Digitise my life

The other day I was challenged about my 100 hour challenge - Isn't my challenge just doing my job? Which...erm... it is, kind of. Can't get round that really. And another thing - what exactly is my challenge?

Well first of all, what is it I do for my job? I'd like to think as Community Art worker, what I do is value people's lives and support people to express themselves the way they want to.
It's about making connections between different jobs, people, places, home, interests in a meaningful way - its' beginning to sound more and more like connectivism, a theory I knew nothing about until recently, or 'social constructivism', which sounds a lot nicer.

And that's where using digital stuff starts getting exciting (hold back your enthusiasm). Like all good systems, they kind of reflect, or fit, what your view of reality already is. For Community Art Workers, like teachers and other community-minded types, we have a natural affinity for connectivism. The potential for connecting in digital is phenomenal - I am very excited about what Podnosh are doing in our area at the moment in Balsall Heath and other Bham areas exactly because of this.

So, coming back to 100 hour challenge, in roundabout kind of way, it is just doing my job. My 100hrs is about long periods of reflection, longer periods of experimenting with digital stuff out there, and even more networking, real and digital, which should be 'just doing my job'. It's really ring fencing a period of time for me to develop. Something I should be doing anyway, but I guess like lots of people, I end up getting caught up in work. It is an opportunity for me to digitise my life. I have also started to digitise my wife (she now blogs and has started Facebook, after years of resistance!), and looking forward to supporting others to digitise, getting back to community art worker definition, to connect and support people to express themselves the way they want to.