Reach out and touch somebody - e-learning the high-touch way

As I sat down to write, a song popped into my head. And now it’s bouncing around in there, daring me to burst into song.

Reach out and touch
Somebody’s Hand
Make this world a better place
If you can

Can you hear Diana Ross singing that song?

All these wonderful digital tools (and I am the first to admit that the tools available online have opened up a whole new world for me) are just that. Tools. Things to help us do something. They are not an end in themselves, and here at JJL I think we’re proving that.

You see, we’re a community. We connect.

And we ask the right questions.

The tools are only as good as the connection. For it is by connecting that we learn, that we expand our horizons. That we meet new friends and create new communities.

When I am sitting in my little home office here in Brisbane, I can connect with people around the globe. And for me, the most valuable part of any technology isn’t the value of the gadget or tool itself, but the human contact that it gives me. Or the time it frees up so I can go do some relating.

In her comment on Rosa’s post  at JJL recently, Leah Maclean raised a great point about different learning styles – in particular kinesthetic learning:

“This style of learning means that the learner works best when they are actively engaged by doing, often by using their hands to engage with the learning. Unfortunately many creators of digital learning seem to focus on the visual or auditory learners and forget to create digital learning environments that work for the kinesthetic learner.”

I put my hand up - in a lot of ways I am kinesthetic. I love to touch. And I recently discovered, through the power of following a rabbit down a blog trail, that something was missing in my life!

Can I share it with you quickly?

I saw a comment by someone on a blog post, and it intrigued me enough to click over, leading me to a swag of beautiful, creative sites. Creative in a kinesthetic, high-touch way.

My fingertips were itching.

Let me explain.

They are sites about art and craft. These amazing, talented people are writing blogs about their creations, and their creativity. I found amazing photographers, photographers who write deliciously, mandala makers, artists using interesting mediums, textile designers, and others…

Of course, they had always been there, I just never went looking before. So I joined StumbleUpon, and stumbled my way through more crafty creative sites, drunk on the promise of inspiration!

[And trying not to stuff too many of them into my google reader – it’s terribly bloated right now]

After my first foray early one morning, I had two epiphanies of sorts:

1.    that I needed to go on an Artist’s Date, that very morning (and I did!)
2.    that I needed to start creating with my hands again. That creating with my words, while definitely something I was put on this earth to do, isn’t enough for my artist within. I need More. I need to touch.

Sometimes the learning we get from an exploration in the digital world (oh the lure of those white rabbits) is not what we expect, but it can be exactly what our soul needs to hear.

Our own Joanna shared her learning, her insight and aha moment, through the power of bloggy words earlier this week.

Would our aha’s have come about if we didn’t have this technology at our fingertips? Possibly. Would it have come as powerfully and in such a timely way? One has to wonder.

Has there been a time you followed a rabbit trail, or read your favourite bloggy-people’s words, and found yourself in an entirely different world, inspired to change?

Learning is change.

Reach out and touch someone’s hand today… who knows what sparks may fly.

---

Post author Karen Wallace would love you to reach out and touch someone today - you never know what learning you will discover or whose soul you will inspire!

You can find more of Karen's writing at The Calm Space - an online magazine that's like a virtual day-spa for the senses; and at The Clearing Space.

Comments

[Leah Maclean]

Thank you for connecting back to me and also for the wonderful rabbit/blog chase that you have led me on with all these links. They are wonderful. You have also inspired me to get back to creating more texitles.

[Karen Wallace]

Thanks Leah, those links really are inspiring, aren't they? Some very creative people out there, and I'm sure it's only the tip of the iceberg! Yesterday I found a couple more including a Flickr album of a book-binder who embroiders the covers for her books (something that really gets my fingers itching!) and she's here in Australia too.

The opportunity for learning and inspiration are truly immense in our digital world. The challenge is then to shut down the computer and go do something with our hands. Let us know how you go with your textiles - I'd love to see photos!

[Rosa Say]

What an inspiring post you have written for us Karen, thank you. I do think the greatest gift we have received from the wonder of online connectivity is simply the way the world has opened up its arms to us. That rabbit in all of us, once tentatively, but now eagerly hopping down a bloggy trail (or down Jubilation Way :-) is going into those open arms to get a big, warm hug. The way you have written about it here is so enticing; what a marvelous rabbit-caller you are!

