Zen and the Art of Ed Tech

Friday’s class was a bit overwhelming for me, and not completely because of the typical computer obstacles that pepper almost any attempt to adopt new technology. It happened that I was being told around the same time over speaker phone that the truck I had rented for the move that night had been double-booked and they were “looking for another solution” and taking the weekend off work in order to make the move totally flashed before my eyes. Anyways, it all worked out and here I am in some new digs so what’s the big deal…?

I gotta say, the thought of increasing the number of apps and communication tools that already dominate my life does not sound appealing. I’m juggling four different messaging apps and four separate email addresses right now, Brightspace is not always intuitive but pretty much all my course content is found there, and I wouldn’t touch Facebuk with a ten-foot pole if I didn’t need it in order to communicate with my classmates. It’s hard to think of another thing in my life that is so crucial and at the same time toxic. Maybe fire? I try to keep it at arm’s length though.

Needless to say, I’m a little unenthusiastic on the idea of adding Twitter and Mattermost and Hypothesis and whatever other myriad tools that are floating around.

That said, I am enthusiastic about adding new tools to the toolshed and I will absolutely keep an open mind about these technologies. I believe it was Persig’s “husband and wife” characters in Motorcycle Maintenance (ZAMM) who shunned technology in favour of the beauty of a romantic world. They were constantly frustrated by things they didn’t understand. While I do relish the real world around me (and frustration is not a foreign emotion), I acknowledge that there are useful tools being developed by very clever people and I would be foolish to discard them for some romantic ideal. I should at least have a look first.

So, that brings us here. My blog. Ugh. I detest that word. I cannot separate the idea of a blog from being anything more than posting a selfie of one thousand words. I just cannot fathom why my voice would have anything to add to the maelstrom of empty words that is already floating all over the web. Perhaps someone could show me some samples of blogs that are worth following. I’d guess there are no more than a handful. Around the same number of people’s selfies that I would enjoy looking at. I need convincing.

Photo by author

Edited to add links on 28 January 2021