Author: jyots21

“Stories are just data with a Soul” ~ Brene Brown

I know a mechanical engineer, who loved what he did even though he became an engineer not due to his passion for engineering but due to family pressures. However, over the years he found that he loved what he did and he worked for it. One of his colleagues got promoted every year, chosen over him for six straight years not because of better work but because of the relationships maintained with superiors. Even though our engineer never complained, his boss subtlety indicated that he needed to get better at connecting with his superiors too. Our engineer did not care because he knew he was being authentic and real to himself and his work. He connected with his workers, they cared for and respected him and that was enough for him. He did not need to connect with his superiors to gain this insight, he found gratification in his authenticity and his ideals rather than the approval of his superiors. Our engineer – a man a few words – my father, defying norms, did not care of organizational safety.

Safety – we all crave safety, don’t we? If we look at Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy, after our basic needs of food, water and air are met we move on to safety needs. Being “safe” means different things to different people though. In the professional world, I think it has unfortunately been equated to conformity – we conform with standards, we conform with norms, we conform with ideals of the company we work for because we want to be professionally “safe”. It is in the human nature, in our instinct to want to be safe. Fight, flight and freeze are real and all three of these instincts insure our safety depending on the situation we are in. Human beings are wired for it and that is what I believe Parker Palmer is getting at, when he questions why people don’t stand up to institutional ignorance or injustice. If we believe that our professional safety is in danger because we are not conforming to the norms of our workplace, then it is possible that people will chose safety over whatever is on the other side of the spectrum.

What is on the other side? According to Brene Brown, the author of Daring Greatly, it is shame – defined as the fear of disconnection or the fear of not being good enough to connect. How did I go from intellectual to emotional, left brain to right brain? Please bear with me so I can explain. Just as human beings are wired for safety, we are also wired for connection. In her research that focuses on qualitative data analysis of interviews with themes such as shame and vulnerability, Brene Brown has talked extensively about human connection and the lack thereof. In her TedTalk, The Power of Vulnerability, she states that in order for us to connect with others, we have to allow ourselves to be “really seen”. While reading Palmer’s thoughts about the “new professional” I wondered if that is what he thinks the new professionals need…the courage to “really be seen”. The willingness to be examined as a whole person – not just as a professional or an academic but as a whole. And that is where the image of a wholehearted, authentic educator appeared in my mind.

In describing the features of a wholehearted person, Brene Brown succinctly puts them as “the courage to be imperfect”, the compassion to be kind to oneself and others, the connection that is formed as a result of authenticity which is the willingness “to let go of who people think they should be in order to be who they” really are. And last but not least, the vulnerability that comes along with the belief that what makes a person vulnerable is also the sole cause of them being beautiful. In order to be vulnerable however, one has to be willing to put themselves under a microscope, to examine their own values, beliefs, ideals, and most importantly, as Palmer puts it, their “own shadows”.

Very few people sign up for self-inflicted interrogation though. Mostly we are “ok” with being safe in our lovely, comfortable cocoons and we lose our passions and we douse our fires that drove us towards our professions in the first place. Passions that made us want to be doctors, engineers, scientists, researchers, psychologists, artists, counselors, mathematicians, actors, economists…the list goes on. Personally, I agree with Palmer as well as Brown, and for myself want to integrate the concept of challenging what is wrong not only with the intention to stay sane but essentially because I want to remain authentic and genuine in my profession, to honor my own integrity as a counselor and live by what I believe is my deepest calling – to be an educator of new authentic and genuine professionals.


From the journal of a “miserable child”

Last Fall, while I was talking to my parents on the phone, describing my experiences as a student at Virginia Tech, I asked my mother if she had ever imagined I would pursue a doctoral degree. She said (and I kid you not), “Nope, you were such a miserable child in grade school, I never would have thought you would be interested in higher education!”

