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Learning from Lina

Jul 25th, 2010 by

It’s been a remarkable summer–and I’m not referring to the heat, although we’ve had plenty of that.  Instead, here I want to recount our experiences with Carolina (Lina), our nine year-old golden retriever, and what she has taught me about living life to its fullest.  The past seven weeks have been distressing  in many ways, but also hopeful and inspirational in many more.   She has been the source of many emotions, and also the teacher for some of life’s great lessons about courage in the face of adversity.  This is the story of our summer of 2010.

Georgie sailing

Georgia Sailing

During the week after May graduation, we took off for a sailing trip in the Chesapeake Bay with our two goldens, Lina and Georgia.

Sailing trip in the Bay Summer 2010

Sailing trip in the Bay Summer 2010

We crossed the Bay to Onancock and spent a couple of days before heading to Chrisfield, Maryland, crab capital of the world, enjoying great seafood and splendid weather.  The dogs loved the trip– swimming, sailing, and chasing frisbees in the water whenever we anchored near a sandy beach.  We returned home tired, but refreshed, after Memorial Day.

Two days later, Lina developed a little limp in her left leg.  “Better take her to the vet,” I said, and my husband, who had not yet returned to work, took her in to be examined.   “She may  have a torn ACL”  (ligament in her knee), he reported upon return.  “We need to take her back for x-rays in the morning.” Thinking that surgery might be ahead, I took her in the next day to be anesthesized for the x-rays.   To our delight, she did not have a torn ligament — but there was some deterioration due to arthritis.  Well, we knew that already… all goldens seem to get arthritis and we had her on glucosamine chrondroitin for that, anyway.   There didn’t seem to be much to do except let her rest a few days.

The next morning the limp had worsened– she could barely walk.  Back to the vet’s. “Looks like she may have a back sprain –that’s where the pain now seems to be.”   After a steriod injection and some prednisone to take at home, we returned, still feeling uneasy that such rapid changes were occurring in her condition.  By the next day, Sunday, she was virtually paralyzed in her hind legs– she couldn’t move at all without a lot of pain.  She was in great distress, emotional and physical.  We were just as upset.  “What was going on?” we asked ourselves. “Had she injured herself getting on and off the boat?”  “But the limp didn’t show up until two days AFTER our return.”  With each passing hour, she was rapidly becoming worse.  Then she developed an intestinal upset that quickly became debilitating.

By noon, we were in Veterinary Emergency Care, where she had to be carried in on a stretcher.  “I’m really concerned about Carolina,” said the vet after her examination.  So were we.  She explained three possibilites, and the needed diagnostics to figure out what was going on.  Perhaps it was a ruptured disc, or a spinal tumor, or a third remote possibility, something called lymphosarcoma.  I focused on the possible surgical interventions of repairing a ruptured disc or removing a tumor.   We left her there in their care, returning home worried and distraught.  Georgia sensed our dismay and felt the loss of her sister’s presence keenly.

Three days and many veterinary consultations and diagnostic tests later, they brought her back out on a stretcher for us to carry  in our car to northern Virginia to see a veterinary neurologist.  It seems this is a relatively rare veterinary speciality, and Richmond has no doctors with the equipment to do an MRI.    Hours later, we were waiting  for the specialist to give us her assessment of the results, hoping and praying that the MRI and spinal tap would reveal the cause of Lina’s paralysis.  By now, she had no feeling whatsoever in her hind legs, her tail couldn’t move, and when we rubbed the back part of her body, she showed no reaction— it appeared that she had no feeling whatsoever.

As concerned as we were, it was still a shock when Dr. Deena Tiches of Bush Veterinary Neurological Center gave us the news.   Lina had lymphosaracoma of the central nervous system–a cancer of the spinal cord and brain.  It was pretty conclusive; we saw the MRI picture, and the faint shadow that permeated her entire spinal column.  The prognosis was not good: this was stage 5 cancer.  How could this be?  Our dog appeared healthy and happy, playing in the warm waters of the Chesapeake Bay a little over a week ago.

Our choices were limited.  We were not prepared to say goodbye to her that day–incomprehensible!–so we agreed to try chemotherapy.  She would need to stay in northern Virginia for emergency care for another 4 or 5 days to see if the chemo showed signs of working for her– it might not.  If, by then, she could get up and walk with the assistance of a handler with a supportive strap to hold up her hind end, we could bring her home to see how she would continue to fare with the chemo treatment.  At best, Dr. Tiches had said, about 8 weeks was likely all she would have.  It was a long, sad drive home.

Lina's strap

Lina's Strap to Help Her Walk

Georgie was waiting at home, and we began to focus all our attention on her the next several days, trying to compensate for our pain and for hers, as well.  The house was like a tomb…. so quiet!  We had not realized what a life force Carolina was with her bouncy energy permeating every room in the house.  We nicknamed Georgia “Stealth Dog” so quiet and light-footed was she by comparison. We hardly knew she was there.

We called each day. “How’s Carolina doing?”  Finally, by day 4 came the joyful news, “She’s up and walking with assistance.”  Assistance was the key word.  When we came to get her to bring her home, we knew she would need a lot of care, but oh my!  She is a 75-lb dog, and she needed a lot of help and patience just to do the most basic of outdoor doggie tasks.  My husband did the heavy lifting, literally.   Lina wasn’t big on the new giant-sized crate we purchased and placed in my downstairs study after moving all the furniture around.  I moved a futon downstairs and we spent the first (restless) night there.  The next night she stopped at the bottom of the stairs as we were helping her towards the room with the crate.  She  looked upwards to the bedroom.  “You want to sleep upstairs as usual, don’t you?” my husband said to her.  Donning a waist strap used for heavy lifting, he carried her up the 14 steps to the second floor.  She was content, and so were we.  We had all made it through our first full day.

Routines were quickly adjusted.  Lina was taking a ton of meds—anticonvulsants to prevent seizures (this cancer, after all, could affect her brain).

Lina's Med Schedule

Lina's Med Schedule

She needed these and all the other meds every 12 hours.  My alarm now went off at 6 am, and I stumbled into the kitchen each morning to prepare her food laced with pills of various kinds.  There were so many that I worried I might not get them all, in the right dosage, in my sleepy stupor. I made a chart to check them off one by one, at 6 am and 6 pm by the clock.   Every three weeks she was going to need chemo treatments, and weekly local vet visits for bloodwork and exams.  It was a four-hour round trip, with a 2 hour exam in between for her trips to the neurology center.

It was amazing to watch this dog and see how she adjusted to her disability.  Here she was, having lost her ability to walk, yet her spirits were good — she did not mope or complain.  She was grateful for every gesture of care, and seemed happy to be alive and with us, appreciative of every God-given day.  She no longer had any pain, and she accommodated our awkward attempts to provide help with grace.  I have wondered how I would handle a similar circumstance if I should be suddenly stricken.  How would I deal with the lost of my legs? If I could no longer walk and do the things I loved most?  I began to notice disabilities among people everywhere I went, in the grocery store or in other outings.  People who had been largely invisible to me before became people to admire for their strength and courage.

