My first challenge in my Search and Research 2 which explored the Dee Hock quote was to explain what I thought the quote meant. The meaning appears obvious when you read Hock’s examples, but rephrasing was difficult.
The second challenge was getting so wrapped up in reading more and being sidetracked by new topics in the reading, that I would forget what it was I was supposed to be seeking. Creating order from the chaos of information was easy at one time for me, but my skill has grown rusty from disuse–as far as writing it up, that is!
My remaining questions: did I hit anywhere near the target? How can one best stay informed?
I think Chris required the activity for these reasons:
- to get us into research mode
- to help us discover topics that resonate so that we are impassioned to know more
- to measure what kind of monkeys he’s dealing with (you know what I mean, I hope)
- to have us learn new terminology (I had to look those topics up)
- to allow us to explore new tools and share them so that then we’ll want to try those other cool things
- to have us figure out what did and didn’t work for us
- to have us do something (ha)
My advice for a future student is to try to stay focused on the task at hand. Neither getting sidetracked by interesting sites nor getting in a funk over things you can’t control get your homework done.
Second, look ahead to the next task to be done. Perhaps you could work on a different task when you need a break from the current one.
Fortunately, going down those rabbit-trails is—from my perspective and so the perspective of this class—one of the best parts of these activities! If you get lost in the wandering and find yourself in new strange places…that’s as valid and powerful a “win” as if you were to stay “on track.” Maybe even more so! I don’t know about you, but most of my abiding interests and passions have been discoveries I made while pursuing other things…
So I think it’s great that you both recognized the rabbit-trailing *and* that you actually did some yourself. The problem of too much exploration going too far afield is a far more pleasant problem to deal with than being stuck on too linear or focused of a path…
Couldn’t have said it better myself. I agree it is easy to get side tracked and then realize you spent hours on just looking at all the different technology you could be using. I think that looking and doing multiple different assignments at once can be beneficial but also could become confusing. I think for me I have to tackle one project at a time. For others however, it may be good to start other projects while working on the first one to give yourself a break.