She was 100 percent correct because in “grade school” I really was a “miserable child”. I was not a miserable child by nature, it just happened in grade school. While reading Pedagogy of the Oppressed where Paulo Freire describes the “banking education” model, I chuckled because it took me back to grade school. I can say I have lived through each one of those bullet points Paulo Freire stated – hence the misery. My parents were always be surprised that I got fantastic grades in any subject that had a “practical” attached to it (basically part of the course during which I had to do a hands-on application of the knowledge gained in the theory class) versus a purely theoretical subject. I absolutely loved the subjects with a practical component because they helped me apply what I had learned in class to solve the problem at hand. The curiosity of how something I read in a book would translate into a real life scenario was inspiring to me. It was the ‘active’ that I was drawn to instead of the ‘passive’ as we read about in the Pedagogy of Freedom article.

Drawing just a little more on my experience of teachers growing up, whenever I saw a grade school teacher outside the context of the classroom, they seemed so nice…they even smiled! In the classroom however, they were these magnanimous personalities that I never formed a connection with. In contrast, I have known and connected with some educators over the years (mainly during my graduate schools) who I respect and admire not just due to the fact that they facilitated my education and helped me learn, but also because they cared about my learning…not their teaching but my learning. They made me aware of things I needed to know but did not expect me to repeat verbatim what they had said. They were patient with me and that just made all the difference. These educators, as I would like to address them, helped me realize that learning was not cramming and regurgitating, learning was organic if the conditions surrounding the attempt to learn were conducive.

How can I apply this to myself when I am standing in the shoes of an educator?! I really liked the video in which Paulo Freire says “…the virtue of tolerance, it is through the exercise of tolerance that I discover the rich possibility of doing things and learning different things with different people. Being tolerant is not a question of being naïve…it does not demand from me to lose my personality.” Thus, as an educator, I would have to develop the ability of being patient, learn how to teach in a fashion that is conducive to the learning of the individuals in my class, of wanting to learn with them and for them and in the process not forgetting who I am as an educator and what I bring to the table to facilitate and create that learning environment.

 


The only real object of investigation…

Where do I start? Since Wednesday night I have been asking myself this question and I still do not have an answer. At least it is by no means a perfect answer or even an answer at all. At this time it is like a puzzle so I plan on describing a few pieces and hopefully it will result in something meaningful in the end. Bear with me.

When I saw that the readings for this week included Claude Steele’s work I instantly consulted my teaching notes from a year ago and found that while teaching a Social Psychology lesson I had used one of Dr. Steele’s videos as a way to introduce the topic of Bias, Stereotype, Prejudice and Discrimination for my students. You can find it on YouTube here. Much of what he talks about in this video is summarizing what we read in the chapters from his book Whistling Vivaldi. A few things that stood out to me in Dr. Steele’s work were:

  1. The explanation of what makes a social identity important “if you have to deal with things in situations because you have the identity then that identity is likely to become very important to you…” (approx. 14 minutes in his talk)
  2. How “Identity Contingencies” become central to how one functions on a daily basis.
  3. “a question that makes you aware that you’ve got an identity” (approx. 16 minutes)
  4. Contingencies that threaten us become more important… caring makes you vulnerable (approx. 35 minutes)

I will deliberate on the third point here just to provide perspective. Somewhere along the path of life we all realize that we are individuals, that we are different from other people in a particular way. This could be anything like Dr. Steele explains. It could be gender, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, metal health status or ability to name a few but a differential status that makes a person vulnerable from the get-go is what is central to how we feel about it and how we function with it day in and day out. Growing up in a majorly male chauvinistic society in India I always knew as a female child that I would not be treated equally. It was an awareness that I did not argue with till later in life. My gender being a part of my identity and having lived with it for numerous years and being discriminated against for it never really came to me as a shock. Something else however came as a shock…eventually.

