The journey continues.

As part of a culminating project for #ds106 I will be establishing an agency storyline that may have some #noir106 elements. Being able to create from the energy and ideas of the UMW course adds challenges and motivation. My challenge will be to continue to create in directions which have meaning for me and have some sort of satisfaction of completing or developing, and still keep up connections to the #noir106 community in their last weeks.

I am not sure how many of the #noir106 participants will flip to #4life soon. There are many who I think will find their way back eventually when they have established and can see the top of their own hills in life. Many are still establishing their life maps and 4Life will have a place, but most likely many ebbs and tides. The growth and skills developed will show up in many places in the future and perhaps in some way reconnect with the first community down the road. I expect that many will develop new community networks and model how to effectively connect and collaborate.

This #ds106 life has you reflecting often and looking at things from multiple angles. In trying to figure out a meaningful and self satisfying project these thoughts came to me. How do you sustain connections, community and allow ebbs and tides. When you are a student fulfilling requirements to get necessary credentials – how much do you carry over into life. I am already seeing in my self that weekly summaries are helpful – but really every week? I think not. But I also can see if I don’t do some journaling or documentation creations start to diminish and quality can decline. It is great when someone reads and comments – but even when required – there isn’t much interaction. The summaries need to be done because they are good for self. And if one – just one other stumbles upon it some day – the better constructed it is, the more meaningful it will be and it will make a difference.

I have found that one degree can make a difference in life. I used to think if something didn’t take off or impact many it was not successful. Years later – guess what – the one degree – the one person makes more of a difference than the thousands.

The other life lesson I have learned – Mom was right – give more and you get more. When you sit and wait for things to come to you, or you live in an entitlement state – you generally end up with not much and not happy. There is no reason to be taken advantage of. You give because you can and when you can. If you are in a place in time that you can’t give – then take. Just remember to come back and give some day. I am a true believer in give one get many….try it.

I went tangential! – I was interested in how the #ds106 assignment bank was a sort of community sharing crowd source and wanted to learn the details behind it. With some easily found information I am reconstructing the assignment bank theme into 4LC or in the longer name 4 Life Connect. A place for sharing in different paths and connecting without all the burden of maintaining constant updates and creations -but still reaching out to others.

I am still juggling different groups of stakeholders that could be interested and if it will meet any needs or desires. It has gotten me to create a subdomain, work on configurations, look at connections etc. I also now need to see how this can weave into a story or if it is just a huge project along side a story….whatever – it will be my personal challenges and goals and hopefully maybe one person out there might use at sometime.

So thanks for reading if you made it this far….just open air thoughts to document my journey and the mile marker I am approaching.