along with this new language

While studying this new Web 2.0 language and way of being, someone should study people with certain kinds of mindsets to see how their learning is unfolding. For instance, my husband has an excellent sense of direction. It's always with him. Miraculously, he knows which way to turn, any street corner, any part of town. He knows where to go whatever the situation, even in a city that's brand-new to him.
There's really no "lost" for him; how can you be lost if you know, generally, in which direction things lie?

My mindset does not include this directional tool. Give me a chance to turn the wrong way and I'm likely to, and you can't even say that I got "turned around" in my thinking because I had no directional orientation to begin with.


Mel Levine's article in Educational Leadership, "The Essential Cognitive Backpack," is about the cognitive tools people should ideally have, upon completion of high school. Although I don't see the toolset there that I currently would like to install in my brain, there are clearly plenty of others that make up the essential "stuff of education." They're what we're all about, as teachers.
Equip your kids' minds with thinking skills. Have them move outwards from there. Give them a nudge if they need it, and they probably won't, because when people feel they have the tools, they generally set about to make something.

Ok, I'm running a checklist on my current backpack items. Hmmmm...."Inner direction?" I have that, lots of it. "Instrumentation"? Pretty good. "Interaction"? Good when I'm not too obnoxious--generally I'm ok in that sphere, if a bit klutzy. It's a charming klutziness, surely.
So what am I lacking? Spatial reasoning. That's not too bad, as my cognitive backpack overall is pretty full.

But people should study us, we the people with no directional sense whatsoever. Do people with less well-developed spatial reasoning have trouble with internet navigation, or with Web 2.0 applications?

Not me.

Well,

I just use a batch of alternate tools, and it works out fine. It works out fine because I've got a well-furnished toolkit and am always actively learning. (I have a kind of "shareware" going on pretty regularly, with "free social downloads" that I'm responsive to. So if I bump into someone and spill their coffee--which is likely, given my clumsiness,I just ratchet though my tools and come up with one for the situation, such as profuse apologizing, laughing to lighten things up, or the showing of abject horror and regret on my face while running to get a cleaning cloth. I get the "social download shareware" of a bop on the nose, a look of disdain, or a shared laugh. I learn from it, and move on.)

My toolkit for Web 2.0 work:

don't worry about a lack of direction; pathways reconnect
plunge forth and create pathways
just keep trying
be playful
ask others for help
get out of the state of anxiety
mess around
find the people whose thoughts nourish you, and find their people
whose thoughts nourish them, connect
create networks
keep telling yourself you're not really lost
that the laws of spacial relations are new here

dream of what's possible. It probably is.

keep going.