I can remember the last assessment (of learning) that I failed: a maths test in the first term of year 12 2unit mathematics. I dropped out of maths the next week. That was in 2004.
Since then I have been academically awesome.
Thomas.
University
I don’t know
I was struck to get a significant mention in a recent post on Jim’s blog (Rebuilding the blogging village). Struck not because I was mentioned at all (though that is surprising, as my digital footprint begins to get fainter as my time gets taken up with a variety of other things), but struck because of this quote:
Our small blogging village has been following Thomas for a number of years. We have learned about his university experiences and then his progressive move into teaching.
This was something I hadn’t thought of at all. Similarly, this quote:
As with Thomas, we came to know each other as people, not just individual posts.
actually really hit a spot in me.
I should warn folks now that this post is going to be largely self-indulgent, sappy, and altogether meaningless for those outside of what Jim has accurately described as the ‘blogging village’.
But returning to the main focus of this post. Jim had actually raised a point that I had thought of much, but addressed very little. The fact that there are ‘digital bonds’ that exist between people within the e-communities. I look at the people in my life (that aren’t my family, of course) and look at who I have known (in some significant way or another) and the ‘blogging village’ actually occupy a number of the longest-known spots.
Whether this is a reflection on my socialising skills or a testament to the loyalty of the people I have ‘met’ through blogging, I don’t really know. But I generally think it’s the loyalty of those people I have met.
Irrespective, I have now known some of these people for some five years, going into six. That, in my mind, is quite a significant amount of time. I imagine that the type of ‘friendship’ that we all have is only possible online, as offline friendships require much more maintanence and cultivating. And with the amount of times I’ve said I will write a post (and not), or said I would return to blogging (and not), or promised someone something to do with blogging (and not delivered), in a real world setting I’m sure I’d be cut off.
Yet, I still have people dragging themselves to my blog, expecting something. I guess I had a few good years that get people back. The past couple of years have not been stellar here. In fact, they have been quite lame. Quite simply, I tried to spread myself over too much toast.
I can trace my own decline in blogging in fact. It might not actually be as simple as people think. Yes, it does have something to do with my expanding presence on various social media outlets, but there is more to it.
In June 2008, I first signed up for Facebook (mainly as a result of my trip to the US and an attempt to stay in contact and exchange photos). My blogging didn’t immediately decrease. In fact, I maintained a pretty healthy posting rate through to 2009. February of 2009, however, is where the drought began here. Towards the end of 2009 I had a few consistent months, but even they were 10-15 posts a month, which dropped off too.
The thing that happened in February 2009 though? I had my first honours meeting. While I was still able to bounce back after practicums for my education degree, exam periods for the arts degree, and just general periods of business, I was never able to regain my momentum from a year-long commitment to (*shudder*) academia.
I had never taken university serious to that point. Sure, I had taken pride in my results. And I had worried about failing and not failing. But, for the most part (and I am now not ashamed to say it), I treated university like it was a process, maybe even a factory to get my piece of paper. I hardly think of education as that kind of process, but I generally think of university (which, to me, isn’t education proper) like this.
Anyway, the first time where I had to actually care and focus and think about university, things just naturally dropped off. I wasn’t about to quit work, so that stayed (and, in fact, I picked up more hours). I wasn’t about to stop (what was, at the time) watching movies religiously (I had a reason). And, as it was the new ‘toy’, Facebook became a top priority (I was playing a lot of games on it in those days, as well as updating my status waaaay too much). So in between all that, and university, the blogging just died.
Now before we attribute all the ‘blame’ to this, I would also like to paint you the narrative of what was happening at the time when it came to my number one passion: politics. I’ll be the first to admit that I bought into the whole “We’ll change the world” stuff that both Kevin Rudd and Barack Obama brough to their campaigns. Called it wide-wyed optimism, call it niavity, call it first-time blindness. It was what it was, and I believed it.