The neurologist coordinated with our local vet; we got regular updates on the results of blood work and liver tests.  When the chemo started affecting her liver negatively, we added liver protectants to the mix, and switched her chemo from oral (pills) to injections, four of which needed to be given over a 2 day period every 12 hours.  We took her back to northern Virginia for the first of these; they showed me how to give her the other three while armed with protectant gloves.  The worst day I’ve ever had in my life was when the needle came unscrewed from the syringe and drops of deadly chemo liquid spilled onto my kitchen floor– not once, but twice did I botch this by pulling the cap off the syringe the wrong way.   With gloves, I cleaned up and mopped the floor four times with straight Clorox.  I had to go get more chemo from our Emergency Vet Center; I took it to my local vet in a panic and got help with the second injection.  The third and fourth I somehow managed to do on my own, but our timing was now off so I needed to stay up to 1 am to give her the third shot.  The alarm still went off at 6 am the next day.  Somehow, we made it through, though the “chemo day” was as close as I’ve come to a meltdown.

The Magic Carpet

The Magic Carpet

We  devised a way to get her back downstairs in the mornings.  It’s one thing to carry 75 pounds upstairs, and another to attempt to walk down holding a dog in front of you when you can’t see  your feet or the steps!  Out came the orange futon, again—one we had slept on in Japan thirty years ago.

We called it the “Magic Carpet” and told Lina she was going for a ride.  It was a foam cushion, divided into three parts.   By folding it, we could put it on the floor in the upstairs foyer, and slide Lina out from her bed on a comforter to reach the futon.  We then positioned it over the stairwell, with my husband at the bottom end.  I guided the top section and Lina rode her carpet in the middle section.  Every morning thereafter,  the Magic Carpet took off … a bumpy, but successful ride down the steps!   That routine worked for weeks, until Lina, growing stronger every day, was able to walk down the steps herself with a little help.

Carolina Summer 2010

Carolina Summer 2010

Yes, the chemo was working, and working fast.  We could see little improvements every day.  Feeling began to come back to her back end— we could pet her and she was appreciative.  Her tail began to wag, and she could hop a few steps to go where she wanted to go.  Her courage was amazing.  She never gave up trying to do that which she had lost.  Slowly, she began to require less support from us with the hind-end strap to enable her walking; she could take a few steps on her own.  Then, one day while I was working on a paper at my computer, I turned around to see that she had gotten up on all fours on her own, and had walked to the water bowl–a first!  I grabbed my digital camera and made a movie of it to show the vet.

Two weeks ago we took Lina and Georgie back to our marina at the Rappahannock River. We knew she couldn’t get on the boat (too much of a leap from pier to deck), but she was able to get into the dinghy from the shore.

Water Walking -- Good Therapy

Water Walking -- Good Therapy

We motored to a little sandy beach area nearby that had a flat bottom in fairly shallow water.  Lina was in heaven!  Back in the water with her frisbee.  We probably spent an hour there as she walked back and forth.  She discovered that she could travel more easily in water than on land.  Her sister was catching frisbees and swimming farther out.  Lina decided she wanted in on the fun, and began swimming again, too.  This was a day we never thought we would see again, but by the grace of God it was here.

A Caring Canine

Lina with Fran in 2005

Carolina has always been a special dog, a trained therapy dog.  She was a little too energetic for the nursing homes, but for a while we participated in the Read-to-Rover program at the local libraries as members of Caring Canines.  It seems she is now providing therapy, once again, to all of us who, while helping her recover, have benefited from this amazing canine’s presence and will to live.  She’s an example worth emulating.

We’re approaching another big neurology visit in a couple of days and expecting the 4 chemo-injections-over-two-days again, since her liver is probably not well enough yet to tolerate the pills (if ever).  Let’s hope I’ve finally gotten the hang of managing those syringes.  She has made such remarkable progress that we are amazed.  She now walks on her own, though a bit wobbly, and can take short (very short) morning walks around the block.   It is nothing short of a miracle.  We cannot help but be hopeful that maybe, just maybe, she might beat this cancer.  That part, we know, is out of our hands.

Early on, we spoke with her vet about quality of life, saying that as long as she still had a good quality of life, we wanted to keep her alive.  All we know now, for sure, is that OUR quality of life this summer has been enhanced immeasurably by how she has handled her illness and her recovery.  Hers seems pretty good right now, too.  I am grateful for every day this summer with her, and appreciate the lessons of life she has taught me – how to be patient and more tolerant of others,  how to accept personal and physical limitations without complaining, and  how to make the most of every day.   She has always been a special dog, and never more inspirational than in the summer of 2010.

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Digital Storytelling and the Experience of Flow

Oct 20th, 2009 by

Today, I recorded a podcast of my digital storytelling workshop experience and what I learned from it with colleagues Jeff Nugent and Bud Deihl in the Center for Teaching Excellence at VCU. My story, A Teacher’s Journey, was created during a five-week workshop with eight other faculty members. Sometime during those five Fridays in September, I remember thinking about a concept that I was first exposed to in Dee Fink’s book on creating significant learning experiences–the concept of “flow.”

Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi (prounounced “cheek-sent-me-high-ee”, according to Wikipedia), describes a flow as

a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation…the flow state is an optimal state of intrinsic motivation, where the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing. This is a feeling everyone has at times, characterized by a feeling of great absorption, engagement, fulfillment, and skill—and during which temporal concerns (time, food, ego-self, etc.) are typically ignored.

I can think of no better description to describe the joy that I experienced when I immersed myself in the world of Flickr photos, freely available, open source music and the experience of condensing 27 years of working with adult learners into a 300-word story produced with a simple editor such as PhotoStory.

For hours at a time, I was lost in my own world, remembering the faces of years past, re-experiencing the places and people of my personal history with a vividness that I haven’t felt in years. Hours melted away at my fingertips, and only the call of pressing University responsibilities and the students of TODAY brought me back to reality. The time I spent evaporated into pleasurable recollections and the joy of new insights. It felt as if I was learning anew all the lessons of my past within the wisdom of the present.

Csíkszentmihályi, a Hungarian psychologist who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1950s, studied at the University of Chicago and later became head of the Department of Psychology there. His concept of flow is related to his research on the various states of mind we humans experience. The flow state is considered an optimally motivating, engaging situation, which all of us have experienced at times — one that most of us wish happened more often.

flowCsíkszentmihályi described flow as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”

To achieve this extraordinary state, which can happen for all of us, a balance must occur between the challenge of the task and the skill of the performer. When the task is either too easy or too difficult, flow does not occur. Flow occurs only when there is a match between skill level and the task requirements.

Isn’t this the very challenge a teacher faces with each and every assignment or activity? How to create learning experiences that engage us fully, challenging us to ever higher levels of performance? I know that this experience of digital storytelling is what I will have in mind when I think of engaging our learners to push the boundaries of their skills to their maximum potential as they challenge themselves in aquiring new knowledge and skill. Thank you, Bud Deihl, for the opportunity to learn how creative an activity this can be. I hope I can re-create the same for my learners!

