So.. so many things

Hi all,

This is the second blog post in my life, and although I don't think I have a large audience, I would like to excuse myself for being not interesting enough. I might be one day, but I think I need to upgrade my writing skills, know what to write, and when. Since I don't have an audience anyhow, these apologies are not very valuable, so please don't take them too seriously. Assume them as introductory decoration of this post, nothing more...

Reasons for blogging

Much research has been done on why I would invest time in sharing thoughts with an audience I do not have. Well, without referring to any of those sources, I will name the ones that address my motives most. Before I do that, I would like to specify  this a bit more: I want to keep record of the progress around my thesis, and I do that online. It does not take me more than writing it online, so I will continue with the reasons why I do it online.

• I am a special, unique person, with new ideas and interesting thoughts (which do not, of course, necessarily have to be mine). It would be a waste if they all stay within my skull. Sounds arrogant right? But what would then be the reason for any blogger? Telling someone things that are known?
  

The first argument might sound arrogant, but still quite altruistic. I give away knowledge, ideas, thoughts, etc... Spending time to interest readers, why? Well, because it is not altruistic. I do not believe in altruism, which is nothing more, and always is, a derivation of someone's own happiness. I give my girlfriend flowers, I feel good for 5 minutes. I wave away a handicapped bum in the streets asking me for some money, I feel bad for 10, so I don't do it again.

• So nothing altruistic about my blogging activities. I expect some return, and it ain't money. I want an audience, I want recognition, I want confirmation about my uniqueness, my specialness, and most of all, about my endeavour. I cannot do this alone, and I don't want to. To be part of it is enough, that will make me happy.
• I want opportunities, yes, I want a network of opportunities. People who know me after a while, or at least are aware of this project, my dream. So I might get the possibility to increase the chance on realizing it (in any form), seriously.
  

Besides the fact that I like writing, or at least, I liked it, the argument of having an online reputation is a strong one. I even want to apply this one to the concept I will investigate, and say that online reputation is the most important professional asset in the future. I do not want to make a distinction between professional learning and working, so consider them one. I want exams and diplomas out. I want the universities to be different, to look at their core assets, which surely will not be information. No, much more tangible: most probably ranging from money, to people, to buildings and facilities. People wanting to use these, have to pay for them, but in a much more flexible manner. The university system is rotten, is my point of view. I don't want to go on too long about this for the moment, because this post already is quite lengthy and I have another cazillion weblogs to read, eleven books to finish, and 17 mindmaps to make about books I read, meet with friends, play hockey..

So.. so many things

The title of this post. I have so many things to do, to see, to read. But just so little time. And the Web is guilty in this. I get overloaded with interesting new blogposts to read, which in turn send me to others to read, where people say this is a great book, and then I look it up on Amazon and indeed... it is a great book, and I add it to my Wish List, which at the time of speaking, holds nearly as many books as I have read in my whole life. That's why I like George Siemens' Connectivism so much. I need a network to work. I need a network to filter. I am not alone. I want to connect. His ideas are contrary to the general practice at my university, which can be very negative if it stays like this. Most of my fellow students follow the same track, do the same courses, make the same exams, learn the same 'skills', listen to the same sound. I start calling them Pavlov's students. They listen to the university's bell and start to bark out the 'knowledge' they learnt there. The same counts for the way they try to approach employment, bleh, disgusting (more on that in some future post). This practice has been the same for ages, and its industrial efficiency has come to a maximum. But Siemens offers the university a new perspective: outside! Connect, embrace technology as you have never done! The world is a rich place, there is a beautiful mind in all of us. 

So many things. So many things can be done by others with the same interests. Where are they? Why don't I know them? Why do I know some and can't I write my thesis with them? Because it is an individualistic culture. Assessment is personal. Assignments are personal. My thesis is personal. Because they want to put me in a box, they want to know what I am worth in industrial capitalistic terms. Where I fit best. Division of labour (Smith, Marx) has brought a lot of efficiency indeed, but I think the end is near for the top-down division of education. What is more efficient than letting the market (so students as well) choose, create, connect, learn, educate themselves? Why some institutional force to let me learn things I don't want to do. To force me in a direction, whilst I want to try out another direction? Because it is the only way to assess, and thus the only way to give out some documents, which earns the university money! Yes, money. The same with researchers and publications (I don't want to go into detail in this, but I think this system somewhat passé as well). What I would like to see, is an educational system representing nature, witout boundaries, and with people behaving naturally, flexible, and innovative. Because nature is the most innovative system to be found. The more I think about our education system, the more opportunities I see to make it better. Much better. And that's it for now. It was highly unstructured, ill-founded, arrogant, and sometimes even shallow... but hell: I don't have an audience anyway!

Tags: blogreasons, education