in my head

The past few days I have been thinking a lot about this post — you know, the one the guy wrote after disconnecting his life from the Internet for a year. I especially liked Megan’s response to it — mostly because it was less of a response and more of a reflection.

Then today this thing from Annie Murphy Paul came. Like the No Internet For a A Year post, it is long. It’s also, however, heavily referenced with research. And, well, I find that kindasorta fascinating. I mean, much of it I knew already, but it’s like … a WHAM BAM POW smack-daddy overload of research, all pointing to the same thing. Namely: learn to control the distractions! Delayed gratification = better learning and success in EVARYTHANG.

I really want to write something much more academic, or even professional-blog-worthy, to synthesize my thoughts on these two seemingly unrelated posts.

But I’m tired.

(and it’s only Monday! 😮 )

I might eventually get to writing more about it, but in case I don’t, I’ll just sum it up with a few thoughts here:

1. Learning is different than “spending time online.”
2. Learning can include spending time online.
3. Learning requires focus: LOTS of focus.
4. Time online that isn’t learning is still good. It’s just different.
5. There are different types of learning.
6. Relationships — both via screen and f2f — are good. I used to always value one over the other but I don’t do that as often anymore.

That’s about all my brain can handle after the busy day I’ve had.

Today’s truth: I value the time I spend online for learning and otherwise. I think it’s important to learn with online resources and contexts. I think it’s equally important to learn to self-manage all resources and contexts so that focus can facilitate both learning and relationship development. 

And that is all.

…. for now.