In 2009, Kevin Rudd was losing his shine. Little did we know that it was the start to what would end up being him getting turfed by his own party. Sure, we had had all those symbolic things he promised (National Apology, Kyoto), but were the great big changes we were promised? We were still living in a 1990’s Australia, and I was (unfairly) expecting to be thrown into a 2000’s Australia overnight.
Similarly, in 2009 I started to realise that no matter what the slogans, and the promises, and the ‘greatness’, it was going to be business as usual in Washington, DC, with Obama. I thought that … I don’t know. Maybe a single man could change a political culture? Maybe a political party would take political risks? Maybe things would change (not immediately, but progressively). I don’t know what I expected, but I expected more than what we got come the end of 2009. The first year in government was largely uneventful.
When we look at 2010, it was downright depressing if you were an Obama fan.
This ‘fall into reality’ naturally lead to a decline in the ‘passion’ to blog. When the US healthcare debate was raging, I put up some significant posts, but that was it. I didn’t have the passion to blog about politics anymore. Well, not in any meaningful way. Only with, say, 140 characters at a time.
Yes, it was some time in 2010 that I got Twitter, and that provided me an outlet to put the randoms thoughts (that would normally be consolidated into significant blog posts) out into the Internet without nearly as much effort as required for a blog post.
In 2010, it was like there was a perfect storm. Facebook was still very important to me, then came Twitter as a way to communicate (and not to receive information for later processing, like Jim and Neil seem to do), and I was simply too busy (while having finished my honours (first class, by the way, which put me into the final 3 to win the university medal*, but I was now either doing 4 x7 hour university days, or working (teaching and restauranting) 7 days a week) to spare more time to a hobby (blogging) that I had largely lost passion for.
Sure, the passion fired up every now and then. I would say I was coming back, and wouldn’t. I would write the start to a great post, and it would end up in the drafts. I’d comment on someone’s blog, and would do no follow up. I was disappointed in myself every time I did this (really, I was), but I could never muster the fire that got me posting like a trooper from 2007-2009.
Eventually, as 2010 got past the halfway point, I completely changed the way I was using social media. Facebook was a shell to me. I hardly use it now. I realised I had been using that (largely) as a psychological outlet – expressing all sorts of things that I really shouldn’t have. Somewhere in 2010, I went back through my whole history of Facebook and deleted a heck of a lot of my fingerprints. I now really only update my status with references to something important going on, references to The Office, and sharing videos and links with people.
Twitter went from being a way to put my words out there to a platform for communication. Then it changed again, and it’s me putting out a formulated message for the most part. The ‘randomness’ isn’t there anymore. You can actually pick out my voice, I feel.
But the blog still languished. After all the suggestions on what to do with the blog (a distraction from honours, a way to develop my thesis, a place to reflect on teaching, an escape from teaching, etc.), I hadn’t actually done anything with it. The blog was nearly dead, only to be revived with the very rare post a couple times a month.
I still think of great posts, and I have a raft of drafts and ideas that would really kick-start a lot of conversations. But the problem is is that I really don’t have that drive anymore. Maybe it’s not just that. I don’t have the time I used to have to do all the research, and I hate putting up posts that are anything less than 1000 words. Maybe it’s that I’m lazy. Maybe it’s that I don’t think in anything longer than 140 characters anymore.
I don’t really know what it is, but I know that I don’t want the blog to die. One day it might get revived. One day it might return to its glory days. But, right now? I don’t know. I have a few ideas on how to kick-start it, but they require effort and time – neither of which I seem to have excess of!
Thomas.
*I ended up in contention of the university medal, and was the highest ranked male on the list. I was third in the end in my degree.
In memory of University, 2005-2010
And that was that.
Thomas.
Nearly there
One exam finished on Saturday, one more to go on Tuesday.
Excitement is starting to actually set in that this may just be the end of university.
I just want to pass this.
Thomas.
