I've been reading through the 7 1/2 habits entries that have been posted so far, and I started taking some notes. They really are fascinating because everyone's approaching an analysis of the habits in different ways.
So far, we're sort of split down the middle (with Pam staking out that mid way point). On the one hand are the folks who need that goal in order to learn, as Jim says, "No goal = Nothing to seek." Marla thinks she's more productive when she has a goal, and Mary Jane (not surprisingly, because she's teaching this session) thinks it's critical to know where we want to end up when we set out. I wonder if these are the folks who make a list when they head out to the store. When we go to Costco, we have a list and a path, but strange things appear in our cart by the time we're done.
On the other hand, there's another group that likes to explore (who knows what we'll uncover?) Karen (in Cybersynapse, a great blog name!) says that she likes "seizing opportunities as they present themselves rather than looking for them" which I think is a wonderful way of describing life-long learning. Denise talks about plodding through (she'll be comfy here in the big muddy), and Alisa says, "I don't really care where it's going to take me. . . . If something is fun, then I try to think of ways I could actually use it for some goal. The goal comes at the end."
I think I'm most often in this last group. I like the serendipitous nature of not knowing what might happen when I put my particular spin on the tools I learn, and I'm willing to put in the time to learn without knowing whether it will lead anywhere at all.
Not surprisingly, we're also split on how comfortable we are with "play" as a kind of learning. When I think of play, I hear "pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again." I wish I had a dime for every time I've had to do that -- I'd have a big jar of coins for sure. This summer, I find myself exploring more before reading the FAQ or the docs (if there are any). I'm trying to click on all the links to see what they do, and if I get confused, I just take a break and then approach it from a different direction. I'm trying really, really hard not to approach every "thing" with the question of how I could use it in my classes.
But then, I wonder how our students would react to the 7 1/2 habits.
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3 comments:
I've been reading the blogs too. It's fun seeing what the others think, and yes, it's amazing how different our perspectives are.
To help others read, I created a mashup or I aggregated all the RSS feeds to one feed so others can subscribe to one and not 20 different feeds. Although I'm not sure we all know what the heck that means. Here's the page link: http://xfruits.com/soul4real/
You can either read them all on this page or you can subscribe using your favorite reader by hitting the Add to button on the left. Enjoy.
Alisa's right. I don't know what a "mashup" involves, but I like the idea of being able to see the other comments in one place. Is that what the link will help me do?
I'll try it out, but I may be back with questions.
Here goes!
It worked! Thanks for setting up the mash up, Alisa.
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