A few weeks back I ran across a blog post called Learned Helplessness and I am realizing that I should have addressed this topic as well in my blog. The author starts out with a Papert qoute:
What you ought to be learning at school is that you don’t need to be taught in order to learn.
The reason I am addressing this now is that I have been in a conversation with a student in a graduate course I am teaching that focuses on using Disruptive Innovation as a catalyst for change and we are are discussion the challenging notion of creating an environment where our colleagues are willing to embrace the notion that they should not require extensive formal training on how to use technology. I am all for orientation on new technologies, just in time instruction and other forms of informal instruction to help people adjust to new technologies but am against the notion that one shouldn’t be expected to adopt a new technology until has had the formal training. This is learned helplessness.
The reason I didn’t include this in my blog earlier is that even though it is true it is a hard pill for some to swallow and I have been working at catching flies with honey as opposed to vinegar. I have been so careful over the past while not to offend or challenge folks too much that I may be doing them a disservice. Sure, I have pointed to video clips and other blog posts that relay this challenging message making them “the bad guy” by pointing to their hard to swallow doses of reality.
Perhaps I have to challenge my colleagues and peers every once in a while if I really genuinely care about them and the learning. I think we need to find a balance between supporting and encouraging our colleagues while still holding them accountable with respect to their attitudes and actions toward learning.
