What a difference personal interaction makes in distance learning! Hanging out with Carol Yeager in G+ tonight inspired me to quit waiting until I had time to do it perfectly, and just write the blog post.
I told Carol how my preconceived notions about creativity (either you have it or you don’t, and, I don’t) were being challenged by CMC11. I can’t tell the difference between volume and pitch. All I can draw are straight lines. No art. No music. Ergo, not creative – and no need to risk looking silly. Did someone say MOOCS are subversive? CMC11 is sneaking doubts past these guardians of my self-protective dogma. What I failed to realize is that creativity is not limited to creators. Innovators are creative too. We think we are just applying common sense to solving problems and fail to see the creativity.
I stumbled upon a lot of things because something else wasn’t working. I didn’t consider it particularly creative to use Wikispaces with my students. Someone mentioned it in a MOOC, so I went there because I was too busy to learn Dreamweaver. I wasn’t sure if it might not be considered moderately shirking my duty to invite a fellow MOOC-er to co-teach a grammar class over Skype. Creative? It’s not like I invented Skype or even a minor app for it. I was surprised when our head IT guy told me I was considered cutting-edge by my colleagues. Isn’t everybody doing what I’m doing, and probably doing it better because of all their training and degrees? I’m just a missionary retraining as an educator. I don’t know if half the things I’m trying will even work (but they’re sure fun). And that’s just where CMC11 is sneaking past my guard and taking away my excuses. I do have a passion for learning with my students. Perhaps I will look silly. I’m becoming less worried about that risk, and more concerned about the risk of not trying it – of not finding out what might be possible.
Still no art or music, but I had this enlightening conversation with a teen about rap the other day…
