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Learning on your own

I love learning and I love teaching, and I love to make things fun. My classes started last week and I made a little video with the help of my son to illustrate what happens while ‘learning’. (insert cheshire cat grin here) If you need a good giggle, this one’s for you. Image CC BY-NC by Greg Hirson

See in learning stuff, could be any subject, there is content and then you have to figure out how to actually assimilate it and make it real for you, so that in the big wide world it means something and is useful. Very often we are given a ‘to do’ list and are set free to ‘learn’. The to do list is the what, and seldom includes the how or why. When I showed this video in class, it made my students cry with laughter, not because it is slapstick, but because it’s true.

For the video, I set my son the challenge of following instructions presented as a shorthand list, and left him to it- with the camera rolling. I knew I had one chance to do this ‘experiment’ and I was pretty sure there would be something useful to come out of it. See what you think…it’s worth watching to the end, I promise.

It is not a musical video – I used another medium as a metaphor. (hint: he puts eggshells in my cup of tea !)

As an aside, my son learns with me already – he is a good learner, and knows how to learn, and look what happened with this simple task!? What then does it mean for those who do not have the background of learning with a teacher enthralled with self-regulation, self-efficacy, and risk-taking in learning? I’d love to hear what you think and if you relate as a learner or teacher- whether on a personal scale, a class scale, or an institutional scale. For me it highlights just how important it is to consider thinking, thought processes, individuals and their perspectives, communication, relevance of content, and how we spend time with students.

ENJOY!

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