Day 2: 24 hours later....how has my impression of community been challenged?

Before arriving in Malibu 24 hours ago, my impression of a community was Friday night football games, gossip at the coffee shop, drinks at the clubhouse after a round of golf, and other community interaction in my town. My internet community was simply email and instant messenger.

I knew social networking opportunities exist; however, I’m just not a social networking type of person. 24 hours ago, I was completely content with just my cell phone, email, and instant messenger. Today’s ‘Day 2 Orientation’ has helped me to break down those barriers, as I am now blogging, creating skype accounts, ‘TappedIn’, and utilizing mybanner.com to begin creation of my future webpage.

I have come to understand that a community is not a geographic group. My community here at MALT (Master of Arts in Learning Technologies, Online) Orientation consists of individuals from all over the United States. The book Here Comes Everybody helped introduce me to the idea that an individual can affect change reaching far beyond my geographic community.

I look forward to expanding my knowledge and comfort zone while learning through technology via the MALT program.

I have attached a link of an excellent clip by Jonathon Harris produced through TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design). Watch from the 11-minute mark the balloon clip.

http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_harris_collects_stories.html