The Big Question on the Learning Circuits blog of which I am a shameless lurker asks what we learned in 2007 [Link to full text]. For someone who may be addicted to learning, you would think that would be an easy question to answer. But .... maybe if I categorize?I completed 24 hours towards my EdD at Western Carolina in 2007. What did I learn? A ton about higher ed programming and leadership and research. I integrate concepts from school into my job every day, and probably, for me, the most important tidbit is that a dedication to our mission puts students and learning first, but is all too rare, even for idealistic educators at community colleges. I've learned I am definitely an outlier, usually finding the status quo to be an unacceptable alternative for any solution, and becoming more impatient with the lack of andragogy-based instruction in higher ed. Most surprisingly, I learned that instructors of adults trained in the shadow of Knowles and his counter-parts, tend to be extremely resistant to adoption of said andragogy-based instruction!
I assisted 46 different community college faculty to adopt or improve their use of technology as an instructional tool. My involvement ranged from training folks to use their e-mail program to co-authoring media-rich online classes. What did I learn? Without doubt, I learned that people embrace change reluctantly and only when they foresee a benefit to themselves. On the other hand, I learned to break down the process of change to extremely small steps, and found that resistance eased and, in many cases, innovation ensued. I also learned that effective seated-class instructors fear the loss of interaction and "light-bulb" moments in moving their classes to an online environment. I learned, however, that as long as I didn't try to boilerplate a solution, these same instructors found much joy in collaborating with me to develop individualized, media-rich online classes to which they point with pride.
On a personal note, I learned how much smaller the world seems without my dad and my brother-in-law, Cliff, both of whom we lost in July. I learned the value of international travel, visiting Europe twice and Mexico once. I learned so much on these trips that I join one of my professors in the belief that all students at our community colleges should get a passport and be offered myriad ways to use it.
OK .. enough is enough. I really enjoyed reading what others learned as linked from the Big Question and hope this adds something to the conversation.
Happy New Year and all the best in 2008!
