Got a Minute? Connected Learning

In a follow up comment to my blog post, Open Movement, didn't know it", I replied to Christina Hendricks comment. "Thank you Christina, "Thanks for your comments. You keep me writing. It's wierd, it only takes one comment and I'm inspired."

Is that true for you too?? Yes, I blog to reflect, and learn but one comment put me down a path and as Alan Levine at CogDogBlog.com has reminded me it's connected learning at it's best!

I couldn't find Christina in a crowd, but I see her blogs and enjoy her comments. I always find myself thinking down a new road when I read her comments or twitter feeds. So I pulled apart my comment back to her as i went down so many roads. Gotta minute? (rhizomatic learning for ya).

" I was so tempted not to post this one as I feared I would be speaking french to some, but I hope I left enough links for it to make sense. Yes, I still doubt my posts!". Ok, again, do you do this too?

I still have to post part II of my reflection and I'm in edit mode. I wonder if some just write and let it fly?? Do you just blog and hit submit? I could never, but I bet my family wishes I would.

Christina also commented she had "No idea I had been an engineer" Ok, Yes, I was a unix engineer for 11 years. Fell into Linux and always found databases such as mysql fun. It did not mix with family and I really got to the point that the next time my phone rang, I was going to say "call someone who cares".

I started substitute teaching in 2004 and never looked back. Went and got my M.ed (Computer Technology) in 2009 and am CURRENTLY working on securing another public teaching position as Higher ed is fun but is not the connections I need. I miss the classroom, the goofiness, the relationships. Ok, I admit it, I miss Middle School, I miss my dedicated classroom, call me crazy. So Yes, In the job market again. Are you hiring?

It' fun to make code work but trust me, stay on this side, we need you! It's more fun too, did I mention that server work with linux/unix at the time was a command prompt, a large black background and tiny white command line code. At 42, my eyes are shot.

I share this to say, that the more I blog and the more I give, the more others learn about me and that is so cool. I wasn't even thinking other's would find my old career interesting as it did not relate to technology or education but someone found that interesting and it added to my digital identity for that person. Now that is powerful.

Connected learning at it's best and people do learn more about you as you blog. :)

Open Movement and didn't Know it.

Well, as part of my self imposed homework for #etmooc, I just finished reading and digesting The Cathedral and the Bazaar Eric Steven Raymond, this is an ebook and copyrighted at: www.tuxedo.org/ ~ esr/writings,

It is a very descriptive history of fetchmail and linux. " The effective open-source development" is exactly what is was described as and what is was. Oddly enough, I was on the other side of this movement and had no idea I was being so blessed"

I'll explain, in nutshell, Raymond discusses how Linux code, Gnu, fetchmail which was just simple mail protocal ah and telnet, ftp were free and those of us who used it made it better and we did it for ourselves, our employers and the community

To quote this perfectly Raymond writes: Another strength of the Unix tradition, one that Linux pushes to a happy extreme, is that a lot of users are hackers too. Because source code is available, they can be e:ective hackers. This can be tremendously useful for shortening debugging time. Given a bit of encouragement, your users will diagnose problems, suggest fixes, and help improve the code far more quickly than you could unaided.

Funny, I was one of those in the Unix, Linux geek. Back in the 1990's I learned Sun Solais Unix while starting my first job in help desk, a few jobs later and I was installing various types of Linux, redhat being the favorite and was soon being paid incredible rates for my ability to "find and solve the problem" with system builds I had done myself. Oddly at the time, I didn't think of it as an odd request when my boss or customer said, Ok, I need Linux installed with fetchmail, sendmail, with library files for sqlplus and and an apache web server with https protocals.

Can you believe it, I left engineering around 2001 as I lost my love of the unknown in never ending log files. I grepped with the best of them and I was a good at what I did, throw new things over the wall and Sherry will get it to work with Linux, open source code all the way. I had absolutely no idea that I was part of a huge movement that would turn into well such beauty. To be honest the one huge thing I remember is being horrified at the beginning Ok, you want me to install an OS called Linux, and it has no license, then you want me to get an oracle type database (mysql) with an apache webserver and over secure protocals. It was so so time consuming.. I would work like a dog over logs, new library files, the best release of many to get servers to behave as they were needed and what was fun and challenging became an 18 hour day with little time for my budding family.

It's funny, it is so similar to the road I undertook with social and digital media. I became intensely focused on how to deliver great content to my students and become a 21st century teacher.

So now I am part of the open movement, but in a very differnt way. I am the user, the tinkerer the trainer and most of all a sharer and contributor (I hope).