What is hurting learning? Focus. What could we benefit from? COL.
Two simple words to remember. But if you dig deep into the meaning of each of these words, you will end up discovering an everlasting fountain of knowledge that will aid in learning from many methods, from many different ways and from many people. Please remember what I said in one of my earlier blogs. Learning is addressed from the seeker’s point of view while the education is addressed from the provider’s point of view.
So, what is hurting focus which in turn is hurting learning. It is often said that, in one of the problem of solving techniques, the FIVE why’s will get you to the real reason behind the problem. I just short circuited those five why’s to get you to arrive at Focus as the real reason and help you to start looking for solutions.
In Goldratt’s TOC, the focus is at the center to identify constraints and in finding ways to remove them. Focus is simply defined as ‘needing to do what must be done’. So what must be done to focus on learning?
Simply put, avoid Distraction. OK, it is easy to say – but how to achieve it?
What do you see or experience when you look at a singer singing without the assistance from a band or an orchestra. The singing is pure, melodious, heart-warming. You will feel that any noise around that will ruin that beautiful experience. However, if you just pause a little and think about many other great songs that you might have heard before from the same singer, you would notice subtle sounds from the musical instruments have worked magic in touching your heart deep within. You would notice that if the sounds from the instruments support the singing, the singing experience will be even greater.
You will then tend to agree that the sounds from the instruments, if they SUPPORT the singing, will not become distractions. You think you can add many more variety of sounds, as much as you want, so long as they work in unison. However, at some point in time you will find those sounds will stop supporting the singing or may even become distractions.
You will soon realize that all those sounds which could become distractions will stop becoming distractions, if they act in unison. Isn’t it easier then to look at possible ways to rehash those distractions as aids in learning than to struggle in avoiding them? That’s the secret of COL!
You may ask, how?. How do you convert those distractions to orchestrate your learning? How COL can come to your rescue? Simple answer is, use the very gadgets that seekers are hooked on, to deliver the learning aids.
My father used to tell me not to stop throwing stones into the pond just because I cannot hit a frog in the pond. I used to counter-argue that by saying that I do not want to hurt the frog. I did not realize the suggestion that the frog happens to be me and the stones happen to be the sayings or the wisdom of many steering me away from the pond to discover the world beyond.
I am now saying the same to you. Use those gadgets to send the same wisdom across to those who are using them if you think that seekers have stopped acquiring the same from the traditional class rooms or from the traditional bonding that families used thrive on. It may seem disconnected, may even seem awkward, but it is worth the effort if the distractions can be converted to tools for learning.
With the help from COL, you will connect with a purpose, discover the potential and help the seekers to acquire what they should be acquiring. Those very distractions will now become tools to aid the learning, and will stop hurting and will help to focus on learning.
Is there anything more to say? I think not.