Two days ago at school drop off I was asked if I would like to stay on and be involved in my daughter's reading group to which of course I happily accepted. I have grown to love children for not only their innocence and purity but for the valuable lessons they teach us through just being themselves. After each child had taken turns in reading to the best of their ability they were asked to draw a picture of their favourite farm animal from the story and to write two sentences about it. Every child in the class seemed to give this task their full attention and focus. It didn't matter to them if their drawings were better or worse than another or whether they misspelled words or even whether the structure of their sentences made any sense at all.
Later as I went through their work and corrected spelling errors and at times sentence structures I started to feel like an ogre. I noticed the disappointment in my daughter's eyes when I corrected the spelling of 3 words in her sentences. Even though I had reassured her, pointed out the positives of her efforts and then tried to show her that it was "okay to make mistakes that's how we all learn" she didn't seem convinced. The fact that she was wrong didn't change. With her big brown searching eyes staring deeply into mine, I questioned this experience and thought to myself...it's actually not okay to make a mistake is it? In our society mistakes are not viewed as being positive and in fact it's quite the opposite! I can hear voices from the past haunting my mind... "You silly boy, look what you've done" or "that's not right, why did you do it that way?", "What are people going to think if you can't spell!" or worse still "if you can't get it right you are going to have to stay in during lunch time until you do!".
I feel that as learning managers we run the risk of managing children out of valuable risk taking skills or at worse case possibly stop them from 'giving things a go' or 'trying something new' altogether. We have all seen it before and at some stage experienced it for ourselves; I mean how many times have we been sitting on the sidelines, wanting to give something a go but self doubt settles in and the questions arise "what if I make a mistake, what if people laugh at me, there's a lot of people watching, what if I can't do it?" So for the sake of fear and failure we stay on the sidelines where it's safe and where we're protected which I know sounds crazy when you look at the opportunities that could present themselves from at least trying.
So how did we get like this? Well, just like my daughter, none of us born this way and I bet that when we were 6 years old we took some extreme risks and chances, oblivious to the culture that was awaiting us. I often ask myself the question: what if we lived in a world where innocent mistakes were actually celebrated? What would life be like? Would we be a more advanced culture than we are currently?
I find Einstein fascinating, not only because of his successes or great teaching abilities but because of his ability to simplify complexities... he once said that "anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new".
At this point you may be wondering how this relates to managing e learning? The answer is simple - it's okay to make a mistake so long as you give it a go. If we are wrong that's fine so long as we learn. Digital technology can be daunting. I know I get apprehensive about it, It confuses me at times and I lose my way. In the past I have personally met several teachers who are not willing to try 'new' forms of information and communication technologies (ICT's) in the classroom and those that will only incorporate the digital technologies that they are personally comfortable with because of the fear of failure. This approach however is not good enough. The fear of failure, the unknown, the uncertain, the embarrassment can sometimes speak louder than the: 'I simply need to do what is best for my learners' growth and development'.
I have learned of late that to be exceptional and productive in the use of ICT's in a classroom learning environment is going to take a 'no fear' approach, the 'give it a go' attitude. We are not going to be able to know everything there is to know about ICT's. If mistakes are made along the way then that's okay, maybe we will all learn something from it and our learners need to see this type of roll modeling for their own development.
Selfishly, I have written this post more for me because during the week I realised that I need to 'get over' some of my own digital technology and ICT fears. I need to be able to accept and use ICT's for the value that they are and for the opportunities that they present for growth, learning and development.
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