it's been a long while since i explained the format of the text on eelearning. i've now added this to my about page but thought i'd post it as well.
when i signed up with typepad two years ago, i wanted to call this blog, simply and boringly, elearning. however, that name was already taken.* so in thinking of another name i came up with eelearning. i figured it'd be fun and i draw on the spirit of e e cummings whose poetry and life i've admire since i was 10 or so.
i love his willingness to ignore even taunt the rules of the language and poetry. he innovated to create new ways of making meaning that were powerful and paradigm shifting. his defiance wasn't one of ignorance, though. he thoroughly knew the rules and used them in the rest of his life.
in many ways, his example was one of the influences on me to never accept the status quo as a given, to look for new ways of creating meaning, and having the willingness to take the risk of standing out due to not conforming. All good traits to deal with the fast paced, flattened world we live in today.
what i didn't expect was what i would gain from the experience. it's caused me to change, ever so slightly, the way i move words from brain to fingers. learning to not capitalize the first person singular or the first word of a sentence was almost painful at first. i also had to remind myself everytime that i was writing for eelearning and, thus had to change the way i conceptualized the project before me. finally it's made me a better proofreader (not perfect mind you, but better.)
so my decision to drop all capital letters in this blog is a tribute to the man who had a great influence on me starting 35 years ago. e e learning honors edward estlin cummings.
* <i>Interestingly, the person who had/had elearning.typepad.com is Ankush Gupta who lives and works in Mumbai, India. Ankush became a member of the Learning Circuits Blog team last summer as our serendipitous relationship grows!</i>
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