Week 4: Response to Elaine Scott

Elaine,
Graham Chapman said:

"All ideas come about through some sort of observation. It sparks an attitude; some object or emotion causes a reaction in the other person."

I think although you may not see the direct and lasting effects of your "spark" and the love you have show these young men now they will surely present themselves in the future. You said yourself you take the stance of leading by example. I think both you and those young men are taking much more away from this experience with you than either of you realize.  You seem to be internalizing the "be the board" concept of the book and looking at this from a positive perspective, one that you cannot control, but one that you can guide. Your positivity and determination are a "spark" for all of us.

Week 4: Response to Jen Geiger

Forever the cynic Jen. I always respect your honesty and willingness to admit what many of us don't. We don't know it all and we're not even close. I feel the way you do sometimes in many situations. Your post reminded me, however, of something I read in the book The Four Agreements. I may have mentioned this in a previous post, but I'll post the quote here anyway:

"It is very interesting how the human mind works. We have the need to justify everything, to explain and understand everything, in order to feel safe. We have millions of questions that need answers because there are so many things that the reasoning mind cannot explain. It is not important if the answer is correct; just the answer itself makes us feel safe. This is why we make assumptions. We make all sorts of assumptions because we don’t have the courage to ask questions."

Maybe we are all trying way too hard to figure everything out. Maybe there isn't an answer to everything or maybe instead of assuming all we need to do is ask. I find myself forgetting to just straight out ask sometimes. Have you tried that approach with this young man?

By the way, I loved the bluntcard.

Week 4: The Art of Possibility - Be The Board

The culminating chapters of the Art of Possibility had me scratching my head at some points, particularly the chapter on framework while others had bells going off in my head. One of those "bell" chapters was about being the board.

"How Incredible!" 

The idea in Chapter 10: Being the Board changed around my entire way of thinking about a situation. Such a simple, yet complex idea. Being the board essentially means taking yourself out of the mindset of being a pawn played in a game, one that has no control over what happens to it, that tends to blame anything horrible on others because it supposedly has no control, into the actual board, not the game mind you or the opponent, but the board. In being a pawn you give away your power and your ability to control the situation and by control I don't mean to force others to do as you will. By being the board you keep your options open and continue to give yourself the ability to choose how you will react, how you will behave, what perspective you will take on the situation, and what your next move will be. 

I sat back after reading all this and thought to myself how many times I've done this..relented my power to a situation assuming I had no control over it and taking no responsibility for its occurrence or should I say at least feeling like I had only one way to react to it. I feel like I've been fighting things and being resistant and it has been holding me back. 

This quote makes sense to me:

Choosing the being the board approach opens the possibility of a graceful journey, one that quickly reinstates us on a path we chose before the fateful collision intervened. It allows us to keep on track. Grace comes from owning the risks we take in a world by and large immune from our control.

This makes me wonder. How much time have I really been wasting on fighting things I can't control? How much energy have I put into things "off my track"?

While I read this entire book, I tried to continuously think of ways I could relate it back to instances in my life.  I think this book has done a lot for  getting me to think in a different perspective about things. My big takeaways from these final chapters are two questions stated within chapter 10 and are ones that I will continue to ask myself.

1. How did this get on the board that I am?
2. How is it that I have become a context for that to occur?

These questions will allow me to pull myself back into the situation and really get perspective. I will no longer ask why me?, but How did this come about and how can I stay on track?


(picture credit: Tabuleiro de Ouija by elbragon)

Week 4: Publishing/Leadership Project

I chose social learning in higher education because of my current position at the University of Rochester. I work with large group of administrators and often find that the group as a whole produces more useful knowledge than the individuals themselves. I want to utilize this collective knowledge in social learning settings to create valuable resources for the University. I would like to submit to Edutopia and the AACE Journal. I chose Edutopia because it is a very well known site that isn't overly stuffy in their approach, they are very forward thinking in their approach to education and one of its core concepts is technology integration. I chose the AACE Journal because they are less theoretical and more focused on practical applications of technology, they operate on an international level, and approach technology in a multi-disciplinary way. Both of these choices fit with my thoughts and perspective on technology and the "shifting" of traditional educational paradigms and therefore I thought they would be a good fit.

Think Out Loud Post #1

Think Out Loud Post #2


My Paper:
Social Learning Theory and Technology: Changing Traditional Educational Paradigms in Higher Education Settings

(photo credits: edcampomaha and AACE Publications)