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What does Vulnerability in Learning Look Like?
The word vulnerability in learning surfaced in a recent discussion about teaching in the open world wide web. It’s the topic of my visual journal entry for the day. My reflections on this topic come in the form of questions as these ideas swirled in my head: 1. I’m glad that someone has stood up for vulnerability and recognize that it is a valid emotion that should not be frequently stigmatized as being shameful to own. Megan Boler’s book (1999), Feeling Power, focuses on the politics of emotions. In it,…
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Oblique Strategies to Overcome Mental Blocks
Applicants to All Soul’s College at Oxford were required — until recently — to write essays in response to a single-word prompt within three hours. These essays were used to gain insight into prospective students’ ability to be imaginative and leverage their existing knowledge to make connections (Seelig, 2012, cited in Tina Seelig’s MOOC, Creativity: Music to My Ears, 2014).In a recent meeting, the word “vulnerability” in learning surfaced. I was inspired to associate the word with several books I’d read and some life experiences — akin to how “oblique…
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Mental Wonderland: Inspiring Hope & Greatness
Before you scratch your head in perplexity, let me say this, “Give this video a chance!” SEE. THINK. WONDER (Project Zero at Harvard Graduate School of Education). Two singers rendering a foreign language song can be helpful as an instructional strategy? Yes, please give yourself permission to wonder (three words I’m borrowing from Philip Yenawine’s book (2013) which my colleague Enoch Hale highlighted to me). Also, part of the effortful joy of learning new things involves the deployment of grit (Angela L. Duckworth, U Penn, has been conducting studies on…
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The “Proper” Artwork in Office Space
Is an office setting an appropriate place to hang nude artwork? I’ve been asked by a colleague why I don’t hang my own artwork in the office — I do have a few pieces up. I didn’t answer him directly because I’ve done mostly figure drawings of nude models. I hesitate to hang any of these pieces in my office. The question surfaced again, today. Someone stopped by my office and looked around my office environs. He asked if I was an artist. I am not a trained artist but…
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Desiring to Learn is Not Enough by Itself
I’ve enrolled in numerous MOOCs and finished just one — so far. I think I may have found another that I will complete: UQx: Think 101x The Science of Everyday Thinking. Up to 80,000 people are taking part in this MOOC run by the University of Queensland.It’s Week 2 — the instructors organize the units into Episodes — and I’ve completed all assignments (except one) in Episode 2, on the very day it was made available. I’m astounded by my effort. What is it about this MOOC that has me…
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3D Browser
POPULAR: Microsoft Research reveals 3D browser SurroundWeb http://t.co/otnwuR99Gs pic.twitter.com/S9y8I8IBnH — The Next Web (@TheNextWeb) March 3, 2014 “… the prototype allows Web pages to display content across multiple surfaces in a room.” Educational implications?
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TyRuben Ellingson: Digital Pragmata Brown Bag
TyRuben Ellingson delivered an outstanding talk today at the Academic Learning Commons 4100. I took some sketchnotes for reflection. Two major throughlines for this presentation, as I see it, are: How do you become really good at doing something? What fosters creativity? I read and think about deep learning and effective learning — constantly. TyRuben’s talk adds to that mashup of ideas from print and nonprint resources. I see a pattern in learning that is necessary for one to become an exquisite and consummate artist (or an expert in any…
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Seize Your Limitations
Need a pick-me-up for the day? Watch this video. “Limitations may be the most unlikely of places to harness creativity, but perhaps one of the best ways to get out of ruts, rethink categories and challenge accepted norms.” – Phil Hansen, artist
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In the Arena
This is a picture I took of Byrd Theatre at West Cary Street, Richmond, Virginia. Text on image: It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; — who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the…
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2013 Sloan-C International Conference Notes: Good Work in Online Learning
I returned a call to a friend after returning from the Sloan Consortium’s International Conference at Orlando, Florida. “How was it? The same old people, right?” she asked. It has often intrigued me as a doctoral student that not everyone is interested in going to conferences, after all, it is part of a researcher’s practice, or so we were told — to disseminate ideas/findings and engage with one’s community of practice. Now that I’ve graduated, I still find it exciting to continue with the practice. But my friend’s comment made…
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Enduring Passion: Letters to a Young Scientist
I became aware of this book by Edward O. Wilson in early August 2013. I had participated in the Arts and Passion-Driven-Learning Summer Institute. During the Opening Concert, Yo-Yo Ma (yes, the world-renowned cellist) read a few lines from the book on stage: [P]ut passion ahead of training… Decision and hard work based on enduring passion will never fail you. [Wilson, 2013, p. 25] Intrigued, I returned home from Cambridge, MA, determined to read the book. Fast forward two months. I’ve finished reading the book out of a pile of…
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Border Crossing: In a Constant State of Negotiation
In my “new” workplace, I’m quite often told a few things that are “normal” in my former environment. As these comments became more of an occurrence, I began to reflect on them a little more as self-checks.1. I have animated facial expressions. In the hearing world, I’m considered expressive because I include facial expressions to enhance communication. I have acquired this ability through learning sign language. It has become automatized in my mind; I don’t think about whether I’m doing it. Yet, in the Deaf world, I’m not sufficiently expressive.…