One particular situation that comes to mind happened in 2005. I was in U.K. based in a small town high up north neighboring the Scotland border. It was 4am on a crisp August morning and I was waiting to catch a bus to London so as to fly back home to India for good. Eventually another individual, with a similar situation I’m sure, came up to me and started making small talk – weather, sports and what not but the question that made me realize something about myself apart from what I already knew and that I had never thought of before was “what country are you from?” and soon after that came “so you are a Hindu, right?” No harm done just as long as they were questions based on curiosity. We all get curious. Just to add a little context to that situation though this was the time when U.K was in upheaval, upset and torn by the London Tube blasts that had unfortunately taken place not even a month ago. Not sure what the next question would have been or how this situation would have ended but the bus pulled up at that very time. As I boarded the bus I realized something I had never thought of before – I walk with every single one of my identities. Some are overt and some covert but still every single day, I enter situations in which other individuals have the opportunity to form an opinion about me even when they do not know my name or what kind of person I am.

I used Bias, Stereotype, Prejudice and Discrimination together in a sentence earlier as I have always arranged them in my mind on a continuum. Bias – showing an inclination or preference for one over the other. Stereotype – a generalization about a group of people or social category, usually incorrect or presumptuous in nature. Prejudice – an unjustified attitude towards an individual, usually a result of stereotyping. Discrimination – behavior or actions towards an individual, usually negative and usually a result of prejudiced ideas or stereotypes. So it makes sense if you arrange the four concepts on a continuum, right?! Now was it bias, stereotype, prejudice or discrimination that was exercised in the aforementioned story? Can you tell? Maybe it was one or maybe it was neither. I still cannot decide but it lends perspective on the fact that identity contingencies that fire up our fight or flight response become important.

Dr. Rick Hanson in his book with Dr. Richard Mendius called Buddha’s Brain explain simply that any incident that triggers fight or flight or the limbic System or the primitive brain as it is sometimes called will result in the prefrontal cortex or our thinking brain to shut down. Therefore, no matter what we know through our prefrontal cortex, the area that is responsible for higher level thinking and reasoning, we are not thinking with that part of the brain anymore. Everything at that time and in that moment is about survival. Thus, it would make complete sense if I were threatened or felt threatened due to one or two identity contingencies that those contingencies would then be extremely important to me and any time, any single time one of those identity contingencies were threatened, they would trigger a fight or flight response in me. How simple does that sound on a cognitive prefrontal cortex level. On the level or our primitive brain however, it sounds horrifying.

If I learned anything on my journey to becoming a counselor it was to treat every individual as…wait for it…an individual. Even while considering them in various roles and different social contexts one always has to try and understand the individual. This takes time. After listening to numerous stories, and mind you real, horrifying, heart wrenching life stories, and trying understand how it feels like to be in my client’s shoes, I can say that it has been the most humbling experience of my life. One has to make a deliberate shift from forming an opinion to forming an understanding. Carl Jung in his famous work The Undiscovered Self says:

“Judged scientifically, the individual is nothing but a unit which repeats itself ad infinitum and could just as well be designated with a letter of the alphabet. For understanding, on the other hand, it is just the unique individual human being who, when stripped of all those conformities and regularities so dear to the heart of the scientist, is the supreme and only real object of investigation.” (p. 10)

Stepping into the role a teacher then we have to decide – what is the real object of our investigation? If the object of our investigation is what inspires learning in our students then we would need to know who the student is. In order to know the student then, we would need to understand their identity contingencies. If we are neglecting to understand our student’s identity contingencies we are neglecting to understand the student and therefore in turn neglecting to understand what really inspires learning in our students.

Lastly, I know I am a dreamer, but even I know that a perfect world does not exist. I know that even an ideal world is difficult to create. Just like years ago I knew that in the Indian society a female child is a liability and as I mentioned before, would never be treated equally. Is it however, too much to dream that every individual could be, should be and has the right to be treated with equity?!


Planting the seeds is not enough…anymore.

“They are not growing! I’m going to fail science class!” said the girl staring at the dish looking disappointed.

“They are” said her mother, “you just can’t see it yet.”

Not doubting her parent for one second the girl asked “Well, what do I do then?”

“Make sure you put your dish in the sunlight every morning and make sure it has enough water…not too much not too little…just enough and then,” said her mother “you wait.”

