How Do I Love Thee: Perceiving

Yup, this is a very familiar sound! Do you remember the phone modem “dialup” connection? This sound helps me relate to my content topic (Recognizing the relevance of social networking to adult learning) as I experience two emotions when I hear this sound:

First, the feeling of relief. I remember the old lingo: After my modem redialed a few times, I could finally start surfing through the information superhighway! Being connected with the right network of people through social media can be valuable as we search for a job opening, promote our skills or services, and exchange our opinions and ideas. We get the sense of being connected by being a part of the society. Through social media, the need to belong and to be accepted turns to satisfaction and a source of support and motivation.

Second, the feeling of frustration. Dial-up connections are so s-l-o-w! I remember what it was like opening a picture attached to an email. I would see the top of the head, then slowly see the eyes, eventually the nose … uh-oh, it froze, I got disconnected! Today, we have options with how fast our internet connection is going to be. Through social media, we can control how much of ourselves we want to divulge to the society. As we set boundaries in relating to people, we get to decide who we are connected with and what information about ourselves can be seen by which people. We have the ability to speed up our networks personally and professionally or to just leave it at a slow pace. Just remember, putting on the brakes too long might disconnect you from the needed contacts.

Perceiving involves observation through the use of our different senses. Aside from the sound, the above representation also showed an image. But as we look closely, the image is made up of tiles with small pictures. This photo mosaic is a visualization of people who can build me up personally as well as professionally. Learning the significance and discerning what information is relevant in social networking can help construct our profile in the society. Putting these tiles together is like relating all the people in our network. Eventually, we have seamlessly created a great representation of ourselves.

Perceiving as a thinking tool, once mastered, will help me represent ideas and concepts different ways. People whom I connect with, like my students, may observe presented topics using a specific sense at a higher extent. Visual learners could appreciate me teaching the relevance of social networking by representing the lesson with a photo mosaic. More ideas and feelings could be brought out from a student who learns better by listening to the “modem dial-up connection” than by relating his thoughts to social networking.

Perhaps, I should also try various methods to reach out to other groups of learners who are more perceptive to taste. There has to be a way I can present my content topic on social networking by using bacon and ice cream! Well, just keep unleashing our creativity …