Reflective blog post

This post is going to be a reflective post about how my learning experience has gone so far in my digital civilization course. Since this experience of blogging about my learning has been new to me, I think it will be good to look back at what I've learned so far. The focus of the class has not been directed at digital literacy but rather learning about classical civilization with ties to current digital culture. One thing that I have enjoyed is being able to follow the assigned reading material by following it with my own research. For example when we talked about the effect that the printing press had on the world, I really enjoyed Francis Bacon's essay "Of Studies." It led me to write this post where I found a great article talking about the evolution of print as well as a great outside blog post that talks about the opportunities that the decline of classic print presents.
As I tried to expand my own outside research to more than just blogs, I remembered some tools that I had learned to use through our own BYU library service. I was intrigued by the idea of the open source movement and how people value prestige or exposure. Dalton wrote a good post about how success can come from the way people treat each other and not just knowledge. I used the library service to find articles on the enclosure movement and wrote this post as I documented my thoughts. I still feel like I could expand my reach on where I find my outside research, but I've been pleased with the great things that I have been able to find so far. It is great to be able to explore the world and find a small bit of the great information that is out there.

I've really enjoyed the way that we've been tying in computing concepts into the historical content we've been studying as well as our current issues. Sarah wrote a good post that made me think of the importance of study not only as a formal thing, but as a necessity. Our progress into the digital age has given us so many available tools, we just need to learn how to use them. Studying the computer concepts and exploring them has expanded my own horizons, letting me glimpse into the wide possibilities for gaining knowledge.

As I've explored the different tools available to us, I've learned that not only are these tools great fun (like this great picture of my wife and I) but they can truly be amazing tools of learning. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading the self-directed learning of my peers in the class and often times find myself caught up in their discoveries. With this class I've learned to expand my own self-directed learning into areas I didn't know existed before. I've especially enjoyed discoveries such as Technorati, Prezi, and Screencast. By having to post on my learning, I've been put in a position where I've been encouraged to explore. I've been able to play with different tools and share them with others. I get so excited with what I've done that my wife is probably getting sick of me showing her all the cool new toys I've found online. Beyond sharing with my wife though, my blog allows me to send friends and families to the things I've found and knowing that my classmates and professors have access to it helps me look for quality things to share.

Overall I've had a good experience so far with this new approach to learning and I hope I can keep it up even after this class has ended.