Remixing - it's not obvious

Serendipity led me to Bryan Mather's blog post on the OER18 conference website this morning [It's Obvious].
From there I took a turn on remixing his images in a way that made meaningful connections for me.
The remixed image:

Here's the link to the remixed image in the Sandbox Gallery.

Then, I tweeted out to others to extend their interactions.

Followed by an addition of this item to the Ontario Extend 'make one' - this was a first time for me.
Openly creating and making, code breaking (with hex colour codes for fun) and connecting.

Where do I start?

I'm struggling with decision anxiety these days.

It's as if I've never done this before, but I have. It's as if I've never had these issues before, but I have. I'm opening up a Domain of One's Own through Reclaim Hosting - it's a gift of ownership and agency from eCampus Ontario. It's an opportunity to start over, begin anew, build my persona with care and intention. Be at the helm of it all - push and pull, flip the switch, start the engines. It's a surprisingly scary place to be for someone who's been blogging, tweeting and building course sites for many years.

BUT WHERE DO I START?

This is probably what every newbie shouts when they first start blogging, or join twitter, or connect through Facebook, or any of those other social media spaces. I thought it would be easier than it is - each decision hinges on the one before. Each layer builds on the level already created. I'm reluctant to start or shift things around, but I know I will. I just need to figure out where to start. Which dial or lever needs my attention first.

In reflection on this in relation to my own teaching practice and my learning in the open, I'm wondering how to re-build courses under my new domain, or even if I should. I'm wondering how my previous domain can be disconnected or even if it should. Once you've got a digital footprint, or tattoo, how do you go about shifting it when you want to reclaim and revise the image or impression. In this digital world that doesn't forget, how do you reshape the space you call your own? I'm about to find out.

I've started with the 'splash page' where it's very basic info about me. From there, I created a new blog and connected it to a subdomain. Now I'm looking at the design and structure of my MAIN blog site as a representation of me. From there, I'll see how my previous WordPress blog site - Five Flames 4 Learning - can be integrated into the domain architecture and nestled into the cPanel space. Little steps, exploring the dials for now. More tinkering and playing to come.

Practice in opening things

I'm marking assignments today - it's often an effort to open documents that are locked, privacies and permissions not opened to allow others to engage. This time it's in Mindomo concept maps that students have created to 'map out' their inquiry projects before the finalize their information into a logically sequenced presentation. Mindomo's default setting is to keep it locked and private. In order to share a map the settings need to be changed and then passwords can be added to allow others to access with the appropriate code.

Despite the fact that I have sent a 'how to guide' out to the students in order to allow access, many have not completed those steps prior to submitting their URL in D2L or Slack. There are multiple requests over time to multiple users (students) to open their access. As my students begin to realize the code-breaking and the navigational elements of opening stuff - their google docs, slides, Mindomo maps - they'll become more aware of how to USE permissions and privacy settings to their advantage. For now, it's a practice in patience as I teach and learn about 'opening things'!

IMAGE of the 'how to guide' [created in Canva] to open permissions and sharing in Mindomo.

Let it Begin

Here I go... my first journal style blog. I'll try to quick write to capture my actions, thinking, events and readings as I begin my research journey.

Purpose: Beginning my action research into open educational practices with a focus on critical digital literacies.

Today: toughest part of starting is picking the mechanism for doing this. I've chosen Blogger, connected to my personal gmail account since this will connect to other Google tools I am familiar using and have come to rely on in my digital toolkit. So, integration of tools and apps is the deciding factor. So, this connects to CODE BREAKING as a critical digital literacy - knowing affordances of each tool and how these affordances can support what I need to do, how I want them to work.

Next steps:

1. re-read and highlight the article by Catherine Cronin (catherinecronin.net) Openness and Praxis: Exploring the Use of Open Educational Practices in Higher Education. 
2. review the graphics I've done for Hinrichsen & Coombs article on Critical Digital Literacy (PDF file found here)
3. begin re-building my domain website to streamline and focus (frame) my teaching and learning