Now that does not sound like something a ten year old can do easily – Wait?! Be patient?! What?! But I remember waking up every morning and putting my little dish on the window sill in the sunlight, making sure it had just enough water and then sprinting to catch my school bus in time. It did take a while and eventually one morning I saw little white stems emerging from within the thin cotton layers that held my precious black grams, the seeds to my science experiment. Once the white stems had found their way out into the open air I started seeing little green leaves forming. As the saplings turned upwards towards the Sun reaching out for light and carbon dioxide, I felt this exhilaration inside me. I had done it! I had successfully planted the seeds and they were turning into little saplings quickly. I didn’t even care about passing science class anymore…this was SO cool!

Over the years I have heard many uses of the phrase “planting the seeds” and I have always appreciated its significance. My entire family loves plants and we have a few green thumbs among us. While reading Professor Fowler’s work the story I mention above came to mind. The questions that she poses in her writing The Authentic Teaching Self and Communication Skills made me realize that “planting the seeds” was not good enough anymore. When we take learning into account, as a teacher I can plant the seeds of basic concepts related to Counseling or Psychology or any other class I end up teaching through lectures, assignments, articles, YouTube videos and Ted Talks but whether those seeds are going to turn into saplings or dry up with too much sunlight or drown in too much water is also my responsibility. I cannot just plant a seed and leave it to fight for light and water! On the other hand, I cannot smother them with too much either – too much sunlight, too much water, too many nutrients…yikes! I have to be able to provide ideal conditions in which the seeds have the opportunity to thrive.

Therefore, I intend my approach to teaching being similar to how I approached growing black grams in a dish. It would involve fascination, exhilaration and patience. Buddhist teachings talk about the “middle path”, a path that runs through between any two polarities. I find myself trying to maintain this balance in my authentic teaching self. Balance between being structured and being fluid, balance between lecturing and discussing, balance between theoretical and experiential learning. Additionally, similar to how Buddhism predicts I anticipate it being a constant struggle, a consistent effort just like trying to be mindful. In my journey to define my authentic teaching self I hope to be able to continue balancing polarities – just the right amount of water and sunlight.


Imagination + Inspiration + Opportunity = Visible Creativity

Approximately three years ago I was teaching an Advanced Psychology course for High School Juniors and Seniors as an elective. Being an “elective” we had leeway with what we as course designers thought was important for our students to learn. Through the course of that year I kept thinking, if only I had a better background in Biology my students would have been able to learn more about the intricacies of how our brain and body structures contribute to human behavior. It would be fascinating for them to be able to make connections that I, at that time was unable to facilitate for them. Problem? Not really.

Few months later just like a dream coming true our school provided the opportunity to propose and design interdisciplinary courses of our liking. It was project undertaken by our Director of Teaching and Learning. We proposed one in Neuropsychology – designed to be co-taught year round by two teachers – a biology teacher and a psychology teacher (insert brain explosion here with sound effects). To fulfill the purpose successfully we were provided training by Veronica Boix Mansilla. The first question she asked us was something to the effect of: a year from now what do you imagine your students will be able to do after taking your class that they will not be able to do after taking Psychology or Biology classes separately? And imagine we did.

By the end of the year our students were able to examine any case study about an individual suffering from a mental health problem taking into consideration their physical, medical, social, emotional, behavioral history and symptoms to assess their problem accurately and provide recommendations for both psychological as well as psychotropic interventions. Aristotle said, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” and we saw it, we saw it blossoming and blooming with our own eyes.

Why I am using this as an example? Believe me I had no idea this would happen, we had definitely not imagined it the way it unfolded! That however is key – we had imagined something but this endeavor could not have worked only on imagination. It also needed inspiration and opportunity as well as guidance to create something outside the box. What we as teachers created was nothing compared to what our students learned and created in our class. We had more than a few students, teachers, college counselors and parents come up to us and acknowledge how the course had inspired their students, sons and daughters. It was not a uniform affect – some wanted to take up Neuropsychology in college, others wanted to study Psychology and some wanted to go into Counseling or Medical fields.

