starting #ds106 journey! In bootcamp unit 1. Blog up. http://t.co/I2HUhO7BUO Let the creations begin! Join me at http://t.co/7dZu9NPUqr

— Kathy Onarheim (@konarheim) January 9, 2015

Wow – I have taken the leap and started DS106! I have been wanting to do this for a few years now, but work and family and life was heavy and each time I got close to starting I procrastinated and found a reason not to become involved. What a mistake!

In this first unit I have been welcomed by others – rather quickly – which has been comforting and unnerving at the same time. There is no standing in the back of the room and observing once you add that hashtag to anything you do. The great thing is, this community is welcoming and accepting. The underlying value is respect and that everyone is good at something and everyone stinks at things too. If you don’t share it all, you don’t grow. And as long as you are not doing anything to hurt someone else – try it – you may surprise yourself.

As I watched the videos in the unit, they were a good reminder of many of the things I believe. Art – make it damn it! My background is that I studied to be an art teacher/art therapist in my undergrad program because there was an over abundance of elementary school teachers. I had no classes in high school, no actual art making experience before I entered the program, but they took me anyways as it was new and they needed some students. I was surrounded by “artists” but I didn’t let it get to me. Instead I submersed myself in the community and didn’t worry that my art was not at polished as others. By my senior exhibit my professor who needed to label everyone’s style determined that my art was in line with children and mad men. I wore it as a badge of honor!

Nuggets:

• #1 Don’t do it for the money or you won’t have anything.
• #2 If you wait for perfection you will not be successful. Make mistakes, lots of them, and fail forward.
• #3 READ everything you can get your hands on! Love this – but I am still a scanner – not one to read complete novels. Lost that in my graduate studies in not being able to stick with one thing if it was long. But in this nugget I read a Fast Company article that totally describes what I think every collaborative team should have and why learning is important – plus seems to fit this journey well:
  

  THE CASE FOR NOT KNOWING WHAT YOU’RE DOING

  FORGET TRYING TO BE AN EXPERT, A BEGINNER’S MIND IS WHAT ALLOWS US TO CREATIVELY MOVE OURSELVES FORWARD. BY FAISAL HOQUE

Advice from previous students: 

While most of the advice I read, watched, listened to, was from students in a traditional semester experience it was validating to hear that at times this will feel like lots of work, but staying on course and keeping calm, challenging ones self to establish some habits it becomes easier. Learning is practice. If we don’t practice and practice often it will always be overwhelming. Keeping goals attainable and building upon them. And most of all – ask questions, pay forward, stay calm, and create!

A common piece of advice was to remember to do these summaries and to do them as you are working – not at the last minute. Journaling has never been a strong suit of mine and one I hope to polish during this journey for it to become habit and hopefully learn to be more succinct for myself and any readers as the units move on.

My Accounts:

I actually found I had accounts in many of these places but have not connected or in some cases not used at all! DS106 I can see already is providing me a framework for establishing a presentable way for me to connect and maximize the many attributes of the accounts for creation and communication. Focus and direction to establish a strong foundation in which I can take to the places my mind has visioned. So chasing shiny objects, but with results!

• Twitter konarheim
• Sound Cloud
• Flickr Photostream
• YouTube Videos

 Who am I? My About Page

What did I learn in this Bootcamp 1 Unit?:

I learned I have learned things in my journey that I have not used to create art. Many digital tools I have explored as part of helping others get started and they did the creating. Now it is my turn to use to create instead of to support the technical side or to only be the muse or encourager. I think if I would have been able to figure this out and have focus, many things could have been different. So mistake one – no regrets – move forward.

The hard part of this unit was in sticking with it and not jumping ahead or doing things part way. Also not to wait for perfection or the perfect prompt. I am learning that feeling uncomfortable is okay and means something is happening that could be good – I just don’t know it yet.

I don’t have direct questions yet. Well maybe – How the hell did you get this organized and so on target that it is still creating the energy it does after its initial run? There is the element of sustainability and scaling and it seems to be part of this? There are lessons here that can apply to other work people do.

What do I dread? – not sure yet – taking everything so far as looking up and not at my shoes.

Still have another Daily Create to accomplish to reach 3 for this unit. I have to admit – these are intimidating. It reminds me of Daily Shoot. Sometimes the prompt connects immediately, sometimes it doesn’t bring any thoughts to mind, sometimes it brings to many ideas! I did look at the submissions of others- that was even more overwhelming until I realized some take it beyond the quick create and turn it into an actual assignment instead of just getting the creative juices flowing. As I am in Open DS106 I may go back to past Daily Create prompts and make attempts in order to establish a closer to daily habit. The real time prompts will be better for community building, but also could be a show stopper until I have wider variety of modalities in my practice bag.

Here are my first two. (or use the nav to Daily Create Section)

 Daily Create