PIPD 3240 – An Existentialist Journey
ex·is·ten·tial·ism
noun \-ˈten(t)-shə-ˌli-zəm\
: An area of Philosophy that examines
individual existence in the context of an uncertain universe and the plight of
accepting the ultimate responsibility for acts of free will without any certain
knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad – Paraphrased from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
In
my typically flurry of activity to complete my blog assignment for PIPD3240, I found
myself distracted by a philosophical bug.
As I reviewed my Blog posts, I found that they seemed to skip all over
the place over topics that were interesting to me and caused me to ponder
philosophical questions.
Self-doubt
started to sneak into my psyche; fortunately, I was once again saved by the
bard:
“Know
thyself and to thine self be true.” ― William Shakespeare, Hamlet
This quote is often equated
to honesty and I believe it holds true for adult learning. As an adult learner, you are there by
choice. There are not any truancy laws
for adults. We have chosen to be here
for a purpose. Our reasons vary;
however, they are all rooted in various goals and needs:
- · To upgrade our education
- · To acquire new skills
- · Career change
- · Interests/hobbies
- · Intellectual growth
- · Spiritual growth
T The first step to adult education
is deciding what course/program to take.
When deciding which course or program, we often have to ask ourselves:
What purpose will this
course/program provide me with what I need to achieve my goals and needs?
- Where is the course offered?
- When is the course offered?
- How Much does it cost?
- Are there pre-requisites?
Once we have chosen the
course, we need to ask ourselves what we need to do to complete the course and
to get the most out of it. For me, PIPD
3240 was a course I wanted to avoid. I
heard horror stories about it from others in my PIPD courses saying “stuff does
not work”, “there is no direction”, “do the low tech, it is safer”, “there is
no course content”, “I am glad it is over”.
I remember approaching PIPD 3240 with total dread.
In retrospect, I think many
of us fear change. Also many of us in
the program have become instructors because we enjoy teaching a subject area we
know about and have expertise in. Our
expertise gives us comfort, there is little risk, we ‘know our stuff’ and take
pride in our strengths in this area.
All of this leads to a bit
of an existentialist crisis and questions start to creep into your head such as:
- What am I doing here?
- What am I forgetting?
- Am I the only one who is confused?
I then started having an
internal dialogue between the PIPD3240 course and myself:
PIPD 3240: “Hey, you know your stuff. You are a smart, life-long learner. Go out there into the World Wide Web, dig in
and teach yourself how to engage your learners with all the online resources
you can find”.
Self: “Great.
This is the Seinfeld of PIPD courses… it is about nothing: it is what
you create or interpret for yourself.
Even dogs are offered a treat when they perform tricks.”
PIPD 3240: “What you have here is the ultimate self-directed
experience. You chose your option and
assignments based on that option. You
can chose from a variety of options that complement various technological
abilities and needs:
·
Social Media Learning Option
·
Creating Digital Material Option
·
Webinars
·
Low Tech Option
Self: “What is the ‘right’ choice? What is going to be useful to me?
PIPD 3240: “The right choice is what
interests/challenges you. Stretch
yourself, grow. Tum Est (it is up to
you).
Self: “Tum Est can also be translated as ‘up yours’. I guess I will just have to try my best”.
PIPD3240: “There is no try, there is only do”.
Self: Middle aged ‘exhale’.
As the weeks passed by, there was a lot of work.
I was required to read the text, Teaching Naked by Jose Bowen, and make
journal entries. I found this difficult
because I am used to discussing books in class with classmates and my
instructor to share interpretations and ideas.
In PIPD 3240 there is no discussion, you just read the book and post
your journal. The difficult part is of
this is determining if I was supposed to write an academic interpretation or an
emotion reflection. The answer was both –
I was supposed to use the “focused conversation model” which requires you to
consider objective, reflective, interpretive and decisional interpretations.
Next came a deluge of Twitter, Facebook, Blog and Forum posts and
comments (Social Media option) with assignment rubrics to guide me. Slowly, I navigated around the forums, found
the resources I needed (there are a ton of great things online) and got into a
groove. I periodically checked the
rubrics for each assignment and asked my instructor questions when I needed
to. In the end, despite my ‘self’ I got
it all done and realized I may have learned a thing or two.
Additional
Resources:
Existentialism:
Existential Crisis:
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