The future
Yesterday evening I managed time to catch up with a friend I had largely been avoiding (for various reason). Without a doubt this is a person who thinks more like me, in terms of subject matter, but differs the most to me, in terms of opinions and conclusions. Regardless, I generally have my best conversations and discussions with them.
The person and the philosophical/political/sociological/psychological/’semantics of life’ conversations we had are not the point of this post though. There was one conversation that would largely be relatable (both in terms of being able to retell it and of common interest) to the readers of this blog. The discussion of postgraduate degrees came up, and while my friend is a bit lost as to what to do (will likely be applying to get into a JD with the aims of becoming an international lawyer), I was actually more focused an specific as to what I wanted to do.
The University of Sydney (sticking with my to-be alma mater) offers the degree most relevant to my interests, that being the a Masters of Learning Science and Technology. No, not learning about science, but the science of learning – pedagogy and whatnot. But with a specific focus on technology incorporation to the learning process. Other universities offer a very similar course as well, as teaching starts to get more technology based and further research is required.
When I first looked into it, I knew that it would be most applicable to me. Recall I did my Honors dissertation on ICT and Modern History teaching. I am hoping to be able to modify that – or at least use chunks of that – to start off on a Masters research dissertation.
Beyond doing a Masters, I would intend on doing a PhD (if, for nothing else, the ‘Dr.’ and I feel that my family would actually be proud of something I did for once). And I think I have come upon the topic/research area that I want to look into by chance. It came up with a conversation I had with my friend, and we were discussing learning theories.
Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory has always had me interested and somewhat of a believer. I certainly believe in the essence of the theory as he wrote it, but I feel that the theory has been abused and diluted and manipulated in wrong ways over the past few years (having read research about it for the past 6 years). But, yes, I do subscribe (as many probably do) with the notion of different intelligences.
What I would like to investigate is whether with this massive explosion in technology in people’s (see; children’s) lives, is there a new branch of the ‘intelligences’ that Gardner came upon emerging that we could term ‘digital intelligence’? That is to say, are people now developing new and distinct ways to comprehend technology, the new ways technology is creating and presenting information, and the way the digital world works?
I imagine something like this would bridge both the education and the psychology fields (remember, I started university doing a Bachelor of Psychology and have continued to hold an interest in the field). It would also require a move away from studying Department documents (as I did in my Honors dissertation) and move back towards skills testing and identification (which means student-based research rather than teacher based as I did previously). But I really think this could be a good topic/area to look into.
I think by doing the Masters of Learning Science and Technology, I could very easily set myself up for the PhD on this topic. It would simply be a natural progression, I imagine. So what I might start doing, when university finishes up, is use some of the time it frees up to actually start some work on this area. See if anyone else has looked into it. See what the research is saying already.
I’d love some feedback on my idea. Do you think it’s a valid area? Do you think it would be a useful area to actually research into (probably not, because who actually reads ‘research’ these days?)? Is it something you’ve heard of before?
Thomas.
The end’s not near … it’s here!
Yes, I stole the title of this post from The OC. I also ‘appropriated’ it for my Prezi on Friday. I hope Warner Bros. doesn’t sue me.
If all things go to plan …
And if I pass my final exams and essay I haven’t got back …
Then Thursday should be my last day of university (sans attending two days in November for exams).
This is going to be a huge thing for me. Massive. I can’t actually begin to describe how big. But I will, in a post that I have written but am holding off from posting until it is all assured that I am finished with this phase of university.
I can, however, share with you how I will celebrate sooner. I bought a special bottle of scotch on my recent return from Vietnam. I will share the details of it, and its opening, come Thursday.
Thomas.
Rebuilding the village
I read Jim’s post that he put up tonight and was extremely interested in it. He mused on the fact that blogging – for the e-village that he had set up for himself – by those that he regularly used to visit was continuing on a steady decline. I couldn’t help but think that I had, unfortunately, contributed towards the sense of loss that he seemed to feel. Well, seemed to feel as I read the post.