Credits:
A Teacher’s Journey - Terry Carter
Wikipedia, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and the photo describing “flow”

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Learning about Digital Storytelling

Sep 16th, 2009 by

For the past two weeks, I’ve had the special experience of being involved in a Digital Storytelling Workshop sponsored by the Center for Teaching Excellence at VCU. Nine faculty members have committed five Friday afternoons to learning the art and craft of storytelling using digital media.  I first became intrigued by this possibility after attending a conference session at the Educause Learning Initiative on digital storytelling last January led by librarians from Ohio State. They showed us how, using still images, a very compelling story can be told using just 300 or 400 words and a host of freely available images (from Flickr and other sources) and music.  From the start, I’ve envisioned this as an alternative strategy for the traditional end-of-semester reflective essay or integrative learning paper.  What better way to reflect on the learning during an entire course or program by synthesizing the experience into a few powerful images and sounds?  So, I’m in this workshop to learn the “ins and outs” of doing it so I can then help our students learn how to create their own stories that reflect on their learning experiences.

Our facilitator is modeling this process very convincingly by reflecting our on Friday sessions with a newly created digital story of his own each week to capture the learning that occurred and his own sense of meaning-making about it.  Here’s Bud Deihl’s reflection for our session last Friday in which we held a “story circle” for each faculty member to give voice to a tentative idea to a story for the workshop.  It was a wonderful two hours of sharing about our practices as teachers, full of insights into the personal experiences of faculty as they recounted learning about learning.  There will be more to share on this topic as I continue to develop my own story to share.

 Video Credits: Story Circle by Bud Deihl, 1LifelongLearner

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On Growing Tomatoes … and Adult Educators

Sep 8th, 2009 by

Dear Reader:  This post was first written in June, 2009, then put on “hold” while I finished other projects. I was searching for a way to explain what educators in the M.Ed. in Adult Learning program learn, and how they say they have changed. I have, at last, simply decided to use their words. So, here is the original post, and, at the end, a postscript on my tomatoes.So yellow

Just Add Water.

I was going to title this post, “Fertilizer,” then realized what sort of atrocious spam it might spur from my header (but I might get that anyway).  Also, I don’t know yet whether fertilizer is the key to remedy the yellowing leaves on my exciting new cherry tomato plants … see the photo of my potted tomatoes on the deck? Lots of flowers and, if you look carefully, the first fruit of my harvest in those tiny little green orbs.  But what has me concerned are the yellowing leaves as the base of the plant. At first there were just a few, but now it seems to me as if the whole plant has a slightly yellow cast.

I went to the computer and Googled my concerns to find similar queries and investigate what other gardeners were trying. You see, this is a new foray for me into vegetable gardening in containers, as I’m a floriculture person, and always have been big into flowering plants. These are my deck pots and hanging baskets overflowing with salmon-pink petunias and lavender blue verbena. This time of year I spend my early mornings watering.

My search brought up pages and pages devoted to yellowing tomato plant leaves … hmmm…. really a big problem, it seems. It could be the type of pot I’ve chosen, plastic (cost was a factor here), as the giant terra cotta ones carry a helfy price tag and I was already spent-out for the summer on plants and plant supplies when I indulged in a secret fantasy I’ve had for two years now to grow my own cherry tomatos. I picked up two little “Sweet 100″ plants at Ukrops in mid-May, and then had to go buy all the rest of the needed supplies, but didn’t want to invest in heavy, expensive pots. Looks like I may need to re-think that for next year! Of course plastic containers, even 14 or 16-inch ones, don’t breath like terra cotta. Maybe my roots are just too hot and pot-bound.

Or, and this appears more likely from my reading, it’s a mineral deficiency. I had enough plant knowledge to already consider this, so I watered thoroughly again yesterday with my newly acquired bottle of organic fertilizer composed of rather ghastly smelling seaweed and fish extracts.–a brown, smelly goop.  I was headed for my trusty Miracle-Gro when the lady at the garden center said to me, “Do you really want to eat Miracle-Gro?” I hadn’t thought about it, but when I did, I said, “No” and succumbed to the more expensive bottle of brown goop. Now, whenever I fertilizer the two plants, the dogs go sniffing around the containers like crazy. 

“Could be magnesium deficiency,” said the Internet. The remedy? Go get some Epsom salts and follow the directions on the package. Epsom salts? Well, okay, that’s not too expensive.  I’ll get some tomorrow and try it. Can’t hurt (or can it?). Do you really mean that the Epsom salt package is going to have directions for yellowing plant leaves? Amazing.

“Grind up some cigarette butts and put them in the soil.” “Oh, no, don’t do that,” said another Page, you’ll encourage tobacco mosaic,  a serious tomato disease. That one I remember from my Plant Pathology course at NVCC, taken years ago. Don’t worry, I don’t smoke, and am certainly not going to seek out cigarettes for my cherry tomatoes.

“Get a rusty nail and put it in the soil an inch from the stem, and water as usual,” said the other Gardening Expert. Iron deficiency. I don’t have any rusty nails, and not sure I can get one to rust as fast as I need it to.

“Water more.”  “Water less.”  “Could be due to dramatic changes in temperature.” It was mid-90′s over the weekend after a week of cooler weather. Maybe that’s it. “It’s a natural part of the growth process; just pick them off.” If I picked off all the yellow leaves, the entire plant would be bare. “Fusarium wilt.” Oh, dear. If it’s that, then I’m lost for the season, a fact confirmed by the writer : “Get new plants and be sure to throw out the soil.”

So far, none of this is very helpful. Maybe I do need more micro-nutrients, maybe I should return to my trusty plant fertilizer which has a successful history with my flowers, maybe I’m not watering correctly, or maybe I have fusarium wilt, but I don’t think the latter is the real culprit. Like everything else in life when learning to do something new, I guess I need to continue to research, read, and experiment to see what works and what doesn’t.  Which brings me to my students, the learners in the M.Ed. in Adult Learning program at VCU.

Just Add Knowledge (well, not quite).

I’ve been doing a lot of two things lately in addition to a little gardening. One is meeting with new or prospective students for our program. The other is working on a couple of research projects, trying to make this summer a productive one for writing and getting some journal articles out since I am not teaching during the summer months for the first time in five years. 

I had some renewed momentum for the self-directed learning article with my colleages in our Learning Technology Research Group at the CTE at VCU. I re-immersed myself in the literature and I think I have a structure for this article: It only needs a few more serious days. In the meantime, the deadline looms for a promised chapter on blogging for an exciting new book on using digital media; it focuses on best practices in the classroom.  I was honored to be invited to write a chapter on what we are doing with blogging as reflective practice in our program. 

So, SDL article moves to back burner (again) and the blog study has perked to the top.  My week has been spent re-reading the data, putting it into NVivo for coding, and thinking about the differences between our learners when they come in the door and when they leave– that transformation of self that I see time and time again.  New learners to accomplished graduates – the raison d’etre for my work and career.  It’s what happens in between that’s so exciting that brings me back to my “growing” analogy. 

