Time of change...

  I'm working through the Handbook and felt the urge to undertake some research into Collective Intelligence; and how online communities create partnerships and why. I began by asking: what is so compelling about being part and remaining a part of an online community? My simple answer was... 1. The urge to contribute to the community 2. the perception of benefiting from the community. Then I thought about it some more... You and I are bound together by a common interest or topic such as a hobby, profession, location or cause. We may have no pre established connections. We may well come from all walks of life. But everyday we're lost in a digital sea of information and conversations. But online communities can act as an anchor by personalizing or grouping all that content.  Online communities have improved three major aspects of online life:  communication, personal development and business. Communication  on the internet is often thought of as asynchronous but for th...

 Day 1 - I feel like this is my first proper day of physically starting!!! So now I feel scared and embarrassed; in my head everyone else on the course has finished their essay and are half way through their Map!...Again I feel scared and embarrassed. But what should I do, suffer in silence. No, a cry for help!? Well not quite but I am kindly nudging people for a response ;) I have read and re read the Handbook, taken part in the Skype sessions and that was all well and good but then you leave and go back to real life. Now I feel like I have to go back and start again!!! There is no doubt the Skype sessions were really helpful and you finish feeling really motivated but then swiftly after that (normally when my daughter is sitting in her high chair for lunch) the bubble bursts and everything feels far away once more. I should have used the Skype sessions as a Diving board and leapt off immersing myself in the chosen task, but I didn't. Now I am paying the price ;) I will most defin...

  Great Workshop today with Peter! I feel like I need reminding about this at least once a week, It was really useful! Peter gave us a tip to look up "Writing for University", I can highly recommend it. I have not had chance yet to go into depth and read the whole thing but here is an exert for everyone that I will most definitely be printing out in big to keep me on track! The exact way you structure your writing will depend on your particular writing context (a lab report will have a different structure to a discursive essay); however, most written pieces will need the basic structure outlined here.  ((I had to do a quick Google... ****  What is discursive essay? Discursive essay  is another kind of academic papers, which is used to check the students' skills and knowledge. Its main particularity is the aim to provoke discussion on the call-off topic. As a result the author joins the conversation about any situation, even, issue, or problem. ****)) INTRODUCTION – s...