I lament, too, my contribution to this. I lament the loss of this blog. It still exists, sure, but it has been a very long time since anyone ever came here with a sense of urgency. Every now and then I try to revive it, but it never seems to work. I know why I have let the blog slip: other commitments. I wouldn’t say that this post is so much an ‘excuse list’ as to why I hardly blog (which I know annoys the Ombudsman the most), but perhaps a counterpoint or a supplemental reply to the post that Jim put up.
First and foremost, I am no longer ‘dedicated’ to university. Once upon a time, even with a part-time job, I was more focused on university. Hard to believe, I’m sure, as I make it a personal policy of mine to bag out university and the student life whenever possible. But I did used to take it seriously. And with that meant taking on the ‘student life’ somewhat. I didn’t engage in the extra-curricular activities that universities offer thier students (unions, collectives, societies, etc.), I used the time that I would otherwise have for those things for my hobbies. One of those hobbies (politics) combined well with another one (blogging).
Important to this time, I ended what was a three or four year run doing another hobby. There are few ways to word this so that it doesn’t make people think I’m a complete freak. It was a weekly writing competition conducted in small groups where you write from the position of a character who was in some sort of contest with another character for the week. Doing this meant writing a ~4000 word piece every week. When I ended this, it meant I had a lot of free time on my hand and, thus, I returned to blogging as an outlet for my want to write.
I hardly need to remind people of the regualr posting and popularity this blog received through 2007 and 2008 due to the US election cycle. I would attribute at least a small part of that success to myself. I was genuinely interested in what I was writing about and I think it showed somewhat in what I was producing. It was a geniuinely fun time for me to come home, digest the latest polls and events for the day, and give my own take on them. I never claimed to be an authority, but I seemed to be doing something right as I did it.
I have also always enjoyed telling stories. I especially like telling my holiday stories. It provides an outlet for my own elitism that means I don’t have to drive through the South-West suburbs in a ridiculously overpriced car, wearing ridiculously overpriced clothes, speaking to the ‘locals’ in such a way that demonstrates the further education I pursued. Not only did this blog give me a way to be an ass to the world from teh comfort of my own home, but it was much more safer.
But I like to tell those stories in vivid, excruciating details. It keeps my brain active, solidifies memories and, hopefully, provides five minutes of interest to a reader. Thus, my extensive (and never finished) recolections about my trip to Menindee with Mr. Rabbit, my Contiki tour to the US, and my Queensland trip with Andrew.
Then some things came onto the scene. Facebook entered my own little world. After this, Twitter. Anyone who watched my developing use of, first, Facebook will know that I was a complete addict to it. I would update my status some five times a day even if I was doing nothing. Now I’ve changed. I try to update the status once a fortnight. And I only check on a few friends, rather than the news feed.
I wouldn’t say that Facebook ever took over from this blog because the purposes are very different. But the games and the interactive nature of Facebook kept me away from the blog long enough to fall out of my groove with blogging. And I never was really able to get back into it.
When I went to Twitter, however, things were different. I started out using it as a way to just vent things. Then I started to use it a little more intelligently. I would connect with people that I knew it real life. Then I would supplement my intake of news and current events through following certain accounts. And, finally, it now serves both those purposes as well as a way for me to just say random things that pop into my head.
In a sense, Twitter has replaced this blog for me. Whenever I used to get random thoughts, I would come and write posts. Whenever there was a current event or piece of news that I wanted to write about, I would read the website I first read it, interpret what I read, and rehash it with my own opinion. Now, with the click of a button, I retweet the source of the news for people who are interested (which were the same people I was blogging for – people interested in that particular event) and I don’t have to do any hard work.
I will say one more thing about Twitter: It has killed my capacity to write extended pieces. I cannot, for the life of me, write long-winded (to the point of redundancy) pieces anymore. I have tried and I give up after about 500 words and a lot to struggle and effort. This blog used to give me the chance to fine-tune and hone my skills in that regard. When I stopped writing those sorts of pieces on this blog, I stopped writing them altogether. And, thus, my skills have really dropped off. Much to my disappointment.