When I talk with prospective students to our program, I’ve come to realize that they come to see me because they want a face-to-face connection with what they are about to commit to in terms of time and energy. They can get the nuts and bolts of the curriculum, the goals of the program, and the mechanics of how to apply from our School website. The adult learner who sits in my office is basically saying to me, without these words, “I am a busy professional;  I teach (train, educate, work with) other adults in (a wide variety) of organizations.  If I commit my time, my money, and most of all, my energy, what will I get in return?” They are weighing the pros and cons.  “How much time will I need to spend each week with my classes and my studying?” [TRANSLATION: "I have two children, a dog, and a spouse; I have a lawn to mow, I have civic and church groups that I am a part of that mean something to me ... will I have to give these up? How will I fit this master's or doctoral degree in to any already busy schedule?"].

I have come to realize that what brings them to me is not the desire to change something by starting a new educational endeavor, but the desire to make meaning of changes already occurring within their lives and their work. Later on, the learning they acquire may lead to even more changes (I hope so), but basically, the changes have already begun.  What we in higher education do is foster what the developmental process has already set in motion through some other series of life events. In this regard, our role becomes one of enabler. We are the fertilizer, if can use that metaphor, to enhance the internal growth process that has already begun.

So, how to foster and best support this growth? I’ve gotten some great answers to that in reading the data from eleven of our students who volunteered to be a part of the study my colleague and I conducted this year to understand how blogging can deepen their learning.  Many of them have just recently graduated from our program.  I can see the transformations that have taken place. They have reflected deeply, and sometimes profoundly, on the changes in their lives since beginning the program. They have surprised themselves (and, no doubt, a few others) by new actions, new ways of being, new ways of thinking that their learning has spurred.  This story extends far beyond  “Just add knowledge.”  

What a journey it has been thus far.  I think back to the beginning of this journey, when I first discovered the program and went through all the steps of the application process.  I remember walking into my first class, and the day I finished my first course.  I distinctly remember thinking, “One down, 12 to go!”  In a way, those days seem so long ago, yet here I am in my final semester.  I will save most of my overall reflections of the program for the end of the semester, but needless to say, it has been an amazing learning experience.  I have learned so much about adult learning, organizations, working with other people, and most importantly, myself.  I know that this experience has had a great experience on my personal learning as well as my skills as an adult educator.  I am excited to finally have “M.Ed” after my name …

It took me longer than most, but I can now say that I have a Masters in Education with a concentration in Human Resource Development.  What a journey.  When I started the program in 2004, I merely wanted to take a couple classes to get a better sense of adult learning, because I had just taken on a new role as the head of Talent and Learning.  After the first courses, I was hooked on the topic, hooked on the learning and ready to join the program.  Five years later, I have completed the core courses in Research Methods, Program Planning and Evaluation, Adult Learning and Development.  Those behind me, I began the HRD track which happened to coincide with major challenges at work, and ultimately the rare situation of eliminating my own job and that of my team, as my company fell prey to the economic woes of the real estate, mortgage and credit crises. 

As difficult as this was, there is no better teacher than crisis.  The difficulties that we experienced trying to downsize, deliver more with less, restructure our own area while helping the business leaders deal with the same situation in their areas was an experience that provided tremendous practical insight into the theories we were learning in the HRD program.  My classmates became my friends, my therapy group and helped me to work through the challenges we were experiencing.  Ultimately, my job loss gave me the opportunity to complete the program a year ahead of schedule.  For me, I am ready to take what I have learned and continue to grow professionally and personally.  I don’t know exactly what that means, but I am confident that the next step is right around the corner.

So here is the place where I have arrived in my thinking: we learn to make sense of developmental changes that are spurred by many other life circumstances: the birth of a child, the death of a spouse; a change in job role or entry into a new field of employment.  Sometimes, these developmental changes are so subtle that we scarcely recognize them as such, and we simply feel a desire to extend ourselves in a new or renewed direction.  At other times, our desire to learn is spurred by problems we encounter, tomatoes that are turning yellow (!), or grass that could be greener.   When we arrive at this place, we are fortunate to find so many opportunites to direct our own learning, and helpers along the way to assist us.  The adult learners who graduate from this program will be among the special few privileged to accompany other adults along that same journey. It’s part of the joy of of teaching, and, for sure, it is the joy of learning –continuous, lifelong, and ever-demanding in it challenges and rewards.  My tomatoes have turned out to be a success, and I harvest their delicious red fruit each day now.

2009 ADLT graduates1Harvesting the adult educators in our Adult Learning program is even more fun.

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Doing Things Differently

Jun 2nd, 2009 by

When you are on a sailing trip, as I have been for the past week or so, you learn to do things differently out of necessity … space onboard a 33-foot sailboat simply doesn’t permit the usual manner for doing simple everyday things.  

For example, how I go about cooking (if you can call it that) is very different. I do not prepare food in the same way. Fresh water is in limited supply so I use bottled water to wash fruits and vegetables when I’m making something as basic as a salad for our dinner. Instead of washing the lettuce or tomatoes under a streaming facet like I do at home, I’ll place a portion of a bag of precut lettuce pieces in a small Tupperware container, add a few cherry tomatoes, pour a little bottled water over it all, seal the container and shake. Then I carefully drain the wash water from my nice clean veggies, pat it all with a paper towel, add a little dressing, replace the plastic lid and shake again … and viola! Salad, ready to eat.

 saladSalad in my home kitchen is a much more elaborate production of cutting, chopping, seasoning, and tossing.  In the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, my simple salad tastes just as good as the fancier variety at home, maybe better. The same simplified existence can be applied to taking a bath on board (what my mother used to call a “sponge bath” instead of a relaxing tub soak) and myriad other everyday acts of living that are stripped to their essentials (no pun intended), and made do-able in the most frugal of living spaces – probably less than 200 square feet, including sleeping quarters, the galley (kitchen), head (bathroom) and salon (living and dining area).  

The secret, I’ve learned, is not to try to replicate what happens in a 3,000 sq ft living space, but to do things differently. This has required that I begin to think differently – about space, water, food, sleeping, and eating.  Just ask my husband or the dog-children: it has taken me a while to adjust my perspective and not try to haul the entire household out to the river (or “Rivah,” as they say here in Richmond) for a weekend trip.  This adjustment in my thinking has occurred over time as I’ve slowly become a sailor.

 

Doing Things Differently with Web 2.0

  

Beautiful Boat on a Beautiful DayIf anything, this past year’s experience in using Web 2.0 tools in the classroom has taught me anew that a similar heuristic applies to teaching with technology: the technology  cannot be grafted onto whatever practices are already in place – it simply doesn’t work that way!  It requires a new mindset, a different way of approaching the teaching and learning interaction.  I found that I had to re-think my syllabus, my activities, and my assignments when I began to teach with wikis and blogs and other tools.  They didn’t work as “add-ons” because they weren’t substitutes for what I was already doing. These tools represented a whole new way of thinking: for me, for the learners, and for the learning we sought to happen in our time together.

