Stephen Downes, reflecting in OLDaily on a study of emotional affordances in a MOOC, urged “a need for participants to become more self-reflective.” Yeah, I’ve been a butterfly, or a shallow root/spindly shoot popping up here and there, mostly in FB, but occasionally going on a blog-reading binge. Or intending to go on a blog reading binge, then the first thing I read cries out for a comment, and I’m stuck for a half hour or more trying to get my thoughts into words – does this make my point, do I mean what I ended up writing, no – this is trite and that’s overstating my position, how do I get my point clarified?
So, trying to take Stephen’s admonition to heart, what did I think and learn about independence with my limited participation in week 2 in Rhizo14? I heard Dave Cormier admit in our hangout that he thinks “RE-inforcing” would be a better verb than enforcing, but he couldn’t resist provoking a discussion. I learned that I still have a long way to go with realizing the ideals of independence I hope to teach my adult literacy students. To enforce independence at this point would be like abandoning them. (did I write that somewhere else? sounds familiar) So I need to keep the idea of autonomy before them while providing a support structure. I keep looking for tools. Technology holds some promise. Text-to-speech allows them read the newspaper without getting bogged down. It’s even delightfully like cheating, taking a shortcut around sounding out words, all the while subversively allowing them to enjoy reading.
I myself am only a partially independent learner, given my reaction to Dave’s proposal in the survey to cut the formal course to 4 weeks. I have what seem like revealing insights, get excited about something I’ve discovered, but hearing myself writing posts and talking in hangouts, it sounds flat and shallow to me. Like Joseph Conrad’s Kurtz on his deathbed.
So now I’ve faced my limitations, What will I do to keep learning? It may be slow going but it’s rewarding to participate and feel included in the community. Even if I’m not a major contributor, I will keep joining. Only in hindsight do I realize some of what I’ve gained.
Quotes found in my flitting about this week – linked to the owners’ blogs
- I think that there are layers of letting go
- bring immediate and vulnerable stuff to the table
- (cheating =) the playfulness of doing something forbidden?
- How can I ask students, “What do you want to learn?” while professionally being bound to “This is what you have to learn?”
- what I think about education (is?) based on my own experience and the experience of the community that i work with because it works for me
