Saturday, August 16, 2008

Kaleidoscope

"I feel a need to pull back from the tools, and gravitate more toward meaning when I write." -Clay Burell, Web Legacies Wrap-Up, 9 Aug 2008


I began my blog in June, 2007, intending it to serve primarily as an online professional journal. Since that tentative and hopeful beginning, I've evolved, and so has Journeys.

While educational issues, like filtering, student blogging, and cyber safety still occupy my thoughts, my writing now is more likely to reflect the life I've lived and the person I'm becoming.

Technology is no longer an add-on. Social networking and other connective tools have helped to forge ties that defy categories: in many cases, my virtual colleagues have become true friends. Tools are...tools. Not the focus but the facilitators.

Both my husband and I are moving towards retirement. All the polished pieces and jagged shards of our experiences are shifting into new patterns, presenting us with choices that we never could have anticipated even a few years ago.

The world is changing, we are changing. The past will continue to influence but not dictate our futures. Hippies and cowboys, poetry and paintings, family and friends will all contribute to our kaleidoscope's colorful compositions.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Diane, your post is very descriptive of how I see the evolution of my own writing, my own reflection in terms of technology, learning, and teaching...and living.

This is beautiful. Really.
"Technology is no longer an add-on. Social networking and other connective tools have helped to forge ties that defy categories: in many cases, my virtual colleagues have become true friends. Tools are...tools. Not the focus but the facilitators."

diane said...

Tracy,

I think many of us feel this way - we started exploring and experimenting and ended up somewhere we had never expected to be.

It's truly a wonderful time to be alive and learning.