This “different” way involves much more than learning to set up a Wetpaint wiki or adopt a blog format for reflective practice.  It is as much of a perspective shift as I’ve had in learning in how to get back to the basics in living aboard a sailboat.  This new mindset  strips the teaching interaction to its essentials which, for me, involves a philosophy of how adults learn so that the learning is meaningful, deep, and lasting.  What teacher doesn’t want this?  It’s doing it that seems to be so hard, because it requires giving up control. Marvin Weisbord expresses this idea perfectly in his new book, Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There! I’ve discovered that less intervention from me really can mean more learning for them, but it’s a struggle each and every time I enter the classroom. Chris Argyris called this the difference between espoused values and beliefs and theories-in-use.  Doing what we espouse seems ever so much more challenging!

This evolving philosophy about teaching, learning, collaborating, and my role as a facilitator has emerged over time through more than 20 years of working with adult learners, and more than 5 years of teaching in higher education.  I won’t go so far as to say that I am “there” yet, wherever “there” is,  but I can see the road my thinking has traveled through the years. I am also convinced that no one can travel this road for another… we must each explore its terrain for ourselves if we are to experience this shift in thinking. 

I was startled into this realization a couple of weeks ago when I was working with a new adjunct who will be teaching for us this summer at VCU. He is very enthusiastic but his graduate teaching experience is just beginning. I had shared my syllabus with him and the Blackboard site I developed last year when I taught the same class. He admitted that he had never really used Blackboard before, but he was intrigued, and when we met he said, “I want to do this class exactly as you did it last year … with the wikis and blogs and concept maps.”  

Suddenly, this seemed  overwhelming. We’re talking about a five-week summer course, and it begins in less than three weeks.  Very quickly, I saw the difference between learning to use the tools (a matter of showing him how to set up a wiki, establish a blog, or create a concept map) and sharing a philosophy of practice so that he could do it “exactly” as I did last year. 

With time, energy, and interest invested on his part, the first task can be accomplished readily (although it would probably take more than three weeks to become adept in the use of any of these Web 2.0 tools), but I was at a loss how to convey the second, which is a deeply engrained attitude that says when I exercise less (expertise/authority/ control/ guidance), the learners have the opportunity to create more (innovation/ motivation,/ownership/accomplishment).  This is anarchy to some, a relinquishing of the role of sharing what you know.  I do believe that there is a time to share what you know so that my learners may learn from whatever knowledge and experience I’ve acquired,  but I’ve discovered this works best when it comes after they have created their own learning experiences so that we have something to share with each other as we make meaning of the learning that has occurred.

It seems to me that the use of Web 2.0 tools in the classroom will always reflect the underlying philosophy of the teacher-as-user, but their power lies in their ability to also shape and modify that philosophy as well.  My evidence of this is my participation in what our Center for Teaching Excellence has offered in the way of institutes, workshops, faculty learning communities, and more when it comes to learning how to use technology in teaching.  I’ve seen my own appetite grow with learning how, which is where we all have to start, but it really began to flourish when grappling with the what and why. Processing this deeply takes time, experimentation, and reflection, something our adjunct will need to do for himself.  In the end, it’s a simple salad, one that is back to the basics of why we teach and what we hope our learners learn. 

Bon appétit! tomato salad


 
Photocredits:

A Bowl of Salad, http://www.flickr.com/photos/anushruti/2208472377/ by Anushruti RK

 

Tomato Salad: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gezellig-girl/3784584015/  by Gezellig-Girl.com

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Action Learning with Dr. Mike Marquardt: Our “Field Trip”

Feb 23rd, 2009 by

For those of you in the Adult Learning program who were not able to join us on February 18, you missed a  great learning day — a fun travel adventure on Amtrak from Richmond to Crystal City, VA for the Academy of HRD pre-conference workshop on action learning with Dr. Michael Marquardt.  My guess is that each of the seven of us who were a part of the adventure will be blogging about it, so you should have a pretty complete picture of what went on before long. 

For me, it was a treat to bring a group of our students to meet with one of my former professors from George Washington University, and an eye-opener to see just how much Mike Marquardt has done in recent years to expand the concept of action learning in the U.S. and around the world. More than anyone since Reg Revans first introduced the action learning concept almost 60 years ago, Dr. Marquardt has spread the theory and practice of action learning to organizations and scholars far and wide so that it is now considered one of the primary methods for leadership development in organizations. Companies such as Novartis, Siemens, Boeing, Caterpillar, IBN, Nokia, Hong Kong Transit, General Electric, DuPont, Samsung, and many universities like ours, including American University and George Washington University, are using action learning to develop critical thinking, solve complex organizational problems, build powerful teams, and develop leadership competencies among learners.

Our capstone action learning course has been in place since Dr. Lex Dilworth created it in 1995 as an in-depth synthesis learning experience for our master’s degree students in lieu of a thesis requirement.  We have continued to evolve our course, and will be doing so even moreso now that I have had a chance to see how the emphasis on reflection has continued to grow and evolve, along with enchanced strategies for the role of the action learning coach.  We’ll be incorporating practice in the role of the coach in our classes this semester so that each of you in ADLT 636 has a better understanding of how to function in the role of the coach.

Dr. Marquardt delivered a powerful message in a well-designed, tightly packed four-hour learning experience.  We began with an overview of action learning, followed by a half-hour demonstration of the set experience in working with questions to explore the problem issues of a volunteer participant. Four more session volunteers joined the problem-owner and sat in a circle in the middle of the room (a fishbowl experience for the rest of us) as we observed action learning in action.  With Dr. Marquardt serving as the coach, we learned through his role modeling about the power of questions as the group engaged in action learning based on a real organizational problem.  Prior to beginning the questioning process, set members determined the leadership issues that each wanted to develop personally.  We listened and observed the process as a forceful coach required each participant to think deeply about what the group was accomplishing and the implications for each participant in the group demonstration.

After a break and a deep but quick dive into the theoretical heritage of action learning, all forty participants divided into groups of six to seven.  When we had organized ourselves in circles of chairs in different parts of the spacious room, we followed a structured script to guide us in questioning one of our members who shared a real organizational problem personal to the individual, one that he or she had not been able to solve.  Each circle of partipants then outlined our leadership goals and began the questioning process; after few minutes, the group’s coach purposefully stopped the questioning process so we could reflect on what we were doing and how it was going. 

How are we doing as a group thus far?  Give us one word to describe how you are feeling about the process? (okay, not okay, great?)

What are we (as a group) doing well?

What could we do better?

Do we have agreement on the problem — yes or no?  (To check this, each person in the set wrote down a description of the problem and shared them with the group.) Is there agreement?

Once we had agreement, we continued our questionning of the problem owner for another 20 to 25 minutes in our trial action learning experience. In my group, the problem was further clarified and refined at this point in time.  At the conclusion of our session,  our coach asked the problem owner,

What action are you going to take as a result of this session?

Were you helped by the group?  How?

Then, to the group as whole,

What did we do best as a group? 

How have you developed the leadership skill that you specifically set out to work on in the beginning of our session?

What have we learned that each of us can apply to our own organizations?

The experience was well crafted for individual as well as group learning, and I could easily see that we had been missing an emphasis on the strong coach as a leader of our action learning sets in our class experience so far this semester.  However, we can remedy right away! 

