email

Setting up a new MacBook, I hesitated to enable email. Why? Because the MacBook already has Messages/SMS built into the operating system, and that can be silenced by clicking "Do not disturb." That's a tricky proposition with email. Sure, I could just quit the email app, but I would know that it is there and I would feel the urge to click it. Somehow, silencing Messages is easier. Like swiping into Airplane Mode. 

The other complication: like most people in the modern world, I have two email addresses. One for work, and one personal. It's almost like an obligation. And, that obligation is what troubles me. Here’s the thing...  

Email is a to-do list other people make for you.   

Besides, if I am going to make a list I will likely use my trusty pocket notebook. Analog lists worked well for others, and it survived for years with pencil and paper. Maybe a pen and paper. Whatever your preference. To prove my point, note that there are several websites and books about the art of making lists. One of my favorites is Lists of Note. 

One more thought on email:  

Email is a wonderful way to miscommunicate what you mean and misinterpret what others are trying to tell you. 


new laptop

Finally decided to level up my laptop game. The old Acer R13 still runs great, but I decided that I needed something a little more powerful. I justified it by reminding myself that I'm in a doctoral program.

Don't get me wrong, I love Chromebooks. And, that old Acer is battle tested. I'm pretty fond of it. I’ll continue to use the ol' Acer in the coming the school year. But, for now, I'm probably I'm the happiest I'll be all year...because I'm geeking out over the new Macbook Air Space Grey with Magic Mouse.

*also had to get the USB-C to Digital AV MultiPort adapter because it's a huge dongle

TLT

Transformative Learning Theory [TLT]

Mezirow's 10 Phases Transformative Learning. 

Just getting started on this book. I've got some notes (pictured above), and I've been reviewing connections to the past class on the ethics of a scholar-researcher. Tying to make connections to previous texts, and to my own life. Looking for that "disorienting idea" that is necessary to start this 10 phase process.  

One of the texts suggested writing as an impetus of change. Perhaps I should continue to write more autobiographically. 

This intersubjectivity, or the internal conversation with our different self-positions, which is made possible by writing creates a fluid space in which thoughts change and hence a fertile ground for transformation. 

K.G. Willink and J.M. Jacobs

key words/phrases from other texts:

  • personal transformation 
  • transformative pedagogy
  • experiential learning 
  • self as relational
  • care and intersubjectivity
  • relational, dialogic pedagogy

summer reading, part II

Summer Semester, Part II  

Transformational Learning

Scholarly Writing - Style

June 24-August 10 

A complete list (with articles and video links) can be accessed here or in the site menu under READING

#alwayslearning #nevernottired


mindset

mindset matters 

The required studies for one of my current courses, Transformational Learning, covers a wide range of situations. Most of the literature speaks to education, but some speaks to other situational relationships. All of them touch on mindset, however. 

Some of the authors and speakers (in the videos) do not use the term "mindset" specifically. Some of the other terms used are more clinical and some are more colloquial. But, all of them speak to mindset in some form or another: 
  • ethos
  • conscious decision(s) 
  • mentality
  • psyche 
  • behaviorism
  • mental make-up
  • mental processes
  • personality study
  • psyche
  • science of the mind
  • way of thinking

How do you go about knowing something? 

What do you think knowledge is?

What does your inner voice say?