(We have StumbleUpon and Twitter in common as our two most recent trails!)

[Joanna Young]

Karen, fabulous piece of writing, which send shivers down my spine. I felt the connection :-)

I agree absolutely about the tools

"Tools. Things to help us do something."

Being clear on your purpose is key - and that can be connection, or inspiration, or inspiring others, or a more creative life, or finding a community of like minded people who'll inspire you to fulfil one of those dreams you've just woken back up to...

I have found all sorts of amazing sites through blogging, many through my readers. I came across a fantastic site by an artist recently (I'll share it some time when I've more time) who includes pictures of her work and youtube videos of her painting - it's incredible stuff.

One of the blogs you've linked to here, Lives Less Ordinary, is run by Amy Palko who lives in Stirling and has turned into a wonderful friend in person as well as online. She (bit like you) posts fantastic pictures on her site, including some that are so rich you feel you could touch the landscape or drink in a pool of water... some of that kinaesthetic feel maybe.

Thanks for sharing this Karen, it touched me on so many levels

Joanna

[Steve Sherlock]

Karen - "The tools are only as good as the connection." Here, Here! I could not agree more. So many folks seem to get wrapped into the tool and forget what it really is mean to do, i.e. make a connection.

JJL is a glorious place for making connections! One of the best tools anyone can get for free!

Honk Honk!

[Joanna Young]

Steve, I think you might have hit on a new way of marketing JJL!

"JJL is a glorious place for making connections! One of the best tools anyone can get for free!"

Joanna

[Karen Wallace]

Rosa, Joanna, Steve - thank you for your comments! I have been offline for a day, and came back to these wonderful words. Let me respond to each of you in turn.

Rosa, you are so sweet. To have my writing be called 'inspiring' by someone like you is truly an honour. (And yes, StumbleUpon and Twitter are amazing little rabbit trails, aren't they? I have so much to learn there...)

[Karen Wallace]

Joanna, thank you for the compliments - they mean so very much coming from you!

"Being clear on your purpose" - I seem to recall us having a conversation around that :) I think it was one of your readers that inspired the little adventure I talked about...

As always, you've added more value in your comments! Thank you.

Steve, thank you. Your honks are always great value - and this one (as Joanna has commented) seems to have hit upon the core of what we are here at JJL. Woo Hoo!

[amypalko]

I love this analogy of following a rabbit trail, Karen! In fact, it's something I do quite often, when I have the time. I also like to follow that trail on Twitter, and have found a whole host of fascinating people, who I wouldn't have found otherwise.
Before I go, I must also say that I'm so glad that you found me on a recent rabbit trail, Karen! It's been a pleasure getting to know you.

[Karen Wallace]

Hi Amy! It is lovely to hear from you. Following a rabbit trail can eat up the hours if I let it, I so have to say, Bookmark this and come back later when I have more time. If I don't then we're likely to not eat or go unclothed or something :)

I am new to Twitter - three days new I think - so am still learning all about that, but I can see the possibilities there for hours of delightful discovery as well.

I am glad I found you too!

[Greg Balanko-Dickson]

Everyone here at JJL is doing such amazing work, I have been on a writing hiatus the last 5 months, after 10 years of writing daily. The hiatus wa due to the time spent writing needed to be redirected to care for my Mother after being hospitalized with pneumonia -which has been an amazing and challenging experience.

Your post got me thinking about the important role writing has in life. My primary learning style is auditory and then kinesthetic. Which I guess explains how much writing has contributed to my learning. I am thinking about writing much more deliberately on topics that interest me or wish to learn more about. Up to now my writing has been mostly about what I have learned.

Now I am giving myself permission to direct my learning in a more deliberate and focused fashion.

Did not expect to be writing about this when I started this comment. Seems like writing has become a cathartic outlet for me. All this time I thought I was writing to help others. Hmm, Hah! Heh...

Honk! Honk!

P.S. I am feeling very thankful for JJL and for your high touch thoughts and writing. Aloha!