I would also like to blame one particular event that happened to me that actually started the slide. For while Twitter has taken the place of the blog, there was a long time between the supposed end of the blog and the start of my Twitter account. In 2008, at the time of the US general election, I went on my first teaching prac. Go back to November of 2008 and you will see that never has this blog been the same since then. I have managed a few good months, sure. And I put up some decent posts between then and now. But when I went on prac, and I realised how busy I would have to be to be a teacher and a university student and a part-time worker (because I’ll be damned if I’m taking any time off), I shifted my priorities. That’s why Twitter took over the blog: Because it takes me 10 seconds to do the same cognitive (to me, anyway) job that it would take half an hour to an hour to do on this blog.
I’ve done three successive pracs since then, and have now started teaching 4 days a week. Come term 4, I’ll be teaching 5 days a week. I’m still working at the golf course and I’m still at university. I’ve even started up that weekly writing competition again. I’ve also started to expand my social group so that I’m actually doing more things now. So my time, really, is pressed thin. I don’t get more than five hours of sleep a night. And five hours is a good night.
I choose to live like that, sure. I’m not using it as an excuse. And I’m not getting worked up or anything about it. I just thought that I could contribute to Jim’s attempt to rebuilding his e-village by actually engaging in a few of the points that he is about to venture out and try to start up again. Again, I’ll make a promise to try and revitalise the blog. But while I have Twitter, and work so much, and do so many things, I can’t even believe that promise myself. I find it a struggle to find a constant stream of original content to even blog once a week. Sure, things are happening in my life. But I have that problem of not being able to write in the style that I want to write in (long and detailed). I should probably just try again and start building up those skills from scratch.
Which means blogging more often. So watch this space.
Thomas.
Tidbits
Just some bits that have happened recently. Some of this has appeared on Twitter, so appologies for teh double-up for the people who follow me there and here.
– I am house-sitting in Rozelle/Balmain until the 17th. I thought it would (among other things) give me a heads up about what it might be to live on my own. Initial results have been unexpected.
– I have been accepted/asked to present at the English Teachers’ Association Annual Conference in October. I will be presenting with another person from my degree. We both got very good marks last year for our English curriculum subject last year (you may recall that I achieved 100), and both (separately) did the topic of graphic novels for our project and presentation. While I did graphic novels and used 3 Batman issues (as Batman was all teh rage with kids at the time), the other person did a genre of graphic novels (Westerns). So we had the idea to team up – last year – to present on this. But we were both doing honours at the time, so didn’t bother. As we’re now freed with regards to time, we decided to try and get something together for this conference. As I said, we were accepted and now have to sort out what we’re doing. This is exciting, double when I think about how it would look on a resume.
– Today at work, Daniel Mortimer (an NRL player) was playing golf with a charity thing. John Eales (successful rugby union player for Australia) has been there before. I didn’t know either before they arrived, or when they were speaking to me.
– I am trying to get back in to golf. If I wasn’t out here, I’d be at the golf course each day. I will be playing in a championship round with my father. This will either be successful or a miserable failure.
– I have been following the soccer keenly. I am looking forward to the semis and finals starting tomorrow morning. I still think Netherlands are a good bet.
– While I am pleased that Gillard is the new PM, I still have a soft spot of Kevin and didn’t agree with the way he was taken out. However, I believe I have moved away from my super-pro-Kevin view that I held in 2007 and am more of a pro-ALP person. So whatever the party needs to do to stay in power has my thumbs up.
– My habits during these holidays, as I have observed, are self-destructive.
– I have completed my longest and last internship. Actually, I finished it a little over a week ago. It was enjoyable (if less educational in terms of things I learned compared to previous pracs). I must have done something good, because the staff there have asked me back. I will be teaching in place of a teacher who is on leave for the first three weeks of next term, then again when she is off during the HSC. Similarly, a staff member has had to leave the school and the head teacher will discuss with me if it is possible to take this person’s place all the way to the end of the year.