This week’s various readings inspired me to share this story with you, an example of visible creativity because this story could just as easily not happened had it not been for the planets being aligned in a certain way. Sometimes we imagine when we have an issue at hand and sometimes we imagine because…well…we can. Human beings are capable of higher order cognition and meta cognition and meta-meta cognition (if that is fathomable! If you step into a counselor role anything is possible). I say we use this amazing talent or capacity and see how much, how far, how steep, how high, how deep we can pan out and create?!


There comes Change again – and it is SCARY!

I wonder sometimes – what made me to choose Liberal Arts? Why did I study Economics and English Literature in college…why didn’t I study Calculus or Chemistry? What was I thinking when I choose not to go for the Fine Arts College entrance exams? What caused me to shy away from Management School? What in the world was I thinking? What factors in my life were resulting in my choices? In simplistic terms – what was motivating my decisions?

Motivation. What a fascinating concept! When I chose Psychology as an elective in High School I was really interested in understanding people, their behavior and most of all what made them tick. Motivation can be very simply explained as what makes people tick, can’t it?!

Watching the Ted Talk by Dan Pink resulted in a Ted Talk binge and during one of the other talks I heard the words intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. Lightbulb! One of my specializations during my Master’s degree in Psychology was Human Motivation. We read about the Self Determination Theory proposed by Deci and Ryan in 1985 which talks about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. But why am I stuck on motivation when we, in fact, are supposed to be talking about assessment?!

Let’s think about this, could it be possible within the realm of assessment to think about assessing what makes your student tick? What is your student passionate about? What does she/he want to learn about? What would inspire them to connect the little dots of information that go from one detail to another, overlap, shadow, play tag with each other (cause nothing in education is ever simple), and what would be the result of that inspiration.

Traditionally assessment has always been thought of as an extrinsic motivator – if you do this you get that. If you study hard you will get good grades. If you get good grades you can go to any school you want. If you go to any school you want you can study anything you like. If you study anything you like and get good grades, you can get work. If you get work, then you can make money, gain status and be successful. Extrinsic, right?!

The key questions that need to be asked with regards to improving assessment in education are:

Do assessments define learning?

Do assessment results define humanity, humility and honesty?

Do assessments define intelligence?

Is a good grade only evidence of the fact that a student is paying attention in class or that she/he is involved in learning with her/his brain, body, mind and heart?

If the answer is ‘yes’, then we don’t need to talk about this anymore. But, I am guessing that the answer to these questions is probably ‘no’.

I have sat through several exams/assessments in my life. Board exams throughout my schooling years, college exams, entrance exams like the CAT (common admission test) in India, the TOEFL and the GRE. I have questioned the usefulness of these assessments in defining my intelligence, my learning and my humanity. The last time I took the GRE though I was constantly asking myself one question – “how does being able to find the value of x on a slope define how I am going to use Roger’s Person-Centered Approach in my office with a client? It won’t.

We have talked about sideways learning previously. It is an inspiring concept. Should sideways learning then result in sideways assessment and what would that look like? What would happen to entrance tests and college rankings? How would people decide who comes to their college to learn as the Class of 2020?

Too many questions and not enough answers. We have to ask ourselves, If the end result of education is the growth and development of human beings…if the end result of education is independent thinking then why do we even have assessments? All extrinsic, for the benefit of the school, the college counselor, the admission representative. Or is it a way to delay independent thinking? Are we conveying to our younger generations “slow down you are moving too fast for my comfort so I’m going to slam a number, a letter on you and say that you cannot move as quickly as you want to”. What is that teaching them and what are they learning? If we want our students to be capable of “putting knowledge into practice in creative ways” as Lombardi calls it in her paper Making the Grade: The Role of Assessment in Authentic Learning, then let us be creative with assessment. Let us start with being creative about selection procedures, college interviews and job interviews….let us use all the research being done to inform every decision. Let us start assessing intrinsically.

