I am fortunate to have finished full time work at the end of last term. If yesterday is a sign of things to come, I am in for one hell of ride for the next four years of my life. I commenced my day with the readings from one of the research units I am doing at Monash University (from here on in it's simply called Monash!). I was quite amazed at how the information I was reading washed over me like waves in a secluded bay... an extremely, serene, tranquil bay with palms and white sand...
It was the rest of my day that was like being hit by the effects of a tsunami!
My waking day started my day at 5am... Until 7am I was reading research documents from MIT in the USA... I then chatted to my flatmate, cleaned my room, washed clothes, renewed my gym membership, sent information to my tax people, caught up with a friend from Venezuela who is in Australia to learn English, changed the registration sticker on my car, had a two hour induction for my new casual job, updated my blog, replied to 7 text messages... then it was back and forth... back and forth... had to go back to Uni to complete some paperwork and then finally, I sent a total of sent 22 emails.
I had so many things 'on' that I ended up having to cancel one appointment that I really did wish to attend. That being parent/teacher interviews at my old school. Last semester I had written reports for all my students and it was an opportunity to say goodbye and also to introduce their fantastic new teacher to the parents/caregivers more formally. I had spent Tuesday, after doing a full day of CRT (Casual Relief Teaching) between 3:30-7:30 doing the first half of the parents and most of the feedback and handover went swimmingly (to remain on the water analogy). It worked like a machine... 15min turnaround for each interview.
Had it not gone as well as I expected I would not have been confident at deciding to cancel yesterday. Through the wonders of Technology, I had a SKYPE video call with one of my supervisors at Monash. Dr Nicola Johnson - Researcher, Supervisor, Lecturer, Author and generally nice person - and I discussed my thesis, my background and my future aims. We laughed a lot about this and also the struggles of attempting a Thesis about ESTABLISHING THE LINK BETWEEN THE TRANSFORMATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND SOCIAL NETWORKING. She told me of her books that she had written and the professional articles that she has had published in various educational journals. It was a pleasure to finally meet her...
OR DID I?
In the readings I had completed (in my extremely, serene and tranquil bay!)... I was researching into whether the cyber world is a reality or does this type of communication skew reality? According to Chatfied (BBC writer & commentator), when we look at the nature and the quality of our interactions with those around us, the very systems that gift us control - email, text messages, status updates, social media ( I will include SKYPE CALLS HERE) - they have the potential to denude us of what it means to thrive as human beings. He suggested these 'denuded' things being shared history, depth of feeling, the acceptance of each others uniqueness. Of course, one could argue that this quote is taken out of context of what Chatfield was attempting to suggest about 'taking control of the digital age' and I purporting that this information whether it be from the internet or from a book is part of the challenge of understanding the real aspects of the effects of our amazing digital age. Let's just take what I have quoted... literally...
I do not agree with it.
My conversation with Dr Johnson was all of these things and the only reason I was able to do it from my place of residence is due to the very technology that so many people take for granted and raise concerns about. I said goodbye to Dr Johnson and then went about getting on with my afternoon.
The day continued... (see above)
By the time I got into bed at 11:00pm... To be frank, I think the day had drowned me!!! But don't worry, I will swim again tomorrow...
Cheers
Steven
but Melbourne is my HOME...
