Oh so little time...

You know, there is one big difficulty with some of the things we do in this class, like reading each others' blog posts, checking out links that people put up, thinking about and writing blog posts, and even this big final project is that due to the completely unstructured nature of these things they all require a lot of time, especially if we are trying to come up with good stuff. We are all busy college students with many demands on our time, like other classes, work, church, social life, and many other things, and what allows us to successfully manage all of these things is the fact that most of them are structured. Many classes have structured schedules, where we have a certain amount of homework due at certain times, and because we know how much is due when, we can plan it out efficiently. I understand that structured classes have a lot of downsides, and I agree with that, but it does have that big advantage.
   I'm a big fan of creativity. There are few times that I feel more satisfied than when I've come up with something that is good, and is all my own original thought. I also love that in this Digital Civilization class, we are being encouraged to be more creative in our learning and how we go about it, as well as in all of our assignments and presentations, etc. However, being creative requires time. Last year, I took a History of Creativity class (you can see that I like the subject), in which we reviewed civilization's development through the perspective of the progression of creative and innovative ideas in technology, politics, economics, etc. One of the first things that we learned in that class is that for creativity to effectively take place, people need leisure time. By leisure time, I don't mean lots of time spent sitting around doing nothing, but in order for creative ideas to take shape, people need time where they are not otherwise engaged in work or other activities. If we don't get that time, then we can't come up with creative stuff. Look at the dark ages. Peasants had to work hard all day every day, so not much creative stuff was invented during those times.
   I guess my point in this is that we are being asked to come up with original and creative thoughts (about specific topics, no less) and blog about them at the very least a couple of times a week, and that it's hard to do that if you don't have much time to do it in. I don't have very much free time, and though I don't know about other people, I'd imagine that it's the same for a lot of them. I'm not trying to complain (though I'm sure that's what it sounds like), because I actually do enjoy this class quite a bit. It's given me a lot to think about. However, it is difficult for me to come up with good, substantial, and original blog posts in the small amount of free time that I have in my busy schedule. Also the fact that I know in the back of mind that if I don't get a blog post out there on time then I get marked down for it doesn't help. I sometimes feel like that deadline forces me to rush and throw some half-baked and poorly written idea out there, and I don't like doing that, because I know that if I spent more time on that idea it might actually be something good instead of incoherent garbage. I have a number of unfinished blog posts saved as drafts (hopefully I'll be able to finish and publish them today), where that is exactly what's happened. I've held on to them because I haven't been able to think of how to clearly express my thoughts yet, or because I had an idea, I thought about it, I started writing it in a blog, and then because I'm still thinking as I'm writing, partway through I think of something about that idea that I hadn't thought of before, and I realize that what I'm writing is wrong, or needs a lot of adjustment. Though that can be enlightening, it's also a little frustrating sometimes, because it means I have to do my blog post over again. : p
    Anyways, those are the thoughts that are running through my head. For anyone who actually read all the way through this, thank you, and I apologize if any of it didn't make sense. If anyone has any suggestions or comments or anything, please feel free. I definitely try to be open-minded.
  Until later...