Unmaking an Introduction - CLMOOC week 1 make

The time has arrived — CLMOOC 2015 has begun. Everyone is invited to join in (or step out) anytime. It’s a highly flexible connected learning experience.

The week 1 “make” is “Unmake an Introduction.” This is a twist on the usual “introduce yourself” activity that invites us to consider our identity in different contexts, to intentionally shatter those identities, and thereby to explore the Connected Learning principles of equity and full participation.

While this make may sound complex, like all makes, it could involve a wide range of activities, from mad-libs to image manipulation to multi-layered digital storytelling. And already, the range of what folks have done is quite amazing. This is an incredible community.

This was a topic of immediate interest to me. I have “unmade” my identity in major ways at least three times in my adult life. Most recently, I have so unmade what I used to be such that I’m no longer sure at all how to introduce myself. None of the easy “I am …” statements fit any more, and what “I am” now seems inexplicable to others and sometimes even to myself. I have wondered many times if I’ve unmade myself without remaking something to fill the old space adequately.

So this is very personal to me. And as I thought about doing a “make” project for this week, I immediately knew what I wanted to do, but I just as immediately had reservations about sharing it in a very public space. Somewhat ironic for me as a huge advocate of “open.”

But the thing is that CLMOOC is about flexibility — it’s up to each individual how they participate, what they make, what they share. And for me, today, I am choosing to make and not to share more broadly. I am still getting a great deal of benefit from this make — interest-powered and production-centered; somewhat peer-supported and with shared purpose; if not openly networked.

So I write this post and even publish it, hoping a bit that it will not be tweeted or otherwise disseminated more widely than the community here. And I hold my make for this week close to my heart, knowing that at least this one time, it is for me and me only, and that this is ok.