Keep Calm and Carry On

I sent off a couple of “help” type emails last night. The first was in frustration over how to import our course rss feeder file into Google Reader.  After sending the email, I went back and after trial and error, I “accidently” figured it out.  I was feeling rather proud of myself at that point until I noticed that my “Flight Plan” was not showing up.  This set me off into stress-induced activity to find out what was wrong (in the end nothing) and filled me with dread that perhaps my assignment had not been received on time.  Since this happened near bedtime, although extremely tired, I could not sleep as I began thinking about our discussions on the cost of time in setting up an LMS course (poor Benoit), the difficulties I know I will encounter with my unfamiliarity with Moodle, and all I needed to do for my courses.  This morning, after reading a gracious email from our instructor, I was able to calm down and reflect a little.  This episode has taught me two important lessons that will be valuable to me for this course.

In response to my “never mind I figured it out” post, John highlighted the word “tenacity.”  Given time, it is highly likely that I will figure things out. The problem is that time spent with technology, especially unfamiliar technology, often resembles what Steven Siebold in his “Taking a Guess” discussion post, referred to as “black holes.”  It is true that I will be spending enormous amounts of time creating a course site. However, if I am tenacious and don’t give in to panic I’m likely to figure things out and be in a good head-space to learn.

Accidently figuring something out is not the same as learning it and being able to do it again.  When asked to explain how I ended up importing my OPML document, I couldn’t do it.  I had to go back in and try to recreate the steps I used the night before.  This time, with the added intention of passing the information on (teaching) I was able to figure it out and write it down clearly.  Now I can say I have learned what to do.  So if there is a next time, I won’t be stumbling around trying to figure out how I did it last time. This has implications for teaching.  Accidently figuring out something or even hearing information does not equate learning. We have to make sure our students have the opportunity to practice what they have learned and even teach it to someone else.

So for now the crisis is over. I’m sure I’ll have other days like yesterday as the course continues, but my new motto taken from a World War Two British, Government poster is “Keep Calm and Carry On.”