Thank you Edublog!
Last week when I started this blog, I was looking around for a theme and notice I did not have access to many. So I wrote edublog to inquire as I had a pro account for my school blog. I figured the accounts must of have been per blog instead of per user. I was ok with that, but I thought I would just confirm it. To my surprise, edublog support wrote me back promptly and gave me an upgrade to pro for six months because I was participating in the Innovators Mindset MOOC. Love that! The perks of #IMMOOC!
Now that I have so many choices, I probably experiment a bit with the look of my blog!
Being good at school was not good for me #IMMOOC
All week I have been thinking about the blog prompt “What do you see as the purpose of education? Why might innovation be crucial in education?” I have written, revised, deleted and rewrote my blog post numerous times this week. Each iteration I wrote, sounding less like my actual voice.
The more I struggled with this and the more I read other’s posts, the more cliche my response was sounding to me. I felt I had nothing new or better to contribute to the conversation. My original working title of the post was going to be the 3 Cs by way of the 4 Ps. Curiosity, Creativity & Community via Passion, Play, Projects & Peers.
Anyone who is familiar with Scratch and the great work of the MIT’s Lifelong Kindergarten would already know where I was headed in my post but I am going to stop short on elaborating further, other then to share Mitch Resnick words below.
“To thrive(children), they must learn to design innovative solutions to the unexpected problems that will undoubtedly arise in their lives. Their success and satisfaction will be based on their ability to think and act creatively. Knowledge alone is not enough: they must learn how to use their knowledge creatively.” Mitch Resnick
This so succinctly sums up all that is rattling through my head and what I believe to be true to my bones. I can say it no better (and believe me I tried) and my take on it was not innovative(new or better), so instead I want to tell you my story.
I was always a good student in school, I was one of those students who were “good at school.” However, being good at school left me passionless with no clear direction in life. I went to college and had difficulty with choosing a major. I finally settle on computer science(now not to give away my age), but this was way back in 1982. My classes were tedious and boring. I remember writing programs that were dictated to me by my professors, none of which were meaningful or authentic. Never did it even occurred to me that I could use computers to create or express my ideas. It was not encouraging, what was important was that I learned the syntax of languages such as Fortran or Pascal. I hated it! I persisted and earned my degree but with no intentions of pursuing computer science. I left school, relieved I was finally done! No love of learning, no curiosity, only worrying about finding a job and establishing myself in a career.
Not to bore you with all the careers I have had over the years, I will only tell you that I had quite a few from a Casino Dealer, to a Claims Adjuster, to Restauranteur and many more. It was not until I fell(that a whole another story, maybe for another day) into my current position that I discovered my passion. Like the Beatles song, it was a long and winding road!
Sometime in the mid-’90s, I discovered that I like playing on my computer. The more I played around with it, the more I learned. I taught myself photoshop, and I started making all kinds of projects. I was curious about anything to do with technology. I spent hours teaching myself. When I was hired to teach technology, I knew nothing about education, I was hired because of my degree in Computer Science. Over the last 8 years, I have spent hours reading, participating in MOOCs and webinars, attending conferences and finding mentors from which I could learn all I could think about learning and teaching. I have been lucky enough to connect with some truly brilliant and inspiring educators and have developed a supportive community to share and learn with together.
So, this is my story. I am hoping that you can see in my own personal journey the value of the 3 Cs, Curiosity, Creativity & Community, and the need of the 4 Ps, Passion, Play, Projects & Peers. My learning that lead to my passion and happiness happen outside of school but my mission is for my students to have this experience inside of school, in my class.
Balls in the Air! #IMMOOC
I signed up for the Innovators Mindset MOOC, and I am thinking, I have too many balls in the air right now, no way I am going to be able to be an active participant, so maybe I can just lurk in the background. I could follow the Facebook group, #IMMOOC on Twitter, immooc.org and the many who have already shared some thought provoking posts and blogs. I was convinced that this would be enough.
Here is where the crazy starts. I decide I am going to post on #IMMOOC Facebook group, apologetically to say I’m here but I’m not here. I am going to say that I have to many balls in the air—but then I think, is that the correct description of my present situation. According to Wiktionary: Too many balls in the air– Too many tasks, responsibilities, or details to cope with or manage successfully. Ok, that sounds about right. I tell myself, you can only do so much and if you take on too much you will not be doing anybody, let alone your students any favors. Then I find this balls in the air, according to the Urban Diction the term means “there is no going back now” referring to the point of no return or to something that cannot be undone. Oh no! My thoughts start down a new path. A path that does not fit neatly with my original intentions. This path is messy and I’m certain I will stumble and perhaps fall.
The more I reflect on this, the more I realize that if I truly want to be innovative, I can’t just sit back and watch. Is it going to be easy? Heck no, it will probably be hard for me! This brings me to one of my favorite quotes from Seymour Papert, “We learn best and we work best if we enjoy what we are doing. But fun and enjoying doesn’t mean easy. The best fun is hard fun.”
As I think about Seymour, I can help but think of Mitch Resnick which leads me to another quote, “As I see it, whoever’s doing the inventing is also doing most of the learning – and probably having most of the fun.”
And finally I have a change a mind, I need to be an active participant, I need to nurture my own innovative mind. I am dropping the “too many” from the “balls in the air”, instead I am going to say it’s too late, balls in the air, I’m gong to just jump in, have some hard fun, learn and innovate. There is no turning back now!