Upside Down and Backwards

I was describing my decision to change careers to an old friend a few days ago. He stated that my choices were 'upside down and backwards' from the normal way of doing things.

My activities with web 2.0 appear to be backwards as well.

• I discovered Twitter by listening to a podcast.
• I then learned about Plurk from Twitter.
• Blogs, RSS, and Google Reader soon replaced my daily newspaper.
• I became involved with live webcasting at EdTechtalk.
• Finally...I started a blog.

Just when I was starting to get the hang of it all, I found out that in October of 2008, blogging was declared dead by Wired magazine.

Did I spend all of my time and energy learning to use a medium that was dead or dying? No, I don't think so. Blogging appears to be alive and well. Blogging is still quite healthy in the education community.

How do you learn new skills? Do you follow the unwritten syllabus of society, or are you an upside down and backwards learner?


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