EDC 665 - Week 3 Blog

Think back now to a learning experience you have recently had- were the goals explicitly stated? If not, were they still clear? Were you aware of them as a learner during the learning experience?

Thinking back to last semester with Gary Stager, as MicroWorlds comes to mind, I had a learning experience trying to learn commands to move my virtual "turtle." In the beginning of our 4th learning adventure, I was excited to create a quilt piece of which I would later learn to attach as a quilt to others' pieces.

The goals of this project were explicitly stated. Gary told us to use MicroWorlds commands to create a quilt piece. We could do anything we wanted, as long as the piece was the same size as all the rest would be. While the goals were explicit, I did not, at times, feel like the "directions" were. Then I think, "do explicit goals always need directions from point A to point B? Or is the goal enough to supply a learning activity with its purpose?"

I grew beyond creating the quilt piece, an enjoyable activity, onto creating the quilt itself and had real difficulty. I hated the process as I struggled and realized there was no tutorial or "direction" to take that would end in my desired result.

I was completely aware of the goal the entire time, so much that I wanted to stop at nothing until it was achieved. While my quilt was sub par to a couple other cadre mates, I achieved my goal of having a symmetrical quilt piece.

Going back to my original internal reflections, I believe that goals can be stated and yet directions can be excluded from the equation. It is not entirely necessary, if the goal achieved is not the exact same for everyone, to have directions. Otherwise, the goal would look identical for all.

Gary never gave us explicit directions, yet supplied us with a clear goal in mind. Looking back, no two formulas were identical (although some alike) and no two quilts turned out to be the same either. It was a matter of the creator-- which is what I love about open-ended learning. It's also the most challenging of all learning... because without directions that are certain, there in lies the risk of failure.