Technology Learning 4 Clubhouse

     So my main learning for today was language and how I should use it.  I had no idea what type of language I should use for this blog at first because I kept forgetting that this is not an assignment for my professor to read, it's for my viewers. As soon as settled on that, (which took until today) I started to write more at ease with my language.  It is quite informal, and my sentence structure doesn't always follow the formal rules of the English language, but I think it's necessary to my blog to write how I am. I decided I definitely don't want to use any swear words because 1. It's not lady-like and 2. It's really not necessary to my blog! So basically I learned that it's okay to speak informally because it's not just for my professor to read, it's for anyone and everyone who reads it.

Technology Learning 3 Clubhouse

   I decided to add a photo to the background of my blog, but I'm not sure if I really like it yet. I am going to leave it up for a week then see if I like it after that. I added a background that has words in it, and I'm afraid that it now looks to busy for the reader. I'm still not sure, but I wanted to add my own spin on it to make it my own.  However I think it may have ruined it.  Adding a photo was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be because of the issue of it looking too busy. I thought a few things would look good, and then I put it as the background and it looked terrible. I toyed around with various backgrounds and decided on the one I have now, but like I said I'm still skeptical! I also haven't been able to think of any pictures I may want to post.

Technology Learning 2 Clubhouse

     I am finding that the hardest part for me with the Clubhouse blog is what to say.  There's just so much about grammar that people don't know and I never know where to start.  Should I go through all the parts of speech and explain their purpose and usage? Should I just address random mistakes without any form to it? I started off my first post with a random thing that annoys me (when people say "I'm doing good!" rather than "well.") So I think I'm going to stick with just random things that bother me when people speak and write. I think I should include pictures because, well, who doesn't love to look at pictures.  When I find a blog I like, It's usually FILLED with them.  However I have no idea what I could even do for that.  I'm still getting used to essentially talking to myself as well. 

Initial thoughts, Technology Learning 1 Clubhouse

     It was sort of a weird feeling the first time I set up my Clubhouse blog. I honestly had no idea what to do at first in terms of the color scheme/how I want my blog to look.  I dwelt upon that for awhile, thinking that the color scheme was the most important thing of all.  Once I got that down, I relaxed a bit, coming to terms with the fact that it's probably more about the quality of my blogs rather than the color of it. Then I had to think about what my first post could possibly be about.  To me, the first post was really important.  It shows your initial thoughts, your personality, what you care about, and I felt kind of vulnerable.  It's such a weird concept to me to blog, and I kind of really like it.  It took me the longest time to decide what to do for my first post.  My Clubhouse blog is basically just addressing those common grammar mistakes that people make when speaking and writing.  I am really passionate about this topic for some reason.  Ever since middle school grammar has interested me more than any other subject, so I was thrilled to write about it.  Since the topic is so broad I had NO idea what to do for the first post.  Basically I just had to sit there and think a lot before I could do anything. Then when I started writing, I erased it and restarted over ten times.

The Business of Understanding, Wurman

Summary of The Business of Understanding, by Richard S. Wurman
3 February 2013
Kelsey Lynch

Wurman starts off using the example of an Informational Architect. He said that there are many who called themselves one, but not all legitimately meet the definition.  Good informational architects make the complex clear and make informational understandable to others.
He says the key to making things understandable is to "understand what it's like not to understand"
He makes the point that the most essential thing to admit on the path to understanding is that you don't understand. He calls this admitting to ignorance.

He includes an "Overview of Understanding" by Shedroff.  It starts with Data, which includes research, creation, gathering, and discovery.  Something to keep in mine is if it doesn't inform you, then it isn't information. Data is more raw, whereas information puts the data into understandable terms. Next is information, which includes presentation and organization. Information is the data presented in many different ways. Next is Knowledge (which is backed by experience). This includes conversation, storytelling, and integration.  Knowledge is gained by experiencing the same set of data in different ways so one can see it from different perspectives. Finally is Wisdom, which includes contemplation, evaluation, and interpretation.  This is the "ultimate level of understanding."

Wurman makes the point that one must know that all information and things will come to you through a filtered point of view and bias.  Once you admit and realize this, it will be less threatening to understand it and hold it.

He showed that  there are five ways of organizing data in order to be understood. Information can be organized by location, alphabetically, timely, categorically, or by hierarchy. When information is arranged one way, you can learn some things about the subject.  However, when you take the same information and arrange it a totally different way, you can learn even more because it's put into a whole new perspective. It makes the mind work differently and shows the importance of relaxing and thinking about the arrangement of information before it's made complex. This is called simplification and complication. It's the idea of looking at things from different vantage points to better understand the information.