The Fun of Learning - Together
Mod 5, Collaborative Communities
Our facilitator of the Blue Group this week did this outstanding thing to keep delving into the subject of how to relate online to a prospective future student who brought negativity into the class. When we wrote how we'd handle such a situation in terms of emailing the student, she gave us feedback and then had us pretend the student had responded to our emails in a certain way, and what then? How would we respond to the student after that? That was a really creative way to keep the critical thinking, or "interactivity" moving and deepening.
I find this term "critical thinking" very interesting because it is such an academic term but it actually encompasses an emotional aspect as well, without acknowledging it! What I've been learning from our group discussions in this class is that critical thinking is the objective of our online conversations. Critical thinking to me, technically and specifically, means thinking very clearly and asking questions to clarify. And I find critical thinking under this definition interesting as an academic exercise. But what I have been finding, both from life, past academic experience and this class, is that the emotional component of learning is what makes it truly exciting! In other words, learning is not merely an academic exercise - it is a holistic experience that engages the brain and emotions!
And, to me, excitement truly is the goal of learning, much more than mere critical thinking. This is how my critical thinking about this subject goes: Learn something new, discuss it with my peers with facilitation from my teacher, and create another level of learning together! It's this level of creating together that I believe is the truly exciting part. And what we're doing when it's exciting is learning together! So, for me, I think critical thinking is the first step as we apply it to new knowledge. The second step, of collaborating, can get really fun just because of its interactivity. But when it gets exciting is when the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts; students interacting together in a discussion with excellent facilitation is greater than students learning separately together. They become something new together - as a result of doing learning together! And this added component which makes it exciting is much more than purely a mental exercise; the excitement is a result of the joy of learning together - the fun of it - which I have to say is an added emotional component to the excercise of learning together!
Learning alone is fun; that's the absorbing content part, which involves critical thinking, I believe, as we find ways to apply the new information in a relationship with what's already structured in our brains. Learning is fun. But learning together is fun-ner. We become a verb instead of a noun; collaboratively learning instead of students. It's really fun and spills over into joy.