As those of us who participated in this experience continue to reflect on what we learned, there are several insights that I gained for making our class action learning experiences more in tune with the true power of this methodology to enhance individual as well as collective learning.  What changed for me in how I view action learning is the emphasis that Dr. Marquardt now places on developing each  member of the set as a leader: the focus on declaring our leadership development intentions, and the practice of carrying them out through questioning.

In our action learning capstone course, our client organizations are the true “owners” of our problems, and they are not members of our set or part of our reflections. They do not have to be for us to embrace the concepts of a strong coach with a determined agenda of keeping the group focused on what it is learning. The power of questions has newly revised meaning for me, as does the role of the coach. We will be building both of these ideas into our practice as we develop the leadership skills of Adult Learning students for solving complex organizational problems that have no one right answer.

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The Rhythm of Academic Life

Jan 18th, 2009 by

The Rhythm of Academic LifeIt is circular, this process in which we engage, semester after semester, and there’s something exciting about it: a new beginning every 15 weeks.  By December, we are tired, students and faculty alike.  After a few short weeks’ break, we are starting afresh, a new semester: new tasks, new books, new challenges.  Welcome back, Adult Learning students.

This semester promises to be busy and full.  We have capstone course students working with three organizations on an action learning project: The Read Center, Luckstone Corporation, and WRIR radio.  The Change Strategies students will be digging deep into the nature of organizational change and facilitating three large group intervention strategies: Future Search, Open Space Technology, and Appreciative Inquiry.  The Groups and Teams class, after getting to know one another with a shoebox exercise (bring items that are important to you in a shoebox and share your “story” with members of your team in class), are ready to use film and video to explore group dynamics.

On top of that, we have the Academy of HRD annual conference just “up the street” this year, in Washington, D.C., with an opportunity for students in the Adult Learning program to attend one of the pre-conference workshops on action learning presented by Dr. Michael Marquardt of George Washington University and author of our texts. The weeks ahead promise to be full ones.  So grab your running shoes …. I’m hoping to keep up with you!

Photo Credits, Creative Commons Attribution License:

circular rhythm of life: nexus6, photo taken April 27.08

running shoes: karen_d, photo taken June 11, 2007

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The Semester in Review – Fall 2008

Dec 23rd, 2008 by

It hardly seems possible that we’ve reached the end of the semester, but papers are graded and the academic term has come to an end.  As a final assignment, I asked our master’s degree students to take stock of the distance they’ve traveled in Edublogs this semester by reviewing the posts they’ve written. Now’s the time for a little meta-reflection of my own, hence, the semester in review.

Since beginning my blog in Summer 08 in preparation for introducing blogging in the Adult Learning program, I’ve written twelve posts and engaged in written dialogue with others in 26 comments posted to my blog.  If I’ve counted correctly, I’ve also written more than 100 posts on students’ blogs over the semester. That’s a lot of writing, theirs and mine.

I suspect our students in Adult Learning have written even more, and, in the Org Learning class in particular, have a good many more comments since they have participated in the Reflector-Mirror exercise each week in which triads responded to each other’s posts. There are 30 students in my classes. That’s a fair amount of reflection going on. Keeping up with their posts on a weekly basis has been a challenge for me, some weeks more than others. I’ve found it immensely rewarding, however, and hope they have, too.

Fall 2008 Semester Highlights

In Program Planning, Management and Evaluation (ADLT 602), nine students developed plans for implementing a program, workshop, or course for learners that are as diverse as they are. From Sarah’s program for teaching seniors to use the computer to Ed’s on teaching Spanish to law enforcement and  Laura’s on a workshop for new School of Pharmacy professors, their plans were innovative, well thought-out, and well designed. Rosemary Caffarella,  who authored our text, would be proud. As the culminating assignment, these students created an academic-style conference poster session to provide an overview of their work. Take a look! 

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Learners in this class found the process worthwhile. Here are a few of their comments and reflections at semester’s end: 

I am coming away from this semester with a newfound appreciation for program planning and evaluation. I honestly came into this course with few expectations. All I knew about program planning was that my own experience had been frantic, disjointed and generally without structure. In contrast, the time that we spent reading about and working with the model presented by Caffarella was akin to the heavens opening up.

I’ve been lucky enough to have had work experiences, internships and involvement in school activities that have helped me with my own learning this semester. I mentioned in class last week how I want to try to take what I’ve learned and what I’m learning about adults and bring it into my workplace now. It’s my own personal goal to find little ways to do this.

I also learned over this semester what makes an effective program and what doesn’t. Over the years I’ve been a part of programs within work and school that really impacted me and others that I could have done without. I think having these experiences helped me plan my HRD internship program, because I tried to imagine if I were a student involved in it.

We spent the semester in ADLT 610, Consulting Skills for Adult Learning Environments, reflecting on the meaning of what it means to be in a helping relationship. Peter Block and Edgar Schein offer wise commentary on the nature of consultation, which is a far cry from what most people assume the consulting process involves.

The Challenges of Consulting Flawlessly
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Here are a few of their comments on what they learned about process consultation:

So, where am I now compared with the beginning of the semester?  I think my final thought is that I realize how much I learn from my colleagues and classmates.  As my blogs show, I am constantly relating new learning experiences with prior experiences.  These prior experiences include the stories and comments I have heard from other people.  This class is a perfect example of how well I learn from other people because some of the most important lessons learned came from challenges encountered by other groups.  Through classroom discussions and following their progress on the wiki, I was able to learn from the challenges faced by other groups and by their reactions to those challenges.  I have learned a great deal about the difficulty of entry, the importance of contracting, and the critical need for excellent communication.  I think everyone should always remember how much we learn from one another every day. 

As I read through my blog, it was made apparent to me that my thinking has developed over the semester.  At the beginning of this course, I felt a bit overwhelmed with the idea of “flawless consulting”.  I thought to myself, “Who is flawless?”  Well, I came to discover that Block provided the clear cut steps to encourage consulting that is nearly flawless. 

Although at the beginning of this course, I was a bit unsure of the new skills I was learning in the context of the classroom, I was even more unsure of how I would implement them outside of the classroom.  As we practiced inside the classroom walls, I felt a bit more secure in my new found skills.  I learned very quickly that there is no way to be prepared for every reaction that the client may throw at you and that I needed to take things in stride. 

Through our class discussions, I have learned through my peers experiences.  As a class when we provided advice, I felt that it was a valuable lesson.  Not only were we given the opportunity to assist our peers we were given the opportunity to learn from their frustration.  In addition to learning consulting skills, the class discussions have allowed me to learn new ways to use technology. 

 In this Consulting Skills class, we experimented with VoiceThreads as a form of digital conversation and learned what to do (and not do!) next time around. The scenario around which our enactment of a consulting assignment occurred was a merger of two securities firms. With the recent financial industry meltdown, the reality of such mergers and the challenges for organizations in successfully navigating them is all too real.  There will be a big demand for effective process consultants in the months ahead.

Our semester in Organizational Learning (ADLT 623) involved creating a concept map as a group. We created two maps: one on the nature of organizational learning, and the other on organizational culture. 
All the interactivity of CMap is somewhat lost in depicting them as a slideshow in this post, but we are keenly aware of copyright issues for articles that were attached to concepts. The maps are best viewed by clicking on the slideshow “full view” indicator.