This requires a shift. It requires uncertainty, it requires us to think outside the box, it requires thinking on our feet and it requires us to change…..and that is a scary concept.


Bird’s eye view: Mindful Teaching and Learning

The evening of January 6, 2016 I was flying back from Boston after having visited some of my family and my friends that I had been missing dearly since I moved to Blacksburg last Fall. I was feeling wistful to say the least, leaving my dearly beloved Boston behind me. As the plane approached Dulles airport I looked out the window to find a sea of moving lights. Long winding roads with thousands of cars moving – some slow, some fast. They were all moving in some direction and from my vantage point it all looked beautiful, serene and calm. Then I thought about my brother who would be driving in the same traffic to come pick me up from the airport and in that instant I knew he wouldn’t find what I was watching a calming experience at all! Distance provides perspective which is the reason why Mike Wesch’s concept of “grand narrative” in his article Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance stands out for me.

In the grand scheme of things, what matters most? My experience as a learner has been unique in the fact that I studied up to my M.A. in Psychology from India and then I pursued further education in U.S.A. when I decided I needed my M.Ed. in Counseling and now my Ph.D. in Counselor Education. There is a big difference between studying and pursuing education and I will try and explain what it means for me. Throughout my seventeen years of education in India, one thing that was important for everyone around me was – grades. Not sports, not arts, not music, not communication skills – just grades. Whether I retained information after the exams were over, whether I applied what I learned from my classes or whether I actually understood what I was supposed to be learning did not matter. My intelligence was held hostage by my grades.

Growing up I knew that rote memorization was necessary and there is always one and only one correct answer, even for a descriptive question for which you absolutely had to fill six sides of your answer booklet if you wanted full points. If you didn’t, well, it was assumed that you did not “study” long enough. I use the word study in quotes because it had nothing to do with studying to learn. Our teachers were testing us on memory retention rather than assessing what we had learned or the knowledge we had gained in their classes. I call this the functional fixedness of an educational system. I had a stifling experience as a learner growing up and I hope every single day that I never teach in any way that is even close to how I was taught. Therefore I agree when Mike Wesch said in his article that teaching can be considered a hindrance to learning depending on how it is used.

My experiences in pursuing education however have been different. Having the opportunity for open dialogue with my professors as well as my classmates, facilitating growth for each other and learning in depth instead of scratching the surface to acquire good grades seems to be the trend for me now. The “quality of learning” as put forth by Mike Wesch seems to be taking the lead here. Getting rid of “rigid habits” as Ellen Langer describes it in her book Mindful Learning, has become necessary. Technological advances in the field of education definitely appears to have advantages and the capacity to reinvent learning for the younger generations. But how? What else is needed?

Jon Kabat-Zinn describes the act of mindfulness as paying attention in a specific manner, focused deliberately on the present moment and in the process being non-judgmental of one’s efforts. How can this concept be applied to teaching? Mindfulness was never a new concept for me, I was taught Yoga at a young age and it incorporates significant concepts from mindfulness. It was difficult for me, however, to find the best way to apply mindfulness in my professional work. Counseling adolescents in a residential treatment facility is not an easy feat. Add state mandated paperwork to that and it easily becomes 50 something hours a week minus any peace of mind. Incorporating mindfulness into that mix appeared to be an impossible mission to undertake. To help myself with this project, I read a book called The Mindful Therapist by Daniel Siegel a few years ago. I wanted to make sense of how to pursue mindfulness in mental health counseling. It helped. Having pursued this effort for approximately four years now I can say that if I want to I can be a mindful therapist. It is by no means easy nor does it become second nature like a lot of other things do. It has to be purposeful every single time and that is the beauty in it.

Launching into the world of teaching a couple of years ago I started applying mindfulness to my teaching practices. The more I practiced the more I realized that learning for my students happened not only when I was taking steps towards being a mindful teacher but most importantly when they were mindful of what they were learning. I was trying like Mike Wesch put it very succinctly, to focus “on the quality of learning rather than the quality of teaching”. I was trying to facilitate a passion to learn which I believe would then facilitate learning for my students.

