What a difference personal interaction makes in distance learning!\u00a0 Hanging out with Carol Yeager in G+ tonight inspired me to quit waiting until I had time to do it perfectly, and just write the blog post.<\/p>\n
I told Carol how my preconceived notions about creativity (either you have it or you don\u2019t, and, I don\u2019t) were being challenged by CMC11<\/a>.\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell the difference between volume and pitch.\u00a0 All I can draw are straight lines.\u00a0 No art.\u00a0 No music.\u00a0 Ergo, not creative – and no need to risk looking silly.\u00a0 Did someone say MOOCS are subversive?\u00a0 CMC11 is sneaking doubts past these guardians of my self-protective dogma.\u00a0 What I failed to realize is that creativity is not limited to creators.\u00a0 Innovators are creative too.\u00a0 We think we are just applying common sense to solving problems and fail to see the creativity.<\/p>\n I stumbled upon a lot of things because something else wasn\u2019t working.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t consider it particularly creative to use Wikispaces with my students.\u00a0 Someone mentioned it in a MOOC, so I went there because I was too busy to learn Dreamweaver.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t sure if it might not be considered moderately shirking my duty to invite a fellow MOOC-er to co-teach a grammar class over Skype.\u00a0 Creative? It\u2019s not like I invented Skype or even a minor app for it.\u00a0 I was surprised when our head IT guy told me I was considered cutting-edge by my colleagues.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t everybody doing what I\u2019m doing, and probably doing it better because of all their training and degrees?\u00a0 I’m just a missionary retraining as an educator.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if half the things I\u2019m trying will even work (but they’re sure fun).\u00a0 And that\u2019s just where CMC11<\/a> is sneaking\u00a0 past my guard and taking away my excuses.\u00a0 I do have a passion for learning with my students. Perhaps I will look silly. I\u2019m becoming less worried about that risk, and more concerned about the risk of not trying it \u2013 of not finding out what might be possible.<\/p>\n Still no art or music, but I had this enlightening conversation with a teen about rap the other day…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What a difference personal interaction makes in distance learning!\u00a0 Hanging out with Carol Yeager in G+ tonight inspired me to quit waiting until I had time to do it perfectly, and just write the blog post. I told Carol how … Continue reading