I like teaching people who want to learn. Functionally, it’s just talking, but I like to put the material in a context and framework that (ideally) helps it make sense. I also like to make sure people understand the “why” and not just the “is.”
With that said, I think I started by approaching this incorrectly. Mm… perhaps not “incorrectly,” so much as incompletely. I wasn’t focused so much on making sure that the topic had references and additional information, so much as I was thinking about explaining something I had already been digging into. But adding the references 100% made it stronger and added more robustness to what I was writing. And as a definite bonus, I got to read up on Stick, and now I’m looking forward to seeing more potential social applications implementing that (or something like it).
Normally, I shoot videos pretty off-the-cuff. I’ve tried writing out a “script” before, and it wound up feeling incredibly artificial and a little forced. (Plus, technical issues with pacing.) But in this case, I think my second attempt at the explanation (when I wrote it out underneath the video in the post) was stronger and more cohesive. It also gave me the chance to re-think and re-order some of my thoughts, or to go “You know, this doesn’t really work as a cohesive part of the entire discussion, how can I rephrase and refocus it?” If I was going to do this again, I might consider writing out the explanation first–not so much as a “script” of any sort, but just for the exercise of collecting and sequencing my thoughts appropriately. Then I can still shoot the video part spontaneously, but with a more refined idea of how to approach what I want to share.
The concept map was a bit of a challenge. From where I sit right now, I can certainly identify some concepts, but not as many as I would have thought. I feel like a lot of my exploration during this course has been less about learning entirely new concepts, and more about the exploration of existing concepts. Plus a bit of the usual (for me) gluing together of thoughts and insights across various areas. (And honestly, I think the thing I learned that excites me the most is the section on self-determination theory! That little section alone is going to be something I’m digging into for years, honestly!)
Leave a Reply