Org Culture And Learning Ppt For Slideshare
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The richness of concept map media for linking ideas, relationships, and resources is incredibly powerful, but most powerful of all is collective learning that happens as we struggle to depict the connections between our ideas through group dialogue. The cultural analyses that our students produced as their final assignment were rich with insights and learning, some of which are captured in these comments:  

Schein’s book on organizational culture and leadership will continue to be an important resource for me in my career. Understanding (or at least trying to understand) what makes up the culture at my organization will help me as I do my part to move the company towards becoming a learning organization.  I have much to learn and experience, but I am very grateful for what I have learned in this class because it has beeb a great springboard from which to jump into “the pool” of organizational culture and leadership.

Nancy Dixon’s book on organizational learning was mind-expanding. Building organizational learning into an enterprise is daunting, since it substantially goes against the grain of “normal” organizational life. Instead of withholding information to maintain power or avoid offense, organizational learning demonstrates the value of everyone at every level acquiring and spreading knowledge. Instead of withdrawing into specialized departments, organizational learning invites borders to be permeable and disparate people to mix substantively and frequently. And instead of depending on a command-and-control style of leadership, organizational learning opens up for all the opportunity to interpret information and assist in taking responsible action. Now that’s a challenge!

I never imagined that I would learn as much as I have over the last few months. Many of us have had ups and downs throughout the course of the semester, and we were all able to learn from those experiences. I have recently been told of my promotion that I have been after for quite some time, and I can’t wait to incorporate the strategies I have gathered throughout this program. The new year will indeed bring many new challenges for me and my department…and I welcome them all with open arms. Chatting with you all throughout the semester has given more confidence in my own abilities. The blogging over the last few months has been a wonderful experience, and I hope to continue the process. It really helps me put things in perspective. Furthermore, the Cmap exercise was extremely helpful and I have actually referenced it many times. It is amazing how much we incorporated into the map…and how BIG that thing got!

What I’ve Learned about Working with Web 2.0 Tools.  So, what have I learned about using Web 2.0 tools, such as blogs, wikis, Voice Threads, and more as part of the graduate classroom experience? Here are a few of my thoughts.

Blogging is a Unique Writing Genre
The blogs of my learners were as individual as they each are, from the designs they chose to display their work to each one’s mode of expression and type of reflection. The blog appears to be a more natural venue for expressing voice in a way that I seldom see in traditional academic papers. For some reason, writing papers in APA style has a tendency to mask much of the uniqueness of individual expression, or perhaps it simply takes more skill to have voice emerge from the pages of an academic document. The weblog seems to me to be a free-flowing medium, less constrained by convention. It may be that the author simply feels freer to say what she thinks, and in so going, gives voice to ideas that might not have emerged otherwise. I’m still pondering on this and why it is so. Your comments are welcome!

Learners (Students in the Adult Learning Program) Have Much to Say!

This exercise of voice was quite liberating for most, intimidating for some, and, eventually, embraced [I think!] by all this semeser, even though learners admitted that writing to the blog “added” more work to the assignments. Micro-publishing is an exciting endeavor, and seeing their own words in print seemed to bring pleasure and a sense of accomplishment to assignments that I’ve not seen in work submitted for “my eyes” only. This online journaliing was healing to some who had workplace trauma in the form of lost jobs, and enlightening to those of us who could give added meaning to our readings by incorporating the experiences of others. Most expressed their ideas boldly when they were clear in their convictions, cautiously when they considered the public nature of their comments and potentially adverse consequences, and reflectively when new ideas bumped up against old thinking. This online conversations were better than any we’ve ever had in class dialogues: troubling, but true!

Working with Wikis and Blogs Demands (and Creates) New Assignment Formats

Okay, I admit it. The first time I saw the blog posts on interviewing a program planner from a non-traditional background in working with adult learners (those with disabilities, the elderly, non-native English speakers, etc.), I was stunned.  This was an assignment I’d used before in the ADLT 602, Program Planning class.  The results of this assignment didn’t look anything at all like the papers submitted by last years’ class: they were shorter (some of them MUCH shorter), more succinct, and, well, DIFFERENT!  It was then that it hit me: this is a very different genre, and the work that appears in it is going to have a distinctively different feel and flavor. 

These interivew assignments were actually very well done; however, I was surprised by qualitites that were different from what I had expected based on previous years’ experiences.  Since that day, I’ve noticed differences in other assignments posted to the blog, as well.  After much reflection, It finally dawned on me that (1) this was okay; (2) I should have expected it, since a blog is a different form of expression than a paper written in APA style; and (3) I need to be selective in what gets posted as an assignment to a blog, and what remains a traditional, research-based, APA-cited paper. Our learners need to become adept at both. 

This also means that I need to re-think my assignments and the goals that I have for learners in accomplishing them, and find the right medium that best accomplishes these goals — whether it be a blog assignment, a wiki posting, or a traditional APA paper.  I’ve learned that as an instructor, you simply can’t “move” a course from a paper-based format to blogs and wikis without adjustments. Big learning.

 It Takes Time, but It’s Worth It

There is no doubt that writing in a publically viewable format, using technology that can go “blip” in a moment and lose your work, and adding rich media in the form of audio, video, and photo content, takes more time … much more.  I think it’s been worth that investment (mine and theirs) in the quality of learning that our Adult Learning students have acquired … deep learning, in which they have actively, and socially, acquired new meaning and constructed more complex understandings of their worlds in relation to Adult Learning.

We’ll Continue in the Semester Ahead

Next semester, I’m abandoning Blackboard for everything except the gradebook. It’s a duplication to post on Blackboard and also to a wiki.  We will use Wetpaint wikis for each of my three classes instead, and learners will have an opportunity to continue their online reflective journaling with the blogs. The experiment continues.  More to come!

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An Interview with Dr. Rosemary Caffarella

Nov 16th, 2008 by

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the  American Association for Adult and Continuing Education annual conference in Denver, Colorado. Our keynote speaker was Dr. Rosemary Caffarella who gave an inspiring talk entitled, “The Gift of Healing.”

Dr. Caffarella is special to us here at VCU, not only because we use her text, Planning Programs for Adult Learners in our Program Planning, Management, and Evaluation course and often refer to her writings in the Adult Learning program, but she was once the program director here during the 1980s. Dr. Caffarella was kind enough to agree to an interview for our VCU students after her presentation, and I share it here as a podcast for my readers. We’ll also post it to our VCU iTunes site.

“This I believe….”

Dr. Caffarella began her address to the members of AAACE with a description of an assignment that she makes of her adult education students at Cornell University entitled, “This I believe…” Each student writes  an essay describing his or her beliefs as an educator of adults, and Dr. Caffarella does the same. It is from this articulation of beliefs that Dr. Caffarella finds the inspiration for her talk on The Gift of Healing.

