laptop sorted out, in which case I’ll be able to read and take notes a bit more efficently on the train.
In the meantime I’ll just have to print stuff out or read digital publications on my phone – though truly that’s not remotely ideal since most sites aren’t formatted for mobile viewing.
I’m quite interested in hearing what others do to stay abreast of trends and topics from the emerging front. How do you keep yourself plugged in?
