“Networked Learning,” or rather, taking my first step.

As I was completing the reading for my Contemporary Pedagogy class, particularly the blog post “Twitter and blogs are not just add-ons to academic research, but a simple reflection of the passion underpinning it” (http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2014/07/28/twitter-and-blogs-academic-public-sphere/) and the TEDx talk by Dr. Wesch (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP7dbl0rJS0&feature =youtu.be), there were many thoughts that swirled through my head. I’m going to attempt to share them with you in a (hopefully) coherent fashion. To make it easier for you (and me!), here is a list of topics:

1) It can be difficult to take a first step, but once you form a habit, you can do so much more than you believe you’re capable of doing.

2) Dr. E. Scott Geller’s Intro Psych lecture on why pop psychology exists and why psychological scientists must do better—and how they can.

3) From competition to collaboration—embracing group work

Alright, starting from the beginning (a very good place to start). I have always had some difficulty taking the first step in adding some new practice to my life or beginning a long project—even if (really, especially if) the practice or project is important to my goals. For example, I have been distressed at how out of shape I have been since college. However, even though I have had a gym membership since coming to Virginia Tech due to the recreational sports fee included in the tuition and fees, I never went during my first year. I could not motivate myself to add regular exercise to my schedule, even though I knew it would increase my energy and body positivity. I had decided I was too busy. However, despite graduate school’s requirements being such that everyone is very busy, no one is too busy to do things that they prioritize. I was making an excuse to not go to the gym. Similarly in completing research, I’m very slow to come up with new ideas for projects. This is partially because I prioritize what is easier for me—completing class work, grading coursework for my assistantship, etc. Why am I putting off these important things? Following lots of introspection (and lots of watching baby George fall down trying to learn to walk down the steps), I know a lot of it is because I fear failure.

I wish I could pinpoint exactly where this fear of failure began, but I cannot. However, I know I used to be like George when I was a child—I would do anything for learning, regardless of inevitable failure. If I “fell down,” like when I could not complete the necessary number of math problems in 5 minutes, I had my parents get me a book to help with my math skills because I was excited about the possibilities of what I could do with a solid understanding of mathematics. I smiled, like George, at the possibility of picking myself up and trying again until I understood. Eventually, because of putting in so much work for learning, my school work began to reflect it. I think this is when my fear of failure began. I was good at something, and being recognized for it, by my parents, teachers, and peers—I was a “smart kid,” and eventually entered “Gifted & Talented” programs. Now I had a persona to live up to that was honestly separate from my learning—I had to “learn,” but really I just had to be good at knowing how to operate in the school system. Because as Dr. Michael Wesch points out in his TEDx talk, the kind of “learning” we do in the classroom is defined in a very narrow way. Regardless, being forced to conceptualize learning through traditional classroom success with a huge focus on achievement, I lost my love for it. I stopped going beyond the narrow scope of my assignments, I rather just focused on perfecting the work that had to be done, without giving the material the opportunity to interest me and expand my worldview.

Part of that is on me, certainly. But part of it is also on my teachers. One teacher did take the time for me in high school to expand my learning outside of the classroom. She knew I could memorize the historical facts necessary to pass her American History class, but she could tell by my essay responses there were greater connections I was seeking. She loaned me some books, met with me once a week after school to discuss, and helped me make the connections between history, the arts, and my life that I was seeking. Maybe as teachers we cannot give that level of attention to every student, but maybe we can do better about getting them to take the first step towards taking charge of their learning—we can help them smile and get up when they “fail.” Because it is all about that first step—back to my personal anecdotes—all I had to do was go to the gym for the first time this semester, and I have gone every day since. All I had to do was pitch the idea for my Master’s thesis, and now I am organizing the writing of two different publications from it. I don’t know how yet to inspire that first step in students, but I hope to explore that idea further this semester and throughout my teaching career. Hopefully it will be as easy as in this song from a classic Christmas movie I hum to myself sometimes to get me going:

This taking the first step relates to points 2 and 3 that I wanted to discuss (much more briefly). For point 2, I mention a lecture Dr. E. Scott Geller. I was his TA for Introduction to Psychology for two semesters. In both, he would discuss that pop psychology has such influence. Included in the lecture is this slide:

He states that pop psychologists are like consultants; their mastery is in dissemination of information. As researcher’s, we often disseminate our research to the places with the most prestige (academic research journals), which are not accessible nor comprehensible to the majority of the public or those outside of our specific field. So, if all the public hears is pop psychology because those who create it know how to reach and convince large swaths of the public, then that is what the public will believe about psychology. Because of this, Dr. Geller pushes his students and colleagues to be better disseminators of research. Tim Hitchcock suggests in his blog post I mention above that blogs and twitter may be a way to do this. While he focuses on these as a way to connect more to others in your field and share ideas, get feedback, and increase interest before publication, blogs and Twitter are a way to connect to the general public and accomplish the goal of better dissemination of actual research. Starting this blog for this class is my first step in being a part of that change in dissemination practices for the field of psychology. While I have an account with Open Science Framework because I believe in the concepts of open science, we, as scientists, should not just be open amongst ourselves for the purpose of improving the quality of science—we should be open to all, because our work isn’t just for the intellectual elite.

This leads me to my last point about moving from competition to collaboration. Too often in school and even “the real world,” the focus is on competition. Grades are a competition. Publishing an idea before someone else does is a competition. Just having more publications is a competition. Or, outside of academia, getting a promotion is a competition. While trying to reach the top of these hierarchies can be motivating, reaching the top isn’t always rewarding. Always getting a 4.0 gave me recognition, but did not increase my level or love of learning. Watching the animation from Dr. Wesch’s TEDx talk where all students helped each other reach the top of the mountain that was his course and finding they were the final project—that was inspiring though. Because that’s what I’ve wanted form courses and learning for myself and others—the betterment of ourselves as the inherently curious and social creatures we are. I never embraced group work as a student. I, in fact, HATED it. Because the focus of the course was the grade, and I felt I couldn’t count on anyone else to do their part to a sufficient quality (by my standards). But what if group work wasn’t about the final product produced, but about the learning of each group member? I think then all students would be willing to help their partner get on the same page. I’m teaching a lab in psychometrics this semester for my assistantship that involves group work. I’m hoping that I can find a way to make their final project about the learning of each group member, rather than the final product, because everyone should know that the mountain to climb should be exciting, rather than daunting, because even if you can’t pick yourself up with a smile, you have a community of learners to help you make it up. t involves grou