Healing, said Dr. Caffarella, involves recovering from the many major changes that affect adults and the organizations in which they function. Sometimes these changes are traumatic; they can occurr in both the best and worst of times. During major change, as individuals and as organizations, we experience emotional turmoil, spiritual upheaval, and feelings of uneasiness –even a sense of being downright scared; we don’t feel like ourselves and our thinking is often muddled as we lose the ability to listen and concentrate. The times we are living in now, said Dr. Caffarella, are filled with these major changes for many adults.

As adult educators, our role during difficulties such as these is to assist in the healing process, whether we are teachers, administrators, colleagues, program planners, researchers, trainers, mentors or fellow learners. Our contribution to others during these times should be framed as a gift, and not as an obligation. This gift involves listening, providing resources and giving space for recovery time; we let others know that is is okay to feel and think as they do. It is borne of sincere care about the other person. We let them know that it’s all right that they feel and think as they do during the stress of diffculty; we don’t expect them to be able to think or perform as they normally do.

Our gift to others experiencing difficult times involves sharing stories of our own experiences and the major changes and transitions in our own lives. Our goal should be to allow others to heal in their own way, and support them as they do.

The literature in adult learning is filled with examples of how this gift might manifest itself: it is described as experiential learning, as transformative learning, and as the contextual factors that support adult learning. Our literature frames storytelling as a way of knowing, the narrative of experience. Giving the gift of healing, said Dr. Caffarella, can be tough at times, but it also provides many blessings and can bring to the giver surprises that lead to new learning.

Among the master’s and doctoral students in the Adult Learning program at VCU, we have colleagues who are experiencing these difficult times for a variety of reasons … jobs that have been lost, health issues and concerns, and reasons not fully known to the rest of us. As I listened to Dr. Caffarella, I thought of these students, and others of whom I may not be fully aware; how timely her message is… how important it is for us to heed.

For those wanting the source for Dr. Caffarella’s talk, she cites The Twelve Gifts of Healing by Charlene Constanzo, New York, Harper Collins, 2004.

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To Comment or Not: That is the Question

Nov 2nd, 2008 by

What no one ever tells you about bloggingAs the learners in my classes know, we have recently conducted a low-tech anonymous survey (index cards, no less) on whether or not I should comment on their blogs. This question arose for me in response to the recent webinar I participated in on e-flective practice and Paul Lowe’s comment that he and his colleagues in the College of the Arts, London do not comment on student blogs. In a recent post, I pondered aloud the wisdom of my approach to use the comment feature to provide feedback to Adult Learning program students: Did they find this a helpful practice or an intrusion into their private worlds of public musings?

Making Decisions with Data

At the same time that I was gathering these data, in all three of my classes, we are, at present, also involved in discussions of data collection — conducting needs assessments and administering evaluation instruments in the Program Planning class; gathering data from clients and stakeholders in the Consulting Skills class; and working with small groups of organizational “insiders” to gather data on cultural artifacts, espoused beliefs and values, and, ultimately, underlying assumptions in deciphering culture in the Organizational Learning class. 

With all this data gathering going on (mine included), it seems appropriate to remind ourselves about the real purposes of data collection in a non-research context.  Clearly, we are all involved in gathering data to make better decisions — decisions about how to design and deliver programs, solve client problems so that they stay solved, and understand culture and its influence on organizational learning.  This brings me to my conundrum …. what decisions do I want to make with the data I’ve collected? To comment or not to comment … that is the question (sorry, Hamlet).  If only it were that easy given the results expressed below!

The Survey Results

Among the index cards returned on the “to comment or not” issue, all but three asked that I continue commenting on their blogs. Two responded that I stop (no reasons given) and one said this:

I think we can be more relaxed and personal knowing that only our classmates are commenting. It allows for freedom of expression, and not the pressure of feeling like we’re being graded.

Among those who asked that I continue to comment on their blog were these written responses:

I personally value your comments. If I am working through something in my head, I like to know that I am on the right track.

Please continue commenting on individual blog posts. Many times I write and discuss topics that are unclear and the acknowledgement allows me to discuss things outside the classroom. I honestly love blogging; it has been an experience that allows me to leave the classroom, digest what I have learned, and put it “out” there.

I like knowing the professor is reading my posts.

I see these comments as conversations that can’t (or shouldn’t) take place in the classroom, much in the same way that I see the blogs themselves as comments, etc. that would distract from or altogether disrupt the lesson. I also like the non-confrontational nature of these “conversations,” since the emotional component is stripped from them.

I’ve enjoyed them so far. As long as it’s not like being graded.

I enjoy reading your comments. Your comments help me put my thoughts in context and confirm I’m headed in the right direction or making the right connections.

You are just another person to give me insight, which makes me reflect and learn more, so please — continue!

I actually enjoy the comments I have received from people other than my mirrors (not to take away from them). It shows me that people enjoy this aspect of class — reading other’s blogs for fun and constructive commenting!

I haven’t gotten a lot of comments so I would like you to start or continue. I like to get your perspective on things, along with my classmates.

I really do enjoy your comments! I feel like you keep me thinking in the right direction. I think the blogs are very helpful– I enjoy the exercise of reflecting on different topics… how I can or cannot apply our learning at work. I also like reading the thoughts of classmates and receiving their feedback.

I have not seen many comments on my reflections. I love the whole concept of blogging my reflections so I am excited to see your comments and would love to see more of them.

It’s taking me some time to get adjusted to blogging but I do think it’s a worthwhile endeavor. I also appreciate the comments … I don’t feel it inhibits me.

I like knowing that you are reading; it provides some sense of support and community to the (blogging) medium. I read all of my classmates’ blogs… I’m disappointed when I read others’ blogs and am reading a simple re-cap of the last class … I htink this is really missing the point. I also try to comment on my classmates’ blogs in hopes of drawing them back to mine for mutual feedback. I’m very open in my blog and like the free-form my thoughts take when blogging. It provides a unique venue for reflection.

So, What To Do Now?

What was I thinking? That everyone would respond alike?? How very unlikely for a group of highly individualized, mature, responsible, and thoughtful learners.

Here’s what I have learned from this exercise that is clear to me: commenting, exercised with care and respect, has the potential to be a good thing. It provides the sort of confirmation and support that Jack Mezirow writes about when he says that adult learners need validation in their attempts to revise meaning perspectives and grow as individuals.

It’s also clear to me that the blogging we are doing in our program is considered fun, creative, and an exercise in self-expression, leading to the development of ”voice,” a worthwhile goal for the graduate school experience.

Thus, the informality and freedom of expression discovered through blogging needs to be protected and nurtured, but not graded.  Of this, Adult Learning  program students can rest assured: while the practice of blogging may be a part of their participation grade, the content of their blogs never will be.  If any of you prefer that I not share my thoughts and reactions on your blogs, all you need to so is ask me privately not to do so. No grades, no penalties, but, hopefully,  commentary that you find helpful and supportive of your goals.

Feel free to let me know how it’s going. For those of you who want to deepen your reflective practice habits, I recomment Michele Martin’s blog post, Becoming a More Reflective Individual Practitioner.  Enjoy!

Photo Credits from Flickr:
Survey: Joe Gratz,
Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial License
August 6, 2006

Blogging pic: andyp uk
Attribution, No Derivative Works
January 1, 2007

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