Thing 1 - Habits of Life Long Learning

OK, so here it is a few weeks into class and I have totally been putting off starting on my blog.  Don't ask me why.  Maybe because I wasn't sure what it was all about.  Sure, I set up my blog page and Avatar within the first week, but then it just sat there. I kept thinking that I need to start on it... I need to start on it... and... finally... I have. (I did try to view the slide for Thing 1 several times before class started, only to realize that I didn't have earbuds with me.)

 So today I sat down at my home computer and went to work.  Sort of.  The problem is there is no sound at all, despite having working speakers.  On top of that, the bubble that appears directing me to "press play when ready" disappears into the bottom of the slide.  I have forward, backward, to the end and to the beginning options, but no play button.  Next problem. The bubble that says go here to read the text if you can't hear anything disappears into the side of my slide. Ugh! So, I went ahead and flipped through the slides making notes, but am thinking that I'm really missing a lot of information. 

I decided I need to go ahead and post to my blog regarding this topic since I've already procrastinated a bit.  I do plan on going into class early and speaking with the instructor about the issue.  Who knows?  Maybe there really is no sound and life is just playing with me.  If not, I will come back to this post and update it once I can hear the audio that accompanies it.  Until then I will share which habit I think is the easiest and which is the hardest for me, based on the slides only.

The 7.5 habits presented are:

1.   Begin with the end in mind
2.   Accept responsibility for your learning
3.   View problems as challenges
4.   Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner
5.   Create your own learning toolbox
6.   Use technology to your advantage
7.   Teach/mentor others
7.5 Play!!!


I think the easiest habit for me is to begin with the end in mind. Through out life knowing a cut off date has helped motivate me. In grade school I'd think, "Just a few more years and then I'll be in high school." In high school I'd think, "Pretty soon I'll be graduating." After high school I'd use other dates to help motivate me to get me through. Having an end point gives me motivation and a purpose.

The hardest habit for me would have to be to view my problems as challenges. Yes, I've heard it before and sometimes I have actually done it. But usually I see my problems as big, fat, ugly problems. In order to view my problems as challenges and look at them as a puzzle to be solved will take some thought process retraining on my part. When I encounter a problem I will just have to stop my emotional reaction, slow down and take a new look at it. Wish me luck!

Hmmmm, I'm also suppose to write about what I want to learn by playing with Web 2.0.  I really don't have anything specific.  I'm eager to learn anything that I can.  Learning to set up a blog was neat.  Now that I know how, and that it is free, perhaps I will create more blogs and/or blog more.  It was fairly easy to set-up this blog.  Don't know if that was due to already having a Gmail account or not.  The hardest part was thinking of a name for it.  I wanted it to be somthing that related it to the class I am taking.  That is how I came up with the name, although it seems a bit bland.  Being able to customize the background is nice.  I tried out different backgrounds to see how the blog would look.  I wanted a background that was inviting and pleasent to look at, nothing cutesie or too plain.  I'm happy with the one I picked.  There were a few others I liked, but they had white areas for the text that seemed too contrasting to the background.