– I have added a number of Sydney schools to my list of location preferences with the DET. So I will be very rural or very nearby to home. I may write up a new map, but with a focus on Sydney suburbs.
– The frequency at which I check news and politics sites has absolutely killed my long-term interest in US politics.
Thomas.
One down
One exam done, one to go. Colonialism in Modern Asia was on today. Nothing too difficult as it (colonialism) is part of my favoured history topic (imperialism). I have a takehome exam I’m working on now for English that id due tomorrow. I will have to drive in to submit it, but happy to do so as it is the final weight on my shoulders for the year. After that I’m free to live life to the fullest.
Which generally means do what I’ve been doing for the past few days, but without sporadic moments of study. No university until next February, from whence I will begin the final year of my degree. Though it will be weighing on my mind – honours marks make their way to us in early December. Then the marks for my other courses. But there’s not a whole lot I can do with those now, so I’ll just let it be.
Hopefully I’ll be able to write a few posts that I’ve got on my mind. Probably not, and my updates will be more along the lines of the past majority which are snippets and extracts from life. In saying that, I’ll be trying for more substantial and important updates.
Until then.
Thomas.
Gainful employment
Work is getting busy again. On Friday night we had a function of some 220 people. The top boss was away, so your’s truly was left in charge. I laid the law down (much to the chagrin of the head chef who might have normally be left in charge). I was boss for the night because the kitchen staff was going to be nose to the grind for a solid 3 hours churning out food and the floor operations would make or break this function. I gave staff their roles, and then located myself behind our tiny bar for the next 6 hours getting drinks out. All-in-all the function went off without a hitch; there were a couple of times where we could have lost it all, but cool heads prevailed. I gave myself a bit pat on teh back when I finally got hom near enough to 2am.
Then today we had a function booked for 120, but it cleared 150. A presentation of some type, which should have gone down as one of the easiest we had ever had. But parents of children aged 3-8, for the most part, I have come to see are among the stupidest persons on the face of the Earth. The event was further complicated by the fact that the presenters were giving out some 200-300 free drinks tickets (we were preparing for 50-100) to all the snotty kids that got a trophy (event those lame “participation” (should read: you failed, but here’s a piece of paper) and they all decided to come up at once with the parents who also wanted a drink. And then all 150 decided to camp out the front of the kitchen so that none of the floor staff could take two steps from teh counters before they were swamped. Cheapskate parents were stuffing thier kids with food so they wouldn’t have to feed them (or spend money on them) at some point tonight.
Jackasses.
It was a bit of a stuff-up, today’s function. It could have been much worse, but it wasn’t the best effort. I would like to point out that my boss was in and running things for this one. I would also hope he goes and compares his efforts (lame) to my efforts (quite possibly the greatest function ever put on) and decide to give me a huge Christmas bonus. Or at least let me keep the bottle of Johnny Blue that was left at our place over the weekend (really, about ~$300 of whiskey, or ~$40-50 a shot if we sell it).
Exams next week: one take-home and one formal. Haven’t read the books for the take-home English one (but, as it is a take-home, that’s why I haven’t really tried to read them. Also, they are disturbing and offend me (really), and I have made a bit of a personal call to not read them). Have done a little bit of study for my formal history one, but that’s what most of tonight and tomorrow night will be about. I’m just shy of passing the subjects at the moment and after the last year, to be honest, I’m not fussed about my marks.
After all, I’ve done an honours thesis.
Also, the House in the US voted to pass the healthcare bill that was presented to it overnight. Big news, but nothing that I can really report here without trying to rehash 6 months of policy making. The senate bill will emerge soon-ish. That’s where some fireworks will come out – trying to get 60 votes to limit debate and then the vote. But the real fun will be when both chambers have to merge the bills. That’s a post I will probably write through next week.
Thomas.
Deus Lo Vult 