I completely freeze up when I’m asked to read an essay or watch a long talk and respond to it. I don’t really understand it. Part of me just doesn’t want to say something stupid that proves I missed the point. Part of me has too much to say and gets lost in how to decide which is the most important bit.

So I decided to make the graphic above instead.

As a teacher I’ve tried to pull away from what Gardener Campbell referred to as higher education’s “digital facelift”, finding Blackboard / Blackborg / BlackBored oppressive and restrictive. Learning Management System? Whoever invented that term has never seen the way I take notes. And something in me has always rebelled at the thought that anyone other than me could create a system I could use to manage my own learning, much less anyone else’s. Each learner has to learn, their way.

I’m really passionate about media literacy / digital literacy / information literacy – can we just pick a term at some point? I get really bummed when I hear Michael Wesch talking about how most new media is still a one way conversation, despite the immense participatory potential, because our collective skills are so low. I like the idea of moving toward “meta-media fluency” and “digital citizenship.” But I’ve often been dumbfounded at how often people block themselves from moving in this direction because they think they can’t or that it’s too hard.

I guess my graphic above is my takeaway from the whole round of reading and video-watching assigned. Don’t hesitate. Make something and share it. Talk about stuff someone else made. With them. Make something together. Just jump in and pull. Pull like hell.