Reflection on Guest Lecture With Brian Lamb
I am learning so much so quickly. I surprised myself by registering for this course, but I am so glad I did. We are only a few weeks in and I have already found myself carrying pockets of stories and knowledge with me. In week 1 of the course, I watched the guest lecture with Brian Lamb from TRU and there is something so profound he mentioned that has stuck with me. Lamb said “The skills you use in WordPress you are going to be able to use them to do all sorts of things that are not for your portfolio.” this has stuck with me since week one of this course.
Brian Lamb mentioned the Knowledge Makers Program that he is a part of and shared with us how Sandra and Johnny Bandura have decided to use their websites to align with their passions. Sandra uses it to compile resources for her math courses and Johnny, an artist, has been working on an artist’s installations depicting the remains of 215 Indigenous children found buried at a former Residential School in Kamloops. Johnny’s page reflects him and his values and he is even able to use it as a media reference when being interviewed. Brian Lamb also mentioned how a student in the program critiqued the research program, wondering why there was not a module for research methods for Indigenous research, and proceeded to build her own website to reflect that. These instances are clear examples of students taking it one step further with their websites; taking it one step closer to what is actually meaningful to them.
As a sociology student, a plethora of my discussions involve the concepts of anomie and alienation. We talk about how in society we have become separate from the things that bring us joy, the things that fulfill our passions. Because of how systemized, and operationalized capitalism has made us, we often are detached from our jobs, families, and everyday lives because we prioritize “success” over satisfaction, efficiency over meaning. This unequivocally ties into what Lamb was mentioning; the skills I am learning in WordPress can be applied to what feeds into my passions and my goals. I am left wondering how I can transform my learning in this course beyond this semester. How can I make sure that I am challenging myself all while making sure to be patient with myself while learning to navigate these WordPress skills? Brian Lamb’s reflections inspire me to make sure that my deeper dive inquiry is something meaningful to me. Upon reflection I have set the intention to complete assignments in this course that I am satisfied with; assignments that I am proud of and that I feel reflect me and my creative ideas. This blog will be a platform for me to explore what it means to be vulnerable enough to admit that I have no idea what I am doing but that I am also excited to take it step by step. I look forward to learning more about what it means to have a blog, how to maintain it, and how I can create an authentic digital presence.
I am reminded of Sylvia Plath’s poem Black Rook In Rainy Weather.
On the stiff twig up there
Hunches a wet black rook
Arranging and rearranging its feathers in the rain.
I do not expect a miracle
Or an accident
To set the sight on fire
In my eye, nor seek
Any more in the desultory weather some design,
But let spotted leaves fall as they fall,
Without ceremony, or portent.
Although, I admit, I desire,
Occasionally, some backtalk
From the mute sky, I can’t honestly complain:
A certain minor light may still
Lean incandescent
Out of kitchen table or chair
As if a celestial burning took
Possession of the most obtuse objects now and then —
Thus hallowing an interval
Otherwise inconsequent
By bestowing largesse, honor,
One might say love. At any rate, I now walk
Wary (for it could happen
Even in this dull, ruinous landscape); skeptical,
Yet politic; ignorant
Of whatever angel may choose to flare
Suddenly at my elbow. I only know that a rook
Ordering its black feathers can so shine
As to seize my senses, haul
My eyelids up, and grant
A brief respite from fear
Of total neutrality. With luck,
Trekking stubborn through this season
Of fatigue, I shall
Patch together a content
Of sorts. Miracles occur,
If you care to call those spasmodic
Tricks of radiance miracles. The wait’s begun again,
The long wait for the angel,
For that rare, random descent.
Plath mentions
A certain minor light may still
Lean incandescent
A certain thread of inspiration, a light that I plan to explore further through this courseÂ
Of sorts. Miracles occur,
If you care to call those spasmodic
Tricks of radiance miracles. The wait’s begun again,
The long wait for the angel,
For that rare, random descent.
A radiance from within that I plan to engage with intentionally, and intrepidly throughout the duration of this course.
