What Have I Learned?

In response to Brandon Robison's post about what he has learned from this class, I thought I should do the same.

1. I have learned that I know nothing about digital civilization.  I still hear words in class that I'm like, "What's that?" and someone explains it to me like it's been a part of their life forever, and I think, "Where do you people hear about this stuff?"  So, I've obviously got more to learn.

2. I have learned about self-directed learning.  I, like Brandon, have had a love-hate relationship with it.  It's become apparent to me that I am very dependent on my professors to hand me information.  The hardest part of this class was knowing where to start each day.  I felt I didn't know enough about the subject to even search for blog topics.  How do you find out about open government if you don't even know it exists?  So, I disliked self-directed learning because I didn't know how to learn on my own.  On the other hand, I liked it because I realized I didn't know how to learn on my own.  I don't want to be forever dependent on someone else's knowledge to increase my own.  I want to be a self-directed learner.  I'm still trying to find out how to do that; it seems to take more time than just listening to a lecture.  Maybe that's why I can't bring myself to hate it: if something makes me stretch, that means I wasn't growing before.  And lack of growth means lack of life.

This is what I need to do.

3. I am more aware of how technology affects me in every aspect of my life.  I used to see it as something that took up money and time, but now I see it is something that influences the culture around me, influences my future work and family life, and even influences science, government, and education.  It is amoral, which means its effect on my life and on those around me depends on how I use it.

4. I have learned that I can make a difference in the world.  Our huge class project seemed so impossible when I first heard it proposed.  A book?  We're going to write a book?  This is going to go down in flames, guys.  I suppose we have yet to have a nice, finished copy, but I've been proven wrong: we can do something amazing, and it can influence other people.  It makes me want to get more involved online, write a blog or e-book or something that challenges others to act.  The internet has given us something empowering and I feel excited about creating.

5. I have found patterns in historical examples that apply today.  We live in a digital civilization, but we've really just inherited what already existed.  We have many of the same attitudes that our predecessors had towards openness and control and finding the balance between the two.  On the other hand, I've also found that we live in a time that is unprecedented.  Never before have we been able to connect in the way we can now, and our influence over others has increased exponentially.  We must, however, learn from the past in order to use this influence for good and avoid the failures of history.

Overall, I'm excited about living in this time-period and the potential we have to make a difference with the tools available to us today.