Meeting students where they are, learning with students, encouraging rather than taking an expert stance, providing food for thought, curiosity and questions rather than providing that one correct answer. Providing enough information that facilitates critical thinking, analysis as well as burning desire to find out more. Facilitating students being able to see from a bird’s eye view – moving pieces of a giant puzzle that could all be brought together if we were adamant in being purposeful, not once, not twice but every single time.


Connected Learning: for the Millennials

The dawn of the 21st century has brought about a plethora of changes in the world. Societies have changed, evolved and turned inside out due to the technological advances. From being trapped in one’s hometown or two thousand people the World Wide Web has opened the entire Universe for us. For me personally, I went from sitting in a classroom with wooden desks taking copious notes on paper with my teacher talking for an hour to sitting in a circle with my laptop following a discussion with my classmates and colleagues as my professor observes.

What just happened?

Granted it took many years but changes that Millennials have seen between their high school and graduate school experiences, I believe have never been so drastic for any other generation. There have been times since I graduated from college when I felt that I was on top of my game, connected to the world, engaging in everything that was cutting edge – email, chat rooms, social media, programming. As recent as last year, attending a meeting for teachers that were developing interdisciplinary courses at a private boarding school I felt I was still there – connected. Connected with my students through the classroom in person and through learning management systems – creating hybrid courses for highly driven high schoolers.

Harsh reality settled in last week though. While sitting in our first Contemporary Pedagogy class for the first time in a long time, I felt like I was disconnected. ‘Blogging’…yikes! What is that?! My thoughts for the entire world to read and comment on! Sounds intimidating.

I had to stop myself and really think about this. OK, so if I can create a hybrid course with a co-teacher and use YouTube videos, Ted Talks, journal articles from PubMed and other online libraries along with a textbook (Phew!) then I can also think about learning through other avenues that I just haven’t had the opportunity to use.

Starting the journey then I think of connected learning as an idea that incorporates literally all we have access to today and sifting that information to gain insight into a particular topic. It is not just reading or not just doing – it is reading, doing and learning through the process. It seems to be more than the sum of its parts.


Connected Learning: for the Millennials

The dawn of the 21st century has brought about a plethora of changes in the world. Societies have changed, evolved and turned inside out due to the technological advances. From being trapped in one’s hometown or two thousand people the World Wide Web has opened the entire Universe for us. For me personally, I went from sitting in a classroom with wooden desks taking copious notes on paper with my teacher talking for an hour to sitting in a circle with my laptop following a discussion with my classmates and colleagues as my professor observes.

What just happened?

Granted it took many years but changes that Millennials have seen between their high school and graduate school experiences, I believe have never been so drastic for any other generation. There have been times since I graduated from college when I felt that I was on top of my game, connected to the world, engaging in everything that was cutting edge – email, chat rooms, social media, programming. As recent as last year, attending a meeting for teachers that were developing interdisciplinary courses at a private boarding school I felt I was still there – connected. Connected with my students through the classroom in person and through learning management systems – creating hybrid courses for highly driven high schoolers.

Harsh reality settled in last week though. While sitting in our first Contemporary Pedagogy class for the first time in a long time, I felt like I was disconnected. ‘Blogging’…yikes! What is that?! My thoughts for the entire world to read and comment on! Sounds intimidating.

I had to stop myself and really think about this. OK, so if I can create a hybrid course with a co-teacher and use YouTube videos, Ted Talks, journal articles from PubMed and other online libraries along with a textbook (Phew!) then I can also think about learning through other avenues that I just haven’t had the opportunity to use.

Starting the journey then I think of connected learning as an idea that incorporates literally all we have access to today and sifting that information to gain insight into a particular topic. It is not just reading or not just doing – it is reading, doing and learning through the process. It seems